John Lennon Never Forgot 1 Bad Review of The Beatles’ ‘From Me to You’

TL;DR:

• John Lennon hated a review of The Beatles’ “From Me to You.”
• He felt the review considerably underrated the track.
• He felt critics liked a David Bowie album better than the Plastic Ono Band’s albums.

The Beatles‘ “From Me to You” got trashed in a contemporary review. Subsequently, John Lennon reacted to the review. John contrasted the way critics wrote about him and the way they wrote about David Bowie.

The Beatles’ ‘From Me to You’ was supposed to be the follow-up to ‘She Loves You’

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In it, John discussed the origin of “From Me to You.” He said he co-wrote it with Paul McCartney.

“We were writing it in a car, I think, and I think the first line was mine,” he said. “I mean, I know it was mine. And then after that, we took it from there. It was far bluesier than that when we wrote it. The notes — today you could rearrange it pretty funky.” John and Paul intended “From Me to You” to be the follow-up to “She Loves You.”

John Lennon hated when a magazine called the song ‘below-par Beatles’

During a 1980 interview with Rolling Stone, John discussed what critics thought about him. “I’ve been attacked many, many times … and right from the beginning: ‘From Me to You’ was ‘below-par Beatles,’ don’t forget that,” he said. “That was the review in the NME. 

“Jesus Christ, I’m sorry,” he added. “Maybe it wasn’t as good as ‘Please Please Me,’ I don’t know, but ‘below par?’ I’ll never forget that one.” 

He said critics still attacked his music when he wasn’t working with The Beatles. “And you know how bad the reviews were of our Plastic Ono albums?” he said.” They shredded us! ‘Self-indulgent, simplistic whining’ — that was the main gist. Because those albums were about ourselves, you see, and not about Ziggy Stardust or Tommy.”

For context, John was referring to two acclaimed concept albums about fictional characters: David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and The Who’s Tommy.

How the critical perception of ‘From Me to You’ changed over the decades

Even if “From Me to You” had a bad reputation, that reputation seems to have changed. In 2020, Rolling Stone released their list of the 100 greatest Fab Four tunes. “From Me to You” was No. 72 on the list. The magazine ranked it higher than more famous songs such as “Yellow Submarine,” “Hello, Goodbye,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and “Love Me Do.”

“From Me to You” also inspired its share of covers. Del Shannon, Bobby McFerrin, Futurebirds, and the cast of the show Kids Incorporated each put their own spin on the track. In addition, the house music group Yolanda Be Cool remixed “From Me to You.”

The Beatles’ “From Me to You” received a negative review in the 1960s but it’s considered a classic bubblegum song today.