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 want
If there’s anything I can do Just call on me and I’ll send it along With love, from me to youI’ve got everything that you want
Like a heart that’s oh so true Just call on me and I’ll send it along With love, from me to youI’ve got arms that long to hold you
And keep you by my side I’ve got lips that long to kiss you And keep you satisfied (oh)If there’s anything that you want
If there’s anything I can do Just call on me and I’ll send it along With love, from me to youFrom me
To you Just call on me and I’ll send it along With love, from me to youI’ve got arms that long to hold you
And keep you by my side I’ve got lips that long to kiss you And keep you satisfied (oh)If there’s anything that you want
If there’s anything I can do Just call on me and I’ll send it along With love, from me to you To you To you To you…