On this day in 1963, The Beatles earned their first number one hit in the UK

As the band prepared for the release of Please Please Me in late March, they continued with recording sessions for numerous new songs. On the 5th of March they headed in to EMI Studios to record a new single, From Me To You. The track had been written on a coach, while the group was on tour with Helen Shapiro, with the title inspired by the name of the letters section in the New Musical Express newspaper, “From You to Us”. 

John Lennon later recalled the song being written in a more blues fashion, even stating that “we nearly didn’t record it because we thought it was too bluesy at first, but when we’d finished it and George Martin had scored it with harmonica, it was alright.” The song was recorded quickly, in just six takes and would be released just a couple of weeks after their debut album on the 11th of April. Soon after, on the 2nd May it became the band’s first number one single.

Many fans assume that the song Please Please Me, which helped launch the band to stardom, would be their first number one, but while it did top the New Musical Express and Melody Maker charts, it failed to reach the top spot on the Record Retailer chart, which later became the UK Singles Chart and was considered the definitive chart of the time. The band themselves also considered it their first big hit, with Paul McCartney saying “the first time I thought we’d really made it, was when I was lying in bed one morning, and I heard a milkman whistling From Me to You.”

After the UK success, it was decided by Vee-Jay Records to release the song in the US on the 27th of May. Similarly to the already released Please Please Me it was initially a failure, but after the first song took off, From Me to You took off, reaching number 116 on the Billboard chart. This, coupled with the band’s successes later in the year prompted a second release in January 1964, this time peaking at number 41.

From Me to You was never made part of an original studio album, only appearing on compilation albums, including 1, the 2000 compilation of the band’s number one hits.