1963 saw the Beatles' breakthrough and you can hear the mania in almost everything they recorded that year. Sandwiched between the first big hit (Please Please Me) and the first imperial moment (She Loves You), From Me To You is almost forgotten and so is undimmed by overfamiliarity. Addressed to their fans, the words are simple, functional to the point of banality, but are refreshingly direct.
It's all about the record: From Me To You remains an authentic distillation of sheer euphoria, with powerful harmonies, strange chords, tricksy changes, bluesy vocals and the first appearance of those startling, camp "ooh"s. It was also the Beatles' first official No 1: it stayed at the top for most of May and June and made it clear that this was something unprecedented and unstoppable.
