Till There Was Meredith Willson.

Meredith Willson, over his storied career, wrote a good number of love songs. Yet, for me, the crème de la crème is the romantic ballad from the second act of The Music Man – sung by River City’s librarian – Marian Paroo – when she finally admits to her love for Harold Hill – the slick music professor/salesman who has transformed River City from the inside out by introducing River Citians to the clever idea of starting a boys band.

When Meredith wrote The Music Man in the mid-1950’s, he needed a show-stopping love song for one of the scenes. Rather than compose a new song, Willson dusted off a tune he’d written and recorded in 1950. Beautifully sung by Eileen Wilson, Till I Met You had come and gone with barely a ripple, but Willson felt the song deserved a better fate. So, by changing just a few words and the song title, we now had…

Till There Was You – Meredith Willson.

Take a listen to this Meredith Willson classic…

‘Till There Was You’ by Barbara Cook (joined by Robert Preston) from The Music Man ℗ 1958 Capitol Records – Released on January 1, 1958. Conductor, Musical Director: Herbert Greene, Producer: Dick Jones, Composer Lyricist: Meredith Willson

Since its introduction in 1957, Till There Was You has become one of the most beloved Broadway tunes of the 20th century, covered by artists as diverse as Sonny Rollins, Chet Atkins, Ray Charles, and the Beatles. But more on that later.

First, allow me to take you back to 1950, when Meredith’s love song was called…

Till I Met You…

Till I Met You was recorded by Willson himself, conducting this commercially-issued recording (below) which featured the “Your Hit Parade” vocalist – Eileen Wilson. Take a listen…

Here’s the first recording of ‘Till I Met You’ by Meredith Willson & Eileen Wilson – recorded October 25, 1950.

‘Till I Met You’ made another appearance on the January 14, 1951 edition of The Big Show performed by Meredith Willson & his orchestra and featuring Fran Warren. A beautiful rendition, still, the song failed to catch on.

As we mentioned earlier, Meredith Willson’s Till I Met You simply failed to make the charts in 1950-51, but during the mid-1950’s, as Meredith was writing The Music Man, he brought the song back into play, adding it into the new mix of songs he was composing for his first Broadway production. You can read more here about this six-year project, but suffice to say that by the fall of 1957, as Meredith and The Music Man touring company were fine-tuning the show for its scheduled December 19th premiere at The Majestic Theatre in New York City, Capitol Records decided to release Till There Was You on a single 45 RPM record using Nelson Riddle’s orchestra and a 17-year old newcomer – Sue Raney. Take a listen…

Interestingly, the first recording of ‘Till There Was You’ was released even before the original cast album version pf ‘The Music Man’ came out in January 1958. Promotional copies of the 45 rpm single – Capitol P3847 – were released on November 26, 1957, nearly one month before the Broadway production premiered on December 19. Produced by Nelson Riddle, it featured his orchestra and 17-year-old vocalist Sue Raney.

As we discuss on another page, The Music Man was an instant success on Broadway and ran for a marathon 1,375 performances. Suddenly, everyone wanted to sing and play the songs from the Broadway score, thus (see below) the sheet music from Till There Was You became quite the popular item in music stores around America…

(L-0121) Sheet Music For Till There Was You.

By 1958, Till There Was You had become, like 76 Trombones and Good Night My Someone, a well-known tune. As a result, artists from nearly every genre of popular music began recording Meredith’s “new” song. Take a listen to jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins’ version…

In 1958, jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins recorded ‘Till There Was You’ on his groundbreaking album Freedom Suite.

The talented and beautiful Anita Bryant actually had the biggest hit of Till There Was You in 1959…

The first bona fide hit single of ‘Till There Was You’ was recorded by songstress Anita Bryant in 1959. The single reached #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #14 on the Cashbox Top 100. Bryant became Miss Oklahoma in 1958, and was second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant.

Country star Chet Atkins plays a beautiful guitar instrumental in 1960.

Jazz singer Etta James recorded ‘Till There Was You’ in 1961 – accompanied by Wally Richardson (guitar), Michel Mulia (bass), Rudy Lawless (drums), and Jimmy Neeley (piano).

In 1962, Warner Brothers released the big movie version of The Music Man, bringing Robert Preston from the Broadway stage to the big screen, joining up with Shirley Jones. Here’s her beautiful version of Till There Was You…

Read more about the movie premiere in Mason City, Iowa in 1962.

But wait! There’s more. In 1963-64, the British Invasion was happening across America. The Beatles were becoming an overnight musical sensation, and on February 9, 1964, Ed Sullivan introduced The Fab Four to the American public. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr opened with their big hit – All My Loving – to ear-splitting screeches from teen-aged girls in the audience. The Beatles then followed up with Paul McCartney taking the spotlight to sing Till There Was You.

Here is the first recording of the Beatles doing Till There Was You on March 8, 1963 at the Royal Hall in London – about one year before their TV appearance on Ed Sullivan.

The Beatles recorded ‘Till There Was You’ in 1963, including it on their third album released in the United Kingdom. When the Fab Four came to America, appearing on Ed Sullivan’s TV show, they performed ‘All My Loving’, followed by Meredith Willson’s ballad. Their first LP released in the USA, the massively successful Meet The Beatles (1964) included ‘Till There Was You’. Suddenly, a whole new generation of Americans was singing Meredith’s 1950 love song.

Broadway sensation – Kristin Chenoweth offers her beautiful version.

In 2021/22 – Hugh Jackman & Sutton Foster brought a highly-successful renewal of The Music Man to New York City. Here, Sutton Foster brings Meredith’s classic back to the Broadway stage. Read more here.

Written in 1950, Till There Was You (Till I Met You) has endured – just as many of Meredith Willson’s other pop hits – such as It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You, The Iowa Fight Song, and, of course, 76 Trombones. Allow me to close with this beautiful version by Ray Charles…

And, of course, no collection of ‘Till There Was You’ can be complete without Ray Charles’ unique version. Enjoy!

Kudos to the amazing resources below for the many quotes, photographs, etc. used on this page.

The Artists – The Beatles, EdSullivan.com

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