Till There Was You

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Till There Was You is a song written by Meredith Willson from the 1957 musical The Music Man. The Beatles covered it on their 1963 album With The Beatles. It also appeared on the American counterpart, Meet The Beatles. The Beatles had previously been performing it live since 1961.

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[edit] About The Song

Though it was from the 1957 musical The Music Man, Paul McCartney was most likely inspired by Peggy Lee's 1958 cover version. Paul recalls, "I had an elder cousin, Elizabeth Danher, now Robbins. She was quite an influence on me... Betty would play me records like Peggy Lee's Fever. Peggy Lee did Till There Was You as well. I didn't know that was from the musical The Music Man until many years later. This led me to songs like A Taste Of Honey and things which were slightly to the left and the right of rock 'n' roll." The Beatles played it live throughout 1962, even playing it at their failed Decca audition on January 1, 1962. They played the song live until 1964. They played it at the Royal Command Performance and on the Ed Sullivan Show. Paul said of the song and ones like it, "I could never see the difference between a beautiful melody and a cool rock 'n' roll song. I learnt to love all the ballady stuff through my dad and relatives - Till There Was You, My Funny Valentine - I thought these were good tunes. The fact that we weren't ashamed of those leanings meants that the band could be a bit more varied. And there was a need for that, because we played cabaret a lot. Songs like Till There Was You and Ain't She Sweet would be the late-night cabaret material. They showed that we weren't just another rock 'n' roll group. The Lennon/McCartney songwriting collaboration was forming during that period. We went on from Love Me Do to writing deeper, much more intense things. So it was just as well someone didn't come up and tell us how uncool Till There Was You was." Paul had also said, "I looked at the recording scene and realised that a few people were taking offbeat songs, putting them into their acts and modernising them a bit. So I looked at a few songs with that in mind. Till There Was You was one; no one was doing that except Peggy Lee so I thought it'd be nice to play."

[edit] Recording

The earliest recording of The Beatles playing this song is their audition with Decca Records on January 1, 1962. It featured Pete Best on drums. This version is available only through bootlegs. They first attempted it with intent to put it on an album on July 18, 1963. During this session, the first for With The Beatles, they also recorded You Really Got A Hold On Me, Money (That's What I Want) and Devil In Her Heart. Three takes of this song were taped, though only two were complete. They then remade the song on July 30, taping takes 4-8. Take 8 was considered best and was mixed into mono on August 21 and stereo on October 29. They rerecorded this song for BBC Radio eight times. The last one, taped for From Us To You on February 28, 1964, was included on the 1994 compilation Live At The BBC.

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[edit] The Beatles

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[edit] Trivia

  • Till There Was You was the second song played during the first Ed Sullivan Show. It was the only one played on the first Ed Sullivan Show that was not one of their big hits.

[edit] Source

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