"Love Me Do" is an early Lennon/McCartney song, principally
written by Paul McCartney in 1958–59 while playing truant from
school. John Lennon wrote the middle eight. The song was The
Beatles' first single, backed by "P.S. I Love You" and released
on 5 October 1962. When the single was originally released in
the UK, it peaked at number seventeen; in 1982 it was re-issued
and reached number four. In the U.S. the single was a number
one hit in 1964.
"Love Me Do" begins with bluesy harmonica played by Lennon,
then features Lennon and McCartney on joint lead vocals.
McCartney sings the solo vocal line on the song's title phrase
and also its middle eight. 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"). This is illustrative of the live
characteristics of this particular session - as, when a similar
situation later occurred on the "Please Please Me" single
session, the harmonica was superimposed afterwards using
tape-to-tape overdubbing.
"Love Me Do" was recorded by The Beatles on different
occasions with three different drummers:
First issues of the single, however, did feature the Ringo
Starr version, which was also included much later on the
compilation albums
Rarities(American version) and
Past Masters, Volume One. The Andy White version of the
track was included on The Beatles' debut UK album,
Please Please Me,
The Beatles' Hits EP, and all subsequent album releases
on which "Love Me Do" was included. For the 1976 single
re-issue and the 1982 "20th Anniversary" re-issue, the Andy
White version was used. 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 1album.
"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 Beatlesand
Easy Beatbetween 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 Beatlesprogramme 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 PopsBBC 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".
On 4 September 1962, Brian Epstein paid for the group to fly
down from Liverpool to London. They arrived at EMI Studios on
Abbey Road in the early afternoon, where they set up their
equipment in Studio 3 and began rehearsing "Please Please Me",
"Love Me Do" and a song originally composed for Adam Faith by
Mitch Murray called "How Do You Do It?" that George Martin
wanted them to try, and which he expected would be their first
single. To a large extent, George Martin had decided to sign
The Beatles on the strength of their charisma: "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". The Beatles were keen to record their own material, but
Martin felt 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 and still is common) would be employed.
During the course of an evening session (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 to 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".
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 1version of the song recorded during the 6
June session. 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 harmonica — it
reminded me of the records I used to issue of Sonny Terry and
Brownie McGhee. I felt it had a definite appeal." Sonny Terry
and Brownie McGhee would be an influence on Bob Dylan, who, in
turn, would later influence The Beatles.
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 as
Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby", with its harmonica intro (a hit in
the UK in March 1962) was one of the 33 songs The Beatles had
prepared. Brian Epstein had in fact booked American Bruce
Channel to top a NEMS Enterprises promotion at New Brighton's
Tower Ballroom on 21 June 1962, just a few weeks after "Hey
Baby" had charted, with The Beatles a prestigious second on the
bill. Lennon was particularly impressed with Channel's
harmonica player, Delbert McClinton and later approached him
for advice on how to play the instrument. The harmonica was to
become a feature of The Beatles' early records such as "Love Me
Do", "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You". Brian Jones of
The Rolling Stones asked Lennon in April 1963 if Lennon was
using a blues harp on "Love Me Do", Lennon replied: "A
harmonica...y'know, with a button!" and told Jones he used a
chromatic.
Martin came very close to issuing "How Do You Do It?" as The
Beatles first single before deciding instead on "Love Me Do",
as a mastered version of it was made ready for release (and
which still exists to this day). 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'."
Martin then decided that as "Love Me Do" was going to be the
group's debut single it needed to be re-recorded as he was
unhappy with the original drum sound (Abbey Road's Ken Townsend
also recalls McCartney being dissatisfied with Starr's timing).
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, in charge for the 11 September re-recording
session, booked Andy White, whom he had used in the past.
Whether this solved the problem is unclear though 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." George Martin
remarked later that he never intended to offend either Best or
Starr by employing a session drummer.
"P.S. I Love You" was recorded first; initially it was a
contender for the A-side but was ruled out as there was another
song with the same title by Peggy Lee. On this Starr was asked
to play the maracas. "Love Me Do" was then recorded with White
playing drums and Starr on tambourine. However, early pressings
of the single are the 4 September version—minus tambourine—with
Starr playing drums. But later pressings of the single, and the
version used for the
Please Please Mealbum, 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."
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, has this as the White session
in which Martin was present, and not 11 September. This
definitely 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
September - 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 for the 11 September
re-make.
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
under rehearsed) 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 in the 11 September session,
after work on "Love Me Do" was complete.
Another inconsistency exists relating to Pete Best’s sacking
from the group. According to Bill Harry, Beatles’ friend and
the creator of
Mersey Beat, George Martin knew immediately that Pete
Best had been fired on 15th August, and not on the 4th
September when Ringo Starr first appeared at the EMI Studios.
Pete Best and his mother, Mona Best, had been joint de facto
managers of The Beatles until Brian Epstein had taken over, and
when hearing of her son being dropped by the group, Mona Best
wanted to know the reason. Unable to contact Brian Epstein, she
telephoned George Martin who apparently told her: "I never
suggested that Pete Best must go. All I said was that for the
purposes of the Beatles’ first record I would rather use a
session man. I never thought that Brian Epstein would let him
go."
No original master tapes of the 4 September version of "Love
Me Do" are known to exist. Standard procedure at Abbey Road
Studios at the time was to erase the original two-track session
tape for
singlesonce 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
45 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 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.
In 1972, Lennon commented,
In 1982, McCartney remarked,
Similarly Starr in 1976 enthused,
On the version released on single,
Raritiesand
Past Masters:
On the version released on single,
Please Please Me,
The Beatles' Hitsand
1:
On the
Anthology 1version:
"Love Me Do" has been covered by (among others):