Beatles – From Me To You

This song was on the third Beatles album I bought. That would have been The Red Album compilation.

I’m posting it because I just heard the live version from the Anthology and for me…it’s better than the released version. I like the harmonica as an instrument but I like this live version they did without it. John didn’t want to use it because they had used it on Love Me Do, Please Please Me, and then this one. He didn’t want them repeating themselves but was talked into it.

This was their third single in the UK. Love Me Do (#17), Please Please Me (#2), and then this song which peaked at #1 in the UK. When The Beatles hit America…their hits more times than not charted higher in the US. Some of the examples are Twist and Shout (#2 US #0 UK), Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields (#1 US #2 UK), Something (#4 UK #1 US) and more. Now some did the opposite but this song was really odd. It didn’t chart in the top 40 in America at all. Very unusual in 1964.

George Martin asked them to come up with something as good as Please Please Me and they gave him this. No, I don’t think it’s as good but it’s a good song. There was a column in the New Musical Express that was titled From You To Us which featured fans writing columns. This particular one featured a fan letter talking about how Cliff Richard was currently outshining Elvis Presley in the charts. Lennon stated in May of 1963 that Paul and he started to “talk about one of the letters in the column,” which led to them putting ideas together for a song inspired by the title of this newspaper column. This one both Lennon and McCartney agreed was a 50/50 composition.

Paul said that they wrote it while on tour with Roy Orbison. The only problem is that the song was already released then. They were on tour with Helen Shapiro who at the start of the tour were more popular than they were.

Del Shannon was the first American to cover a Beatles song…and he covered this one in 1963.

John Lennon: We were just fooling about on the guitar, this went on for a while. Then we began to get a good melody line and we really started to work at it. Before the journey was over we’d completed the lyric, everything. The words weren’t really all that difficult – especially as we had decided quite definitely not to do anything that was at all complicated. I suppose that is why we often had the words “you” and “me” in the titles of our songs. It’s the kind of thing that helps the listeners to identify with the lyrics. We think this is very important. The fans like to feel that they are part of something that is being done by the performers.”

That said, this song was “below Beatles par ” by a critic…John Lennon: “Maybe it wasn’t as good as ‘Please Please Me,’ but below par? I’ll never forget that one. That’s when I first realized you’ve got to keep it up, there’s some sort of system where you get on the wheel and you’ve got to keep going around.”

The original version is below…there is one thing you can hear now in the remastered versions…the bass!

From Me To You

If there’s anything that you wantIf there’s anything I can doJust call on me and I’ll send it alongWith love, from me to you

I’ve got everything that you wantLike a heart that’s oh so trueJust call on me and I’ll send it alongWith love, from me to you

I’ve got arms that long to hold youAnd keep you by my sideI’ve got lips that long to kiss youAnd keep you satisfied (oh)

If there’s anything that you wantIf there’s anything I can doJust call on me and I’ll send it alongWith love, from me to you

From meTo youJust call on me and I’ll send it alongWith love, from me to you

I’ve got arms that long to hold youAnd keep you by my sideI’ve got lips that long to kiss youAnd keep you satisfied (oh)

If there’s anything that you wantIf there’s anything I can doJust call on me and I’ll send it alongWith love, from me to youTo youTo youTo you

…

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

27 thoughts on “Beatles – From Me To You”

  1. Good post! Weird that it failed to chart here…it was put out as a single, wasn’t it? It’s as good as any of those first 4 or 5 singles of theirs to me. I like the regular version more but the Anthology one sounds better than I expected…much cleaner & clearer than I thought a demo of live cut from back then would. So I would guess it was their only UK #1 that didn’t make the US top 40?

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    1. It was first released on Vee-Jay Records because Capitol didn’t know if the Beatles could make it lol. They released it as the B side to Please Please Me…so it wasn’t heard as much. It still sold 1 million copies but that was on the stregth of Please Please Me being played.

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    1. For some reason I really really liked them…being a Beatles fan I drifted toward them. The most tragic band in rock history…they got ripped off so bad… it should be a movie about them.

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    1. I was 28 when it was released…and when I heard Free As A Bird…it was the first “new” Beatles song I ever heard…yea I got all three of them.

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    1. I need to pick mine up more. I do like the harmonica playing…I just like that rough sound. He must not have played it live much.

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  7. The Anth sounds half a beat faster to me? I prefer the one I heard first- I guess it’s ‘what you know is what you go to.’ Interesting that even back then they were studying/taking note of what worked best, the ‘me’ and ‘you,’ not just enjoying the moment like a lot of bands would have done.

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