The song became the first Top 40 hit for Anita Bryant in 1959,[1] prior to being recorded by the Beatles in 1963.
Origins
First recorded as "Till I Met You" by Eileen Wilson on October 25, 1950, this earlier incarnation of the song was also performed by Fran Warren for The Big Show on January 14, 1951.
The revised song "Till There Was You" was first produced and released by Nelson Riddle, featuring his orchestra and 17-year-old vocalist Sue Raney. Promotional copies of the 7-inch single (Capitol P3847) were released November 26, 1957, preceding the December 19 opening of the original Broadway production, and a full month ahead of the original cast album.
In 1959, American singer Anita Bryant recorded the song "Till There Was You" and released it as a single. Her version reached number 30 on the US BillboardHot 100 chart[1] and number 14 on the Cashbox Top 100.[2]
"Till There Was You" was recorded by the Beatles in 1963 and released on their second album With the Beatles (1963) (United Kingdom) and Meet the Beatles! (1964) (United States). It was the only song from a Broadway show released by the band.
The Beatles' version is sung by Paul McCartney, who is accompanied by George Harrison and John Lennon on dueling acoustic, classical guitars played in a Spanish style over a bolero bongo beat played by Ringo Starr. The song was produced by George Martin. Its guitar solo is by George Harrison.
The widow of Meredith Willson, the composer of The Music Man, has stated that her husband's estate eventually received more income from the royalties of the Beatles recordings of "Till There Was You" than it originally received from the actual play.
Paul McCartney was introduced to Peggy Lee's 1961 cover of the song through his older cousin Bett Robbins, who would occasionally babysit the two McCartney brothers.[3] McCartney said that he "had no idea until much later" that it was from The Music Man.[4] The song was part of their pre-recording repertoire in 1962, and they performed it at the Star Club in Hamburg.[5] It became illustrative of the Beatles' versatility, proving that they could appeal to all sections of an audience, moving easily from softer ballads to harder rock and roll, as in their appearance on November 4, 1963, at the Royal Variety Performance when they followed this song with "Twist And Shout".[6]
The band had included "'Till There Was You" as part of their unsuccessful audition for Decca Records in London on January 1, 1962.[5] It was the second of five songs that they performed during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. During said performance, each of the Beatles was introduced by his first name via a subtitle, memorably ending with Lennon, who had the cheeky caption "Sorry girls, he's married:" under his name.[6][7]
Live versions of the song were released on Live at the BBC (1994) and Anthology 1 (1995).
A live performance by McCartney appears on his DVD The Space Within US (2006). In 2016, the BBC announced that a "holy grail" Beatles record would be auctioned in March of that year, a private pressing which features "Hello Little Girl" and "Till There Was You" and was valued at over £10,000.[8] It was said to be one of the "rarest and most collectable of all Beatles records" by Mark Lewisohn, one of the foremost authorities on the Beatles. The disc eventually sold for £77,500.[9]
Jazz vocalist Sue Raney recorded the tune with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra on October 29, 1957, for her first album, "When Your Lover Has Gone." This recording pre-dated the opening of The Music Man by about 6 weeks.
The Smithereens recorded the song on their 2007 album Meet the Smithereens!, which consists entirely of cover versions of songs from the Meet the Beatles! album.
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