Love Me Do



Love Me Do is the Beatles first ever single, backed by "P.S. I Love You" and released on October 5, 1962. When the single was originally released in the United Kingdom, it peaked at number seventeen; in 1982 it was re-issued and reached number four. In the United States the single was a number one hit in 1964.

Composition and Recordings
The song is an early Lennon-McCartney song, principally written by Paul McCartney in 1958-1959 while playing truant from school at age 16. John Lennon wrote the middle eight. Love Me Do is intrinsically a song based around two simple chords: G7 and C, before moving to D for its middle eight. It first profiles Lennon playing a bluesy dry "dockside harmonica" riff, then features Lennon and McCartney on joint lead vocals, including Everly Brothers style harmonizing 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 realized that the harmonica part enroached the vocal (Lennon needed to begin playing the harmonica again on the same beat as the "do" of "love me do" although, according to Ian MacDonald, for the earlier June 6 audition the harmonica was overdubbed, allowing Lennon to sing the phrase unhindered). This is illustrative of the time constraints on this particular session - their first recording session proper; as for instance, 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 Macdonald as "standing out like a bare brick wall in a surburban sitting-room", "Love Me Do" with its stark "blunt working class northerness" rang "the first 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:


 * The Beatles first recorded it on June 6, 1962 with Pete Best on drums, as part of their audition at EMI Studios at 3 Abbey Road in London. The version (previously thought be lost) is available on Anthology 1.


 * By September 4, Best had been replaced with Ringo Starr (producer George Martin did not approve of Best's drumming; the decision to fire Best was not his, however), and on that day the Beatles with Starr recorded a version again at EMI Studios.


 * One week later, on September, the Beatles returned to the same studio and they made a recording of "Love Me Do" with session drummer Andy White on drums, as Martin was unhappy with Starr's performance on September 4 and he was relegated to play tambourine. As the tambourine was not included on the September 4 recording, this is as easiest way to distinguish between Starr and White recordings.

First issues of the single, however, did feature the Ringo Starr version, prompting Mark Lewishon to later write: "Clearly, the September 11 version was not regarded as having been a significant improvemant after all". It was also included on the compilation albums Rarities (American verison) and Part Masters, Volume One. The Andy White version of the track was included on the Beatles debut UK album, Please Please Me, The Beatles' Hit EP, and all subsequent 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 October 2, 1992 contains both versions. The Pete Best verison remained unreleased until 1995, when it was included on the Anthology 1 album.

"Love Me Do", featuring Starr drumming, was also recorded eight times at the BBC and played at the BBC radio programs Here We Go, Talent Spot, Saturday Club, Side by Side, Pop Goes the Beatles and Easy Beat between October 1962 and October 1963. The version of "Love Me Do" recorded on July 10, 1963 at the BBC and broadcast on the July 23, 1963 Pop Goes the Beatles program can be heard on the Beatles album Live at the BBC. The Beatles also performed the song live on the February 20, 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 their 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 majority of the song in the same vocal style he used for the song "Lady Madonna".

First recording session and use of harmonica
On 4 September 1962, Brian Epstein paid for the Beatles, along with their new drummer, Ringo Starr, 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 song writing 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 the 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 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".

The Beatles were keen to record their own material, something which was almost unheard of at the time, and it is generally accepted that is to George Martin's credit that they were allowed to float their ideas in the first distance. 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 them - 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 September 4 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 June 6 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 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 on June 6 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: "Besame Mucho"; "Love Me Do"; "P.S. I Love You" and "Ask Me Why", of which only "Besame Mucho" and "Love Me Do" survive and appear on Anthology 1). Brian Epstein had also booke American Bruce Channel to top a NEMS enterprise promotion at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom, in Wallasey on June 21, 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 I. Fields "I Remember You" ands its harmonica intro, a huge member one hit in the U.K. 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.

Martin came very close to issuing "How Do You It?" as the Beatles' first single (it would also re-appear as a contender for their secong single) before settling instead on "Love Me Do", as a mastered version of it was made ready for release and which still exist in EMI's archives. Martin commented later: "I looked very hard ar '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 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 September 4 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 the time were used to hearing the bass drum "lock in" with the bass guitar as opposed to 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 September 11 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 dissapointed 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 lovely - always easy going". Starr recalled: "He has apologized several times since, has old George, but it was devastating - I hated the bugger for years; I still don't let him off the hook!" "Love Me Do" was recorded with White playing drums and Starr playing the 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 are the September 4 version- minus the tambourine- with Starr playing the drums. But later pressings of the single, and the version used for the Please Please Me album, are the 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 wouldn't think it would do anything."

Ron Richards
There are major discrepancies regarding the White sessions, and who produced it. In his book Summer of Love, Martin concedes that his version of events differs from some accounts, saying: "On the June 6 Beatles' session (audition) I decided the Pete best had to go [and said to Epstein] I don't care what you do with Pete Best; buy he's not playing on anymore recording sessions: I'm getting a session drummer in."[35] 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."[35] Martin, therefore, appears to have this as the Andy 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[13] and White for the 11 September re-make.[29] 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."[35] But, if Lewisohn's account is correct and "the 4 September session really hadn't proved good enough to satisfy George Martin"[29] it might seem odd that Martin was not then present to oversee 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.[36] Emerick places White firmly at the second session, and describes the reactions of Mal Evans and Starr to the substitution.[37] Emerick also noted that Martin only came in very late in the 11 September session, after work on "Love Me Do" was complete.

Miscellaneous
Another inconsistency exists relating to Pete Best’s sacking from the group. According to Bill Harry, (Beatles’ friend and the creator of Mersey Beat), and George Martin knew immediately that Pete Best had been fired on August 15, and not on September 4 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 was 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 would rather use a session man. I never thought that Brian Epstein would let him go”.

In his 2005 biography of the group, Bob Spitz wrote that Epstein tried to help make a Love Me Do hit in England by buying thousands of copies of the single for his Liverpool record store. This story had been told previously in several other Beatles-related books, but is not verified. Lennon specifically denied the allegation on the 1969 Pop Chronicles documentary and during an interview clip on the 2009 documentary The Beatles: On Record.

There are only two Lennon & McCartney songs that John Lennon’s estate and Paul McCartney wholly own: “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You”. This is because until Dick James had set up their own publishing company, Northern Songs, EMI had placed the Beatles’ first two (released) recordings with their own in-house publishers, Ardmore and Beechwood. Brian Epstein however, was dissatisfied with the lack of promotion EMI gave the single, and through George Martin (who later declined an offer by James, whom Martin had once produced. Later, McCartney was able to buy back ownership of these two titles which have always remained separate from Lennon & McCartney’s main catalogue of material.


 * 1) 1 on US charts (May 30 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 April 27 1964 it was released in the US by Vee-Jay Records on the Tollie label with White on drums.

Missing master tape
Amazingly, no original master tapes of the September 4 version of Love Me Do are known to exist. Standard procedure at Abbey Road at the time was to erase the original two-track session tape once it had been "mixed down" to the (usually monaural) master tape used to press records. This was the fate of the session tape for Love Me Do as well as several other early Beatles songs from 1962–63. 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 recorded copies to exist were the red-label Parlophone 45 rpm vinyl records pressed in 1962 from the now-nonexistent master tapes.

(It should be noted that by the time the tapes disappeared, the song's September 11, 1962 remake featuring Andy White had been released. To be fair, EMI couldn't have been too concerned about this calamity. The September 4 take, after all, was now considered obsolete and they probably didn't expect to ever have 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 album 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.

Instrumentation
On the version released on British single, Rarities and Past Masters:


 * Paul McCartney: joint lead vocal, bass guitar
 * John Lennon: joint lead vocal, harmonica, rhythm guitar
 * George Harrison: acoustic guitar
 * Ringo Starr: drums

On the version released on the American single, Please Please Me, The Beatles Hits and 1:


 * Paul McCartney: joint lead vocal, bass guitar
 * John Lennon: joint lead vocal, harmonica, rhythm guitar?
 * George Harrison: acoustic guitar
 * Ringo Starr: tambourine
 * Andy White: drums

On the Anthology 1 version:


 * Paul McCartney: joint lead vocal, bass guitar
 * John Lennon: joint lead vocal, harmonica, rhythm guitar?
 * George Harrison: acoustic guitar
 * Pete Best: drums

Recording and mixing details

 * June 6, 1962: an unknown number of takes recorded for what was most likely and artist test.
 * September 4 1962: 15 takes recorded. Mono mixing of the song from an unknown take number.

Cover versions
"Love Me Do" has been covered by:
 * 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
 * Ringo Starr on his 1998 album Vertical Man
 * Flaco Jiménez on his 2000 album Sleepytown
 * Madooo on his 2002 album This Day Is Forever
 * The Persuasions on their 2002 album,
 * Emmerson Nogueira on his 2004 album, Beatles
 * David Bowie covered "Love Me Do" in some of his Ziggy Stardust tours.
 * Ol' Dirty Bastard briefly sang the chorus in the documentary Dirty Minded.
 * The Skatalites performed an instrumental version of this song.
 * Stevie Wonder performed the harmonica solo before presenting Paul McCartney at the 54th Grammy Awards.