On March 5, 1963, five days after John & Paul composed this song, The Beatles went into EMI Studio Two, where a three-hour afternoon session, from 2:30 to 5:30 pm, was scheduled to record both sides of their new single.
Before the session commenced, they went to the EMI canteen to enjoy some tea with George Martin (and have some pictures taken). Then they went into the studio to introduce “From Me To You” to George Martin for the first time. “I used to sit on my high stool in the studio, and the boys would play me what they had brought in to record,” George Martin explains. “I’d listen to the basic idea of the song, perhaps on an acoustic guitar, and I’d help to decide on the structure of the introduction, where the solo should go, the ending and the final length of the song – never longer than 2:45 otherwise we wouldn’t get it on the radio!”
They then commenced recording the song live (vocals, instruments and all) but without the unison vocals and harmonica introduction as we’re used to hearing it. Take one shows how the lead guitar work of George Harrison is the stand out instrument in the introduction – in fact, he even partially reprises the intro at the end of the first verse. The song is somewhat slower on this first take, another oddity being that either John or Paul sings “so call on me” instead of “just call on me” in the second verse. Suddenly, however, toward the end of the third verse, somebody whistled which was interpreted by the band as an indication from George Martin to call the song to a halt. Paul then asked, “What happened,” which brought the reply from George Martin, “What do you mean ‘what happened’?” “I just thought I heard you talking, actually,” Paul fires back. Both John and Paul exclaim that they heard someone whistle, but nobody appears to have ‘fessed up’ to who the whistler was so they got ready to begin the second take.
Take two made it all the way through to the end of the song, however, the big difference here is that they had yet to include an instrumental section to the song. Therefore, the third verse segues immediately into the second bridge. We see that the vocalists still haven’t sorted out whether to sing “so” or “just” in the second verse. There also seems to be some awkwardness to Ringo’s drumming at the conclusion of the song, which prompts Paul to exclaim, “ah, ah, ah, you missed the ending.” Obviously more things needed to be ironed out.
Take three begins with John suggesting, “Let’s speed it up a little bit,” and then with a countdown, they achieved another full take. George chooses a couple of lower notes to play in between the first two verses this time around, since the instrumental section is still not in place and they are still mixing up the “so” and “just” word in the second verse. Ringo is getting closer to conquer his accents correctly played in the conclusion, but he’s still not quite there yet.
Thinking that they had already nailed it, John begins take four with the statement, “Well, we can’t get it much closer.” But, in fact, they do get it a little closer this time around, although they still haven’t included the instrumental section as of yet. Ringo now gets his accents down perfectly in the conclusion, but John performs his final guitar strum slightly late, which probably deemed this take worthy of improvement.
A suggestion is now made by George Martin to include an instrumental break in the song but, before take five begins, John reiterates to George Harrison about how it should sound. “Do the first bit but not the second bit, he said,” he tells George. When this blank solo section occurs, John and Paul sing a quick “from me” and then “to you” before finishing up the verse with vocals. Paul, however, at first forgets to add harmony to the second bridge which, once again, renders this complete take unusable.
For some reason, take six didn’t get past the second measure of the song, but the complete take seven ended up being the keeper. A decision was made to abandon the brief lead guitar riff in between the first two verses and they ended up settling with the word “just” in the second verse. They also labored the vocal line “from me” in the instrumental section as we’ve come to know it.
Another suggestion from George Martin on this day was to include harmonica in the introduction, instrumental section, and conclusion of the song instead of just the guitar riff as they originally intended. So after take seven was deemed the best take, takes eight through ten brought in the harmonica sections of the song as well as a low guitar passage in the instrumental section to accentuate the harmonica, undoubtedly played by George Harrison.
George Martin also wanted John and Paul to sing unison “da, da, da, da, da, dun, dun, dah” vocals in the introduction as well. This took place as an edit piece, take eleven not making the grade, but take twelve succeeding. The song was then complete at approximately 4 pm, with work then starting on what became the b-side of the single, namely “Thank You Girl.” They did have an evening session on this day, which was used to record another Lennon/McCartney composition “The One After 909.” After they worked quite extensively on the song and even contemplated working on another composition called “What Goes On,” they left this recording for the vaults, only to be officially revealed on the “Anthology 1” album. Funnily enough, both of these songs did get recorded and released during their recording career.
March 14, 1963, was scheduled to put together the mix necessary for “From Me To You.” Editing work needed to be done to put together a complete version of the song. Listening to the released mono and stereo versions of the song reveal much as to how this editing took place. The introduction to the mono version includes the harmonica riff, while the stereo version doesn’t. Also, the mono version includes a slightly strange effect in the fourth measure, which is where the drum fill introduces the first verse. This effect is due to the synchronization of two different tape sources playing at the same time. Two tape machines playing the same song will vary because they don’t run at the same speed. If one tape machine is moving slightly faster than the other, when the tape passes the slower moving machine, this synchronization sound appears. Therefore, George Martin must have synced-up two different tape machines to add the harmonica introduction to the mono version of the song.
After this synchronization and/or other editing was completed (from unknown take numbers), an actual mono mix was made, which is the mono version of the song we are all familiar with on vinyl. Interestingly, a stereo mix made an attempt from this synchronization edit job, but it apparently never saw the light of day. This was done probably because of the possibility adding the song on an album, for which a stereo mix needed the process. It was not accomplished in time to be included on their first album “Please Please Me,” released eight days later. Since their previous two singles did appear on that first album, George Martin probably thought this song would appear on their next album, which ultimately became “With The Beatles.” Since this did not happen, the stereo mix made on this day appears to have been either locked away in the vaults or eventually discarded.
Because the Beatles did not have a new album to release for the Christmas season in 1966, EMI decided to put together a ‘greatest hits’ package entitled “A Collection Of Beatles Oldies.” “From Me To You” would surely need to be included on such an album, so a stereo mix of the song was needed. The stereo mix made on March 14, 1963, could not be located and was thought to be scrapped, so they just decided to take the original two-track master tape and make that the stereo mix of the song – instruments on the left channel and vocals on the right. The only exception to this rule is the unison vocal introduction, and harmonica parts heard in the solo and conclusion of the song they overdubbed on both channels and appear in the center of the mix. Since the introductory harmonica passage was synchronized in from another tape machine directly for the mono mix, it was not on the original two-track master tape. Therefore, the harmonica does not appear on the stereo mix of the song.
On January 7, 1969, the Beatles briefly returned to the song while rehearsing material for their “Get Back/Let It Be” project at Twickenham film studios. While this does qualify for being part of the “recording sessions” for “From Me To You,” it wasn’t a serious recording attempt and it, appropriately, has never been released.
Song Structure and Style
As was standard for the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team up to this point, the structure consists of a verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse format (or aaba). To this we add an introduction, then a solo/verse section, a repeat of the bridge and final verse, and then a conclusion with full ending.
We start out with a four-measure introduction, which is identical in melody line to the first two measures of the verse but repeated twice. This introduction features unison vocals from John and Paul and a distinctive harmonica riff (if you're listening to the mono version, that is), ending with a drum fill from Ringo in the final measure.
The first verse, as well as the entire song, is sung by both Lennon and McCartney with occasional bursts of harmony from Paul. The first four measures of the eight-measure verse differ between the verses lyrically, while the final four measures are identical in all verses, highlighting the title as the key phrase, or hook-line, of the song. You never have any doubt as to the title of the song.
After a second verse that is identical to the first apart from the lyrics of the first four measures, we enter into the eight-measure bridge, which is where we see the maturity of the Beatles' songwriting begin to flourish. "That middle-eight was a big departure for us," McCartney elaborates. "Say you're in C then go to A minor - fairly ordinary, C, change it to G. And then F - pretty ordinary, but then it goes (sings) 'I got arms,' and that's a G Minor. Going to G Minor and a C takes you to a whole new world. It was exciting."
The vocals in the bridge are sung in harmony throughout and end with a quick glimpse of their Isley Brothers' falsetto "oooh," which they really emphasized in their next single, "She Loves You."
After the bridge, which takes them away from the home key of C, they segue back for an identical repeat of the first verse. That completes the aaba structure. Then we go into the solo/verse section, which is identical to the eight-measure verse chords and melody line, only the first four measures are played by harmonica and (if you listen carefully enough) lead guitar played an octave lower than the harmonica. The last four measures are an identical repeat of the verse lyrics with the hook-line still in place.
After we then repeat the bridge and first verse, we see that the final measure of that verse is cut off in order to enter into a five-measure outro, or conclusion, to the song. After repeating and accenting the words "to you" two more times with different chord changes and drum fills on the off-beat before the third beat of each measure, we return to the harmonica riff and unison singing of the intro. Interestingly, they choose to end on an A Minor chord, which leaves the song unresolved and hanging in the air. Another new trick initiated on this song.
Lyrically, we see portrayed here the innocence of sentiment as displayed in many songs of the pop era. The singer will give "anything" to his girlfriend that she requests. The "anything" apparently ends on the romantic side, because the singer only has in mind "arms that long to hold" her and "lips that long to kiss" her. Having "a heart that's oh, so true," after all, is pretty standard fare for 1963. Being that dissatisfaction with what his girl does for him was addressed in their previous single "Please Please Me," this appears to be a step backwards lyrically. But, with the pressure to follow up a big hit, which they've never had to do before, it seems that they succumbed to the pressure of what was usual in the pop charts to fill the need. After all, what "From Me To You" lacks lyrically is made up within song structure.
Lennon is to the fore throughout the song, with his commanding lead vocals and harmonica riff. McCartney's bouncing harmony lines sprinkled throughout the song are a testament to his natural musical ability and sense of harmony. His bass work seems to encompass a standard 'oom-pah' alternation but, upon closer inspection, are made up of quarter- and eighth-notes.
Ringo keeps somewhat subdued on his closed hi-hats throughout the song, although his emphasized accents and drum fills at the end of each bridge are completely suitable for cueing in audiences for screaming, as they usually did at this point. George Harrison, on the other hand, is least noticeable on this track, his guitar riffs being overshadowed by Lennon's harmonica due to George Martin's suggestion. Still, his presence is felt through his guitar work, which is primarily rhythm in this case, as with Lennon.
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