Till There Was You

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"
Single by Anita Bryant
B-side	"Little George (Got the Hiccoughs)"
Released	May 1959
Genre	Pop
Length	2:10
Label	Carlton Records 512
Songwriter(s)	Meredith Willson
Anita Bryant singles chronology
"Till There Was You" (1959) "Six Boys and Seven Girls" (1959)

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[1] and number 14 on the Cashbox Top 100.[2]

"Till There Was You"
Cover of the song's sheet music
Song by the Beatles
from the album With the Beatles
Released	November 22, 1963 (mono) November 30, 1963 (stereo)
Recorded	July 18 and 30, 1963
Studio	EMI, London
Genre	Bolero, Pop music
Length	2:16
Label	Parlophone
Songwriter(s)	Meredith Willson
Producer(s)	George Martin
Audio sample
"'Til There Was You" file help

"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.[3] McCartney said that he "had no idea until much later" that it was from The Music Man.[4] The song was part of their pre-recording repertoire in 1962, and they performed it at the Star Club in Hamburg.[5] 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".[6]

The band had included "'Till There Was You" as part of their unsuccessful audition for Decca Records in London on January 1, 1962.[5] It was the second of five songs that they performed during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964.[6][7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

• Jazz vocalist Sue Raney recorded the tune with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra on 29 October 1957 for her first album, "When Your Lover Has Gone." This recording pre-dated the opening of The Music Man by about 6 weeks.
• Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins recorded the song on his groundbreaking album Freedom Suite (1958). An alternate take is provided on the 1999 CD rerelease.
• Guitar instrumentalist Chet Atkins recorded the single for his album Teensville (1960).
• In March 1961, "'Til There Was You" was a minor hit in the UK for Peggy Lee.[10]
• Etta Jones recorded a version for her album Something Nice (1961).[11]
• Al Hirt released a version on his album, Horn A-Plenty (1962).[12]
• Nana Mouskouri recorded a slow, romantic, velvety version as originally the closing track on her acclaimed Great American Songbook album Nana Mouskouri in New York (The Girl from Greece Sings) (1962), produced by Quincy Jones.[13]
• In 1962, an instrumental version of Meredith Willson's song by Valjean was also popular.[14]
• In 1963, Sergio Franchi recorded this song on his RCA Victor Red Seal album Broadway... I Love You.[15]
• In 1974, Ray Charles recorded this song on his Crossover Records album Come Live With Me
• In 1984, Brazilian singer Beto Guedes released a version in Portuguese called "Quando te vi" (When I saw you), written by Ronaldo Bastos.
• In 1998, Ellen Albertini Dow sang this in the movie The Wedding Singer; though this rendition does not appear on the official soundtrack.
• In 2000 Peter MacNicol, Lisa Nicole Carson, and Jane Krakowski performed a version of the song on TV show Ally McBeal's season 3 episode "Turning Thirty"[16]
• In 2003, Rod Stewart recorded his version on his 2003 album As Time Goes By: The Great American Songbook: Volume II
• The Smithereens recorded the song on their 2007 album Meet the Smithereens!, which consists entirely of cover versions of songs from the Meet the Beatles! album.
• In 2009, Katherine Jenkins recorded this song on her 2009 Believe (Katherine Jenkins album).

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• Anita Bryant - Till There Was You on YouTube
• The Beatles - Till There Was You on YouTube