"Till There Was You" is a song written by Meredith Willson for his 1957 musical play The Music Man, and which also appeared in the 1962 movie version. The song is sung by librarian Marian Paroo (Barbara Cook on Broadway, Shirley Jones in the film) to Professor Harold Hill (portrayed by Robert Preston) toward the end of Act Two.
The first recording of this song to be released came even before the original cast album version of January 1958. 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. Produced by Nelson Riddle, it featured his orchestra and 17-year-old vocalist Sue Raney.
An earlier version of this song, Till I Met You, appeared on the January 14, 1951 edition of The Big Show, performed by Fran Warren.
In 1959, Anita Bryant recorded a single which reached #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #14 on the Cashbox Top 100.
In March 1961, Till There Was You was a minor hit in the UK for Peggy Lee.
In 1962, an instrumental version of Meredith Willson's song by Valjean was also popular.[1]
In 1963, Sergio Franchi recorded this song on his RCA Victor Red Seal album Broadway... I Love You.[2]
| "Till There Was You" | ||||||||
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| Song by The Beatles from the album With The Beatles | ||||||||
| Released | 22 November 1963 (mono) 30 November 1963 (stereo) |
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| Recorded | Abbey Road Studios: 18 and 30 July 1963 |
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| Genre | Pop | |||||||
| Length | 2:16 | |||||||
| Label | Parlophone | |||||||
| Writer | Meredith Willson | |||||||
| Producer | George Martin | |||||||
| With The Beatles track listing | ||||||||
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The Beatles' version was included on their albums With The Beatles (UK release, 1963) and Meet The Beatles! (US release, 1964). The song was the only Broadway tune that the Beatles ever recorded.
Paul McCartney was introduced to Peggy Lee's music by his older cousin, Bett Robbins, who would occasionally baby-sit the two McCartney brothers.[3] McCartney said: "I had no idea until much later that it was from The Music Man."[4] "Till There Was You" was part of the Beatles' repertoire in 1962 and performed at the Star Club in Hamburg.[5] It became illustrative of the Beatles' versatility, proving they could appeal to all sections of an audience, moving easily from ballads to rock and roll, as in their appearance on 4 November 1963 at the Royal Variety Performance when they followed this song with "Twist and Shout".[6]
The Beatles had previously performed "Till There Was You" as part of their failed audition for Decca Records in London on 1 January 1962,[5] and it was the second of five the group sang during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964.[6][7]
Live versions of the song were released on Live at the BBC (1994) and Anthology 1 (1995). The latter version was recorded when the Beatles played at the Royal Variety Performance. When introducing this song, McCartney commented that the song "had also been recorded by our favourite American group, Sophie Tucker".[6][8] This tongue-in-cheek comment by McCartney unwittingly began an urban legend that 'Till There Was You' was an old Sophie Tucker song, when in fact, there is no record of her ever performing the tune.
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