The Beatles’ 1st No. 1 Song Isn’t Very Good

The Beatles knew how to write No. 1 songs like no other group. That doesn’t mean that all the Fab Four’s hits were as good as “Strawberry Fields Forever” or “Hey Jude.” The group’s first chart-topper was less than impressive. John Lennon revealed the tune was partly inspired by a famous song by The Isley Brothers.

The Beatles’ 1st No. 1 song doesn’t have much a place in pop culture

The Official Charts Company reports The Beatles’ first No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom was “From Me to You.” There are dedicated Beatles fans who probably haven’t heard of that song. Why is that? 

First of all, it’s not on any of their studio albums. It’s funny to imagine how incongruous it would sound on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or Magical Mystery Tour. Secondly, the song doesn’t have much of a place in popular culture. People will be covering “Yesterday” and “Let It Be” until the sun explodes, but “From Me to You” doesn’t inspire the same fascination.

Thirdly, the song just isn’t that great. The Beatles gave us some great bubblegum tunes like “She Loves You” and “My Bonnie.” “From Me to You” doesn’t have the same flavor.

How the Fab Four made a limp No. 1 song

Why is that? The melody isn’t very strong and the beat is a little too relaxed for its own good. “She Loves You” hits like a stick of dynamite. Meanwhile, “From Me to You” could play at a day spa and it probably wouldn’t wake anybody up.

The track’s lyrics that allude to writing love letters are incredibly cute. Maybe the song could have worked better if The Beatles leaned into the cutesiness. Instead, “From Me to You” sounds like a neutered version of “Love Me Do.”

The Beatles’ ‘From Me to You’ was written in a van

During a 1980 interview found in the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the “Imagine” singer discussed how he and Paul McCartney penned “From Me to You.” “In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that — both playing into each other’s nose,” he said. “We wrote in the back of vans together. We wrote ‘She Loves You’ in a van on the way to Newcastle. And ‘From Me to You.'”

Later in the interview, John expounded on “From Me to You.” “We were writing it in a car, I think, and I think the first line was mine,” he recalled. “I mean, I know it was mine. [Hums melody of first line.] And then, after that, we took it from there. It was far bluesier than that when we wrote it. The notes — today, you could rearrange it pretty funky. We were just writing the next single after ‘She Loves You.'”

John explained why the song featured a certain sound. “The ‘woo woo’ was taken from The Isley Brothers’ ‘Twist and Shout,’ which we stuck into everything — ‘From Me to You,’ ‘She Loves You,’ they had all that ‘woo woo,'” he said. The Beatles’ fixation on “Twist and Shout” might explain why they covered it.

“From Me to You” isn’t one of the Fab Four’s better songs but it helped them become the most successful band of all time.