December 28, 2020 —– Chart #71
Hello Musical Friends,
“Till There Was You” is a show tune written in 1950 by Meredith Willson, originally entitled “Till I Met You.” It was originally recorded October 25, 1950 by Meredith Willson & his Orchestra and Eileen Wilson. The song was retitled and used in his musical play The Music Man (1957), and which also appeared in the 1962 movie version. It is sung by librarian Marian Paroo (performed by Barbara Cook on Broadway, and by Shirley Jones in the film) to “Professor” Harold Hill (portrayed on Broadway and in the film by Robert Preston) toward the end of Act Two.
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 Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 14 on the Cashbox Top 100. The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Nelson Riddle, featuring his orchestra and 17-year-old vocalist Sue Raney. Promotional copies of the 45 rpm single, Capitol P3847, were released on November 26, 1957, even before the Broadway production had premiered on December 19, 1957, and a month ahead of the original cast album.
An earlier version of this song, “Till I Met You”, was first recorded by Eileen Wilson in 1950 and later appeared on the January 14, 1951 edition of The Big Show, performed by Fran Warren.
“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 bossa nova 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 cover of the song through his older cousin Bett Robbins, who would occasionally babysit the two McCartney brothers. McCartney said that he “had no idea until much later” that it was from The Music Man. The song was part of their pre-recording repertoire in 1962, and they performed it at the Star Club in Hamburg. 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”.
The band had included “‘Till There Was You” as part of their unsuccessful audition for Decca Records in London on January 1, 1962. It was the second of five songs that they performed during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964.
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. 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.
From The Music Man:
Peggy Lee: https://youtu.be/lGJxA-Xyiyk
The Beatles in 1963: https://youtu.be/JN36SzacyTI
Keep rockin’ and have a musical New Year my friends,
Stan