"Love Me Do" is the debut single by the English rock band the Beatles, backed by "P.S. I Love You". When the single was originally released in the United Kingdom on 5 October 1962, it peaked at No. 17; in 1982 it was re-promoted (not re-issued, retaining the same catalogue number) and reached No. 4. In the United States the single was a No. 1 hit in 1964. In 2013, recordings of the song that were published in 1962 entered the public domain in Europe.
The song was written several years before it was recorded, and prior to the existence of the Beatles. The single features John Lennon's prominent harmonica playing and duet vocals by him and Paul McCartney. Three different recorded versions of the song by the Beatles have been released, each with a different drummer.
Composition, recordings and releases
"Love Me Do" was primarily written by Paul McCartney in 1958â€"1959 while truant from school at age 16 and later credited to Lennonâ€"McCartney; John Lennon contributed the middle eight. Lennon: "Paul wrote the main structure of this when he was 16, or even earlier. I think I had something to do with the middle ... 'Love Me Do' is Paul's song. He wrote it when he was a teenager. Let me think. I might have helped on the middle eight, but I couldn't swear to it. I do know he had the song around, in Hamburg, even, way, way before we were songwriters". (David Sheff. John Lennon: All We Are Saying). McCartney: "'Love Me Do' was completely co-written. It might have been my original idea but some of them really were 50-50s, and I think that one was. It was just Lennon and McCartney sitting down without either of us having a particularly original idea. We loved doing it, it was a very interesting thing to try and learn to do, to become songwriters. I think why we eventually got so strong was we wrote so much through our formative period. 'Love Me Do' was our first hit, which ironically is one of the two songs that we control, because when we first signed to EMI they had a publishing company called Ardmore and Beechwood which took the two songs, 'Love Me Do' and 'P.S. I Love You', and in doing a deal somewhere along the way we were able to get them back".
Their practice at the time was to scribble songs in a school notebook, dreaming of stardom, always writing "Another Lennonâ€"McCartney Original" at the top of the page. 'Love Me Do' is a song based around two simple chords: G7 and C, before moving to D for its middle eight. It begins with Lennon playing a bluesy dry "dockside harmonica" riff, then features Lennon and McCartney on joint lead vocals, including Everly Brothers-style harmonising during the beseeching "please" before McCartney sings the unaccompanied vocal line on the song's title phrase. Lennon had previously sung the title sections, but this change in arrangement was made in the studio under the direction of producer George Martin when he realised that the harmonica part encroached on the vocal (Lennon needed to begin playing the harmonica again on the same beat as the "do" of "love me do". Although when a similar situation later occurred on the 'Please Please Me' single session, the harmonica was superimposed afterwards using tape-to-tape overdubbing). Described by Ian MacDonald as "standing out like a bare brick wall in a suburban sitting-room, 'Love Me Do', [with its] blunt working class northerness, rang the first faint chime of a revolutionary bell" compared to the standard tin pan alley productions occupying the charts at the time.
'Love Me Do' was recorded by the Beatles on three different occasions with three different drummers at EMI Studios at 3 Abbey Road in London:
- EMI Artist Test on 6 June 1962 with Pete Best on drums. This version (previously thought to be lost) is available on Anthology 1.
- First proper recording session 4 September 1962. In August, Best had been replaced with Ringo Starr. Producer George Martin did not approve of Best's drumming for studio work. It was the norm at that time to have a specialist studio drummer who knew the ways of studio work. The decision to fire Best was not Martin's. The Beatles with Starr recorded a version at EMI Studios. They recorded Love Me Do in 15 takes. This version with Starr is available on Past Masters
- Second recording session 11 September 1962. A week later, The Beatles returned to the same studio and they made a recording of 'Love Me Do' with session drummer Andy White on drums. Starr was relegated to playing tambourine. As tambourine is not present on the 4 September recording, this is the easiest way to distinguish between the Starr and White recordings.
First issues of the single, released on Parlophone in the UK on 5 October 1962, featured the Ringo Starr version, prompting Mark Lewisohn to later write: "Clearly, the 11 September version was not regarded as having been a significant improvement after all".
The Andy White version of the track was included on The Beatles' debut UK album, Please Please Me, The Beatles' Hits EP, and subsequent album releases on which "Love Me Do" was included (except as noted below), as well as on the first US single release in April 1964. For the 1976 single re-issue and the 1982 "20th Anniversary" re-issue, the Andy White version was again used. The Ringo Starr version was included on the albums Rarities (American version) and Past Masters, Volume One. The CD single issued on 2 October 1992 contains both versions. The Pete Best version remained unreleased until 1995, when it was included on the Anthology 1 album.
Capitol Records Canada pressed 170 singles which were released on 4 February 1963 with catalog number 72076. This pressing was dubbed from the original UK single and featured Ringo on drums.
'Love Me Do,' featuring Starr drumming, was also recorded eight times at the BBC and played on the BBC radio programmes Here We Go, Talent Spot, Saturday Club, Side By Side, Pop Go The Beatles and Easy Beat between October 1962 and October 1963. The version of 'Love Me Do' recorded on 10 July 1963 at the BBC and broadcast on the 23 July 1963 Pop Go the Beatles programme can be heard on The Beatles' album Live at the BBC. The Beatles also performed the song live on the 20 February 1963 Parade of the Pops BBC radio broadcast.
In 1969, during the Get Back sessions, The Beatles played the song in a slower, more bluesy form than they had in earlier recordings. This version of 'Love Me Do' is one of many recordings made during these sessions and subsequently appeared on some bootlegs. The song featured no harmonica by Lennon, and McCartney sang the majority of the song in the same vocal style he used for 'Lady Madonna'.
Background
First recording session and use of harmonica
On 4 September 1962, Brian Epstein paid for the Beatlesâ€"along with their new drummer, Ringo Starrâ€"to fly down from Liverpool to London. After first checking into their Chelsea hotel, they arrived at EMI Studios early in the afternoon where they set up their equipment in Studio 3 and began rehearsing six songs including: "Please Please Me", "Love Me Do" and a song originally composed for Adam Faith by Mitch Murray called "How Do You Do It?" which George Martin "was insisting, in the apparent absence of any stronger original material, would be the group's first single". Lennon and McCartney had yet to impress Martin with their songwriting ability, and the Beatles had been signed as recording artists on the basis of their charismatic appeal: "It wasn't a question of what they could do [as] they hadn't written anything great at that time." "But what impressed me most was their personalities. Sparks flew off them when you talked to them." During the course of an evening session that then followed (7:00 pm to 10:00 pm in Studio 2) they recorded "How Do You Do It" and "Love Me Do". An attempt at "Please Please Me" was made, but at this stage it was quite different from its eventual treatment and it was dropped by Martin. This was a disappointment for the group as they had hoped it would be the B-side to "Love Me Do".
The Beatles were keen to record their own material, something which was almost unheard of at that time, and it is generally accepted that it is to George Martin's credit that they were allowed to float their own ideas. But Martin insisted that unless they could write something as commercial as "How Do You Do It?" then the Tin Pan Alley practice of having the group record songs by professional songwriters (which was standard procedure then, and is still common today) would be followed. MacDonald points out, however: "It's almost certainly true that there was no other producer on either side of the Atlantic then capable of handling the Beatles without damaging themâ€"let alone of cultivating and catering to them with the gracious, open-minded adeptness for which George Martin is universally respected in the British pop industry." Martin rejects however the view that he was the "genius" behind the group: "I was purely an interpreter. The genius was theirs: no doubt about that."
It was on the 4 September session that, according to McCartney, Martin suggested using a harmonica. However, Lennon's harmonica part was present on the Anthology 1 version of the song recorded during the 6 June audition with Pete Best on drums. Also, Martin's own recollection of this is different, saying: "I picked up on 'Love Me Do' because of the harmonica sound", adding: "I loved wailing harmonicaâ€"it reminded me of the records I used to issue of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. I felt it had a definite appeal."
Lennon had learned to play a chromatic harmonica that his Uncle George (late husband of his Aunt Mimi) had given to him as a child. But the instrument being used at this time was one stolen by Lennon from a music shop in Arnhem, the Netherlands, in 1960, as the Beatles first journeyed to Hamburg by road. Lennon would have had this with him at the EMI audition on 6 June as Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby", with its harmonica intro, and a hit in the UK in March 1962, was one of the thirty three songs the Beatles had prepared (although only four were recorded: "Bésame Mucho"; "Love Me Do"; "P.S. I Love You" and "Ask Me Why", of which only "Bésame Mucho" and "Love Me Do" survive and appear on Anthology 1). Brian Epstein had also booked American Bruce Channel to top a NEMS Enterprises promotion at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom, in Wallasey on 21 June 1962, just a few weeks after "Hey Baby" had charted, and placed the Beatles a prestigious second on the bill. Lennon was so impressed that night with Channel's harmonica player, Delbert McClinton, that he later approached him for advice on how to play the instrument. Lennon makes reference also to Frank Ifield's "I Remember You" and its harmonica intro, a huge number one hit in the UK July 1962, saying: "The gimmick was the harmonica. There was a terrible thing called "I Remember You", and we did those numbers; and we started using it on "Love Me Do" just for arrangements". The harmonica was to become a feature of the Beatles' early hits such as "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You" as well as various album tracks. Paul McCartney recalled, "John expected to be in jail one day and he'd be the guy who played the harmonica."
Martin came very close to issuing "How Do You Do It?" as the Beatles' first single (it would also re-appear as a contender for their second single) before settling instead on "Love Me Do", as a mastered version of it was made ready for release and which still exists in EMI's archives. Martin commented later: "I looked very hard at 'How Do You Do It?', but in the end I went with 'Love Me Do', it was quite a good record." McCartney would remark: "We knew that the peer pressure back in Liverpool would not allow us to do 'How Do You Do It'."
Remake and Andy White
Martin then decided that as "Love Me Do" was going to be the group's debut release it needed to be re-recorded with a different drummer as he was unhappy with the 4 September drum sound. (Abbey Road's Ken Townsend also recalls McCartney being dissatisfied with Starr's timing, due probably to him being under-rehearsed.) Record producers at that time were used to hearing the bass drum "lock in" with the bass guitar as opposed to the much looser R&B feel that was just beginning to emerge, and so professional show band drummers were often used for recordings. Ron Richards, placed in charge of the 11 September re-recording session in George Martin's absence, booked Andy White whom he had used in the past. Starr was expecting to play, and would have been very disappointed to be dropped for only his second Beatles recording session: Richards remembers "He just sat there quietly in the control box next to me. Then I asked him to play maracas on 'P.S. I Love You'. Ringo is lovelyâ€"always easy going". Starr recalled: "On my first visit in September we just ran through some tracks for George Martin. We even did Please Please Me. I remember that, because while we were recording it I was playing the bass drum with a maraca in one hand and a tambourine in the other. I think it's because of that that George Martin used Andy White, the 'professional', when we went down a week later to record Love Me Do. The guy was previously booked, anyway, because of Pete Best. George didn't want to take any more chances and I was caught in the middle. I was devastated that George Martin had his doubts about me. I came down ready to roll and heard, 'We've got a professional drummer.' He has apologised several times since, has old George, but it was devastatingâ€"I hated the bugger for years; I still don't let him off the hook!" Paul McCartney: "George got his way and Ringo didn't drum on the first single. He only played tambourine. I don't think Ringo ever got over that. He had to go back up to Liverpool and everyone asked, 'How did it go in the Smoke?' We'd say, 'B-side's good,' but Ringo couldn't admit to liking the A-side, not being on it." (From Anthology). "Love Me Do" was recorded with White playing drums and Starr on tambourine, but whether using a session drummer solved the problem is unclear, as session engineer Norman Smith was to comment: "It was a real headache trying to get a [good] drum sound, and when you listen to the record now you can hardly hear the drums at all." Ringo Starr's version was mixed "bottom-light" to hide Starr's bass drum.
Early pressings of the single (issued with a red Parlophone label) are the 4 September versionâ€"minus tambourineâ€"with Starr playing drums. But later pressings of the single (on a black Parlophone label), and the version used for the Please Please Me album, are the 11 September re-record with Andy White on drums and Starr on tambourine. This difference has become fundamental in telling the two recordings of "Love Me Do" apart. Regarding the editing sessions that then followed all these various takes, Ron Richards remembers the whole thing being a bit fraught, saying: "Quite honestly, by the time it came out I was pretty sick of it. I didn't think it would do anything."
Ron Richards
There are major discrepancies regarding the White session, and who produced it. In his book Summer of Love, Martin concedes that his version of events differs from some accounts, saying: "On the 6 June Beatles session (audition) I decided that Pete Best had to go [and said to Epstein] I don't care what you do with Pete Best; but he's not playing on any more recording sessions: I'm getting a session drummer in." When Starr turned up with the group for their first proper recording session on 4 September, Martin says that he was totally unaware that the Beatles had fired Best; and, not knowing "how good bad or indifferent" Starr was, was not prepared to "waste precious studio time finding out." Martin, therefore, appears to have this as the Andy White session in which Martin was present, and not 11 September. This contradicts Mark Lewisohn's account, as in his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, he has Starr on drums on 4 September and White for the 11 September re-make. Lewisohn also says that Richards was in charge on 11 September, which means, if accurate, that Richards was sole producer of the White version of "Love Me Do". Martin says, "My diary shows that I did not oversee any Beatles recording sessions on 11 Septemberâ€"only the one on 4 September." But, if Lewisohn's account is correct and "the 4 September session really hadn't proved good enough to satisfy George Martin", it might seem odd that Martin was not then present to oversee the 11 September remake.
In his memoirs, assistant engineer Geoff Emerick supports the Lewisohn version, recounting that Starr played drums at the 4 September session (Emerick's second day at EMI) and that Martin, Smith, and McCartney were all dissatisfied with (the underrehearsed) Starr's timekeeping. Emerick places White firmly at the second session, and describes the reactions of Mal Evans and Starr to the substitution. Emerick also noted that Martin only came in very late for the 11 September session, after work on "Love Me Do" was complete.
Andy White confirms that he was booked by Ron Richards for the 11 September session, not by George Martin, who he says "could not make the session, could not get there till the end, so he had Ron Richards handle it". White also says that he recognises his own drumming on the released version of "Please Please Me", recorded that same session with him on drums. White, however was not at the studio for the final recording on 26 November and was only hired for the 11 September session (this run through with White can be heard on Anthology 1).
Charts and certifications
- #1 on US charts (30 May 1964), Top 100 for 14 weeks. When it entered the charts, it was due to sales of imported copies from Canada with Starr on drums. On 27 April 1964 it was released in the US by Vee-Jay Records on the Tollie label with White on drums.
The song was the fourth of six songs by the Beatles to hit #1 in a one-year period; an all-time record for the US charts. In order, these were "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Love Me Do", "A Hard Day's Night", and "I Feel Fine." It was also the fourth of seven songs written by Lennon-McCartney to hit #1 in 1964 (the remaining song being "A World Without Love" by Peter and Gordon); That's an all-time record on the US charts for writing the most songs to hit #1 in the same calendar year. (see List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones)
Charts
Missing master tape
The original master tapes of the 4 September version of "Love Me Do" are not known to exist. Standard procedure at Abbey Road Studios at the time was to erase the original two-track session tape for singles once they had been "mixed down" to the (usually monaural) master tape used to press records. This was the fate of two Beatles singles (four songs): "Love Me Do", "P.S. I Love You", "She Loves You", and "I'll Get You". However, at some point the mixdown master tape for this song was also lost, and apparently no backup copies had been made. Thus, for many years the only extant recorded copies were the red label Parlophone 45Â rpm vinyl records pressed in 1962. This version was also issued in Canada as Capitol 72076.
By the time the tapes had disappeared, the song's 11 September 1962 remake featuring Andy White had been released. EMI would not have been too concerned about the loss of the 4 September take, therefore, as it was now considered obsolete, and they may not have anticipated ever having any use for it again anyway.
Around 1980, a reasonably clean, original 45 single from EMI's archives was used as the "best available source" for the track's inclusion on the Capitol compilation LP Rarities. A few years later, a new master tape was struck, this time using another, better-sounding 45 supplied by a record collector, and this has served as the official EMI master tape for the original "Love Me Do" ever since.
The version with Ringo on drums was released in 1980 for Record 1 of The Beatles Box.
50th anniversary mix-up
EMI's planned release of a 50th anniversary limited-edition replica of the original single was cancelled when it was discovered that the pressings contained the Andy White version instead of the Ringo version as intended.
Revised release plans have been announced for a limited-edition replica vinyl version of the Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do" backed with "P.S. I Love You," in honour of the 50th anniversary of its release in the UK. The 7-inch disc originally was scheduled to hit stores on 5 October, the single's actual golden anniversary, but it was reissued (in its corrected version) on 22 October.
Personnel
On the version released on the British single, Rarities and Past Masters:
- Paul McCartney â€" vocals, bass
- John Lennon â€" vocals, harmonica
- George Harrison â€" acoustic rhythm guitar
- Ringo Starr â€" drums
On the version released on American single, Please Please Me, The Beatles' Hits, and compilation albums including 1962â€"1966 ("The Red Album") and 1:
- Paul McCartney â€" vocals, bass
- John Lennon â€" vocals, harmonica
- George Harrison â€" acoustic rhythm guitar
- Ringo Starr â€" tambourine
- Andy White â€" drums
On the Anthology 1 version:
- Paul McCartney â€" vocals, bass
- John Lennon â€" vocals, harmonica
- George Harrison â€" acoustic rhythm guitar
- Pete Best â€" drums
Engineered by Norman Smith.
Recording and mixing details
- 6 June 1962: an unknown number of takes recorded for what was most likely an artist test.
- 4 September 1962: an unknown number of takes recorded. Mono mixing of the song from an unknown take number.
- 11 September 1962: 18 takes recorded with Andy White on drums. Take 18 used as master.
Cover versions
"Love Me Do" has been covered by (among others):
- Alvin and the Chipmunks on their 1964 album The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits
- Bobby Vee on his 1964 album, 30 Big Hits from the 60s
- Dick Hyman on his 1964 album, Keyboard Kaleidoscope
- Sandie Shaw on her 1969 album, Reviewing the Situation
- The Brady Bunch on their 1972 album The Kids from the Brady Bunch
- Ringo Starr on his 1998 album, Vertical Man
- Kids Incorporated in 1989 in the Season 6 episode "Sweet Dreams".
- Flaco Jiménez on his 2000 album, Sleepytown
- Madooo on his 2002 album, This Day Is Forever
- The Persuasions on their 2002 album, The Persuasions Sing the Beatles
- Emmerson Nogueira on his 2004 album, Beatles
Notes
References
External links
- "Love Me Do" at Discogs (list of releases)
- Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Love Me Do"
- Song-by-Song Listing for "Love Me Do"
- What harmonica did John Lennon use to play the intro to "Love Me Do" and other songs by The Beatles?
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics