"Bad to Me" is a song credited to LennonâÂÂMcCartney. In late interviews, John Lennon said that he wrote it for Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas while on holiday in Spain. However, in a 1964 interview he said that he and Paul McCartney wrote it in the back of a van, declaring McCartney a contributor. Lennon's original demo of the song was released on iTunes in December 2013 on the album The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963. It became one of the first occasions a LennonâÂÂMcCartney composition made the US Top 40 recorded by an artist other than the Beatles (the first being "A World Without Love" by Peter & Gordon).
Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas released their recording of the song in 1963 and it became their first number 1 in the UK Singles Chart. Paul McCartney was present during the recording session at Abbey Road Studios. The single was released in the US the following year, and was a top-ten hit there, reaching number 9. In Canada "Bad To Me' reached number 12 on both the CHUM and RPM charts.