Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 6 June, 4 and 11 September 1962
Producers: Ron Richards, George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: (UK), 27 April 1964 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: vocals, harmonica, acoustic rhythm guitar
George Harrison: acoustic rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
Pete Best: drums
Andy White: drums
Available on:
Please Please Me
Past Masters
1
Anthology 1
Live At The BBC
Love Me Do, The Beatles' debut single, was released in the UK on 5 October 1962.
The song was an early Lennon-McCartney composition from 1958, although it wasn't recorded by the group for another four years.
Paul wrote the main structure of this when he was 16, or even earlier. I think I had something to do with the middle.
Lennon spoke again of the song in an interview conducted shortly before his death.
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.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Despite this, McCartney remembers Love Me Do as a joint effort between the two of them, and that it came out of their early songwriting experiments.
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 PS I Love You, and in doing a deal somewhere along the way we were able to get them back.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Although The Beatles started out by performing cover versions, as Lennon and McCartney grew as songwriters they began introducing their own compositions into their live shows.
Introducing our own numbers started round Liverpool and Hamburg. Love Me Do, one of the first ones we wrote, Paul started when he must have been about 15. It was the first one we dared to do of our own. This was quite a traumatic thing because we were doing such great numbers of other people's, of Ray Charles and [Little] Richard and all of them.It was quite hard to come in singing Love Me Do. We thought our numbers were a bit wet. But we gradually broke that down and decided to try them.
Anthology
As well as being their debut single, the band also recorded Love Me Do eight times for the BBC. A version from 10 July 1963, recorded for the Pop Go The Beatles programme, is available on Live At The BBC.
In 1976, Ringo Starr described how Love Me Do was a turning point for the group:
For me that was more important than anything else. That first piece of plastic. You can't believe how great that was. It was so wonderful. We were on a record!
Paul McCartney confirmed that the song was the point at which The Beatles knew they were becoming successful.
In Hamburg we clicked. At the Cavern we clicked. But if you want to know when we 'knew' we'd arrived, it was getting in the charts with Love Me Do. That was the one. It gave us somewhere to go.
Related articles:
- The Beatles' first Abbey Road recording session
- Yellow Submarine In Pepperland
- PS I Love You
- Sea Of Time
- Recording: PS I Love You, Love Me Do, Please Please Me
Who plays drums on Love Me Do on this album? Pete, Ringo or Andy???
Hi Alker. The information is on page two of the article:
It is White's version which appears on the Please Please Me album, though Ringo's drumming can be heard on Past Masters. The recording featuring Pete Best appeared on Anthology 1 in 1995.
I have the 7" demo version of Love Me Do.
I believe this is now quite collectable but have no way of playing it (no turntable).
If I was to sell it what version would I quote? From your details would think Ringo on drums?
The Anthology version contains harmonica so by the time they recorded the Past Masters version and the Please Please Me version - after all those rehearsals and takes - Paul can't possibly still have been nervous, yet he claims he can hear his nerves on the recording.
It's too bad that EMI destroyed the 4 September tapes in which Ringo played drums.
And also it's bad that there's really no stereo version of this song.
Only Duophonic.
And also, all the master tapes we're destroyed :/
I don't think this is paul's viola bass, must be his "prototype" bass with the 3 piano strings...