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TL;DR:

  • Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ β€œFrom Me to You” β€œheralded a new batch” of songs.
  • He discussed how it was written.
  • John Lennon said The Isley Brothers inspired β€œFrom Me to You.”

Paul McCartney felt The Beatles’ β€œFrom Me to You” was a typical early Fab Four song in one way. On the other hand, he said it was a turning point for the band. John Lennon revealed why he was happy to sing lead vocals on the track.

Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ β€˜From Me to You’ β€˜went to a surprising place’

In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the importance of β€œFrom Me to You.” β€œThere was a little trick we developed early on and got bored with later, which was to put β€˜I,’ β€˜me,’ or β€˜you’ in it, so it was very direct and personal: β€˜Love Me Do,’ β€˜Please Please Me,’ β€˜From Me to You’ we got two of them in there; β€˜She Loves You.’

β€œThe thing I liked about β€˜From Me to [You]’ was it had a very complete middle,” he added. β€œIt went to a surprising place. The opening chord of the middle section of that song heralded a new batch for me. That was a pivotal song. Our songwriting lifted a little with that song. It was very much co-written.”

John Lennon said The Beatles took inspiration from The Isley Brothers to write the song

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In the book, John discussed the origin of β€œFrom Me to You.” β€œWe were writing it in a car, I think, and I think the first line was mine,” he said. β€œI mean, I know it was mine.

β€œAnd then after that we took it from there,” he added. β€œIt was far bluesier than that when we wrote it. The notes β€” today you could rearrange it pretty funky.” John said the song was intended as the follow-up to β€œShe Loves You.” In fact, the tune was released after β€œShe Loves You.”

John said β€œFrom Me to You” was influenced by The Isley Brothers’ β€œTwist and Shout.” Specifically, The Beatles sang β€œwoo-woo” in β€œFrom Me to You” and β€œShe Loves You” because The Isley Brothers sang that phrase in their version of β€œTwist and Shout.” Notably, The Beatles covered β€œTwist and Shout” and their cover is likely the most famous version of the song.

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Why John Lennon liked singing the lead vocal on β€˜From Me to You’

John said he got competitive with Paul. For that reason, he liked singing the lead on early Beatles tunes like β€œFrom Me to You,” β€œI Want to Hold Your Hand,” β€œShe Loves You,” and β€œPlease Please Me.”

John felt he dominated the group during that period of their career. Despite this, John said female Beatles fans were more interested in Paul. He revealed his following was primarily male.

β€œFrom Me to You” is a great song and it wouldn’t be the same without the combined talents of John and Paul.