The Beatles’ producer George Martin wanted ‘How Do You Do It’ to be The Beatles’ debut single. They reluctantly recorded it, but eventually convinced Martin to release ‘Love Me Do’ instead.
It was common in those days to find material for artists by going to Tin Pan Alley and listening to the publishers’ wares. That was a regular part of my life: I spent a lot of time looking for songs, and what I wanted for The Beatles was a hit. I was convinced that ‘How Do You Do It’ was a hit song. Not a great piece of songwriting, not the most marvellous song I had ever heard in my life, but I thought it had that essential ingredient which would appeal to a lot of people.
Anthology
‘How Do You Do It’ was by Mitch Murray, a budding English songwriter. Martin’s deputy Ron Richards first heard the demo, and suggested that an up-tempo version would be a chart success.
‘How Do You Do It’ was brought into my office by the man who wrote it, Mitch Murray, along with Barry Mason, later to write a number of hits himself. They offered me first option on the recording and played me Mitch’s demonstration acetate. I liked it so much that I immediately called Dick James, the singer turned music publisher, and he signed the song up straightaway. But the acetate stayed in my desk for a long time after that. We didn’t know who to give it to. Much later, when George was pondering about The Beatles’ first record, I played him Mitch’s acetate. He felt that it would be ideal for them and sent a copy to Liverpool right away so that they could learn their parts.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
At the time, Martin was unconvinced by the quality of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s own songwriting, just as he was unsure of Ringo Starr’s drumming. Having taken a chance by agreeing to release a Beatles single, he was under an obligation as an EMI producer to ensure it sold well.
He knew it was a number one hit so he gave us it on a demo, a little white acetate. We took it back to Liverpool and said, ‘What are we gonna do with this? This is what he wants us to do, he’s our producer, we’ll have to do it, we’ll have to learn it.’ So we did, but we didn’t like it and we came back to George and said, ‘Well it may be a number one but we just don’t want this kind of song, we don’t want to go out with that kind of reputation. It’s a different thing we’re going for, it’s something new’. I suppose we were quite forceful really, for people in our position. And he understood. George later took our demo and played it to Gerry [and the Pacemakers] and said, ‘They don’t want it, it’s a major hit, you do it,’ and Gerry leapt at the chance. He kept it very similar in tempo to our version which was quite changed from the original demo because it was our arrangement, basically.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
The Beatles knew that their credibility as musicians, particularly in Liverpool, would be adversely affected by such a breezy pop song, and persuaded George Martin to release ‘Love Me Do’ instead of ‘How Do You Do It’. Martin still considered releasing the song as the follow-up to ‘Love Me Do’, convinced of its potential.
In the first year, I had the final decision on songs, but they persuaded me to let them have their own songs on both sides of their first single. I was still thinking that we should release their recording of ‘How Do You Do It’. They said, ‘Couldn’t we do one of our own, ‘Please Please Me’?’
Anthology
‘How Do You Do It’ was eventually released by Gerry and the Pacemakers in March 1963. The group’s debut single, it topped the UK singles charts for three weeks, before being deposed by The Beatles’ ‘From Me To You’.
The Beatles’ version surfaced on bootlegs in the 1970s, and was eventually released in 1995 on Anthology 1.
At least there was some credibility in the fact it [‘Love Me Do’] was a bluesy song rather than ‘How Do You Do It’. So that was it, we were started and our credibility as songwriters had started then.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
In the studio
Although The Beatles diligently recorded ‘How Do You Do It’ on 4 September 1962, they didn’t put too much effort into it. It was dashed off quickly at the start of the session, in order to spend more time on ‘Love Me Do’.
The session began at 7pm, following a studio rehearsal between 2.30 and 5.30pm. In that time they practised six songs, including ‘How Do You Do It’.
John took the lead. They didn’t like doing it, but we made a good record.
It is unknown how many takes were recorded, but a mono mix was made later that evening, from take two. George Martin made acetates of this and ‘Love Me Do’, so that he and Brian Epstein could decide the next day which song should be The Beatles’ debut.
Lyrics
How do you do what you do to me?
I wish I knew
If I knew how you do it to me
I’d do it to you
How do you do what you do to me?
I’m feeling blue
Wish I knew how you do it to me
But I haven’t a clue
You give me a feeling in my heart, ooh la la
Like an arrow passing through it
I suppose that you think you’re very smart
But won’t you tell me how do you do it?
How do you do what you do to me?
I wish I knew
If I knew how you do it to me
I’d do it to you
You give me a feeling in my heart, ooh la la
Like an arrow passing through it
I suppose that you think you’re very smart
But won’t you tell me how do you do it?
How do you do what you do to me?
I wish I knew
Wish I knew how you do it to me
But I haven’t a clue
Wish I knew how you do it to me
I’d do it to you
Wish I knew how you do it to me
I’d do it to you
The recording of “How Do You Do It” is a testament to how professional The Beatles were even at this early stage in their career. They didn’t like the song (with good reason) and yet they did a fantastic job recording what would easily have been their first #1 hit single as surely as it was for Gerry & The Pacemakers. Their version is naturally superior to the Pacemakers’…
I’d have to agree. Even though they didn’t care for it, I think the Beatles’ version is much better than Gerry and The Pacemakers’ version. Gerry’s version sounds a little forced & rushed to my ears.
Personally, I would refer to “forced & rushed” as “energetic”, something the Beatles version is sorely lacking. They didn’t want to do the song and it shows. (I really like Gerry Marsden’s version).
Is Ringo or Alan on the drums? I Am not sure
That’s Ringo from September 4th 1962. Andy was only on the session a week later.
One of their finest early songs. It should have been a single.
John’s voice is surperb on this song and gives an enthusiastic performance!
This is a great song that should have been released years ago. Breezy pop song? They released Hello, Goodbye & Maxwell’s Silver Hammer which although very good songs, much more trite than How Do You Do It. What were the Beatles thinking?
At the time The Beatles were trying to push their own songs, their “brand.” pretty brazen for an almost unheard of group. They could have fallen flat on their faces and never been heard of again. It took guts (and the guidance of George Martin) to make it work. And did it ever!
Duder, this was 1962 before they ever released anything
I love the Beatles and have so much respect for them but Love Me Do is no better a song. Just as much breezy , trite , pop.
Love Me Do may not be the greatest of songs, but it’s certainly not ‘breezy’. As Paul said, LMD has a blues base, which makes it wholly different from HDYDI. Now, the Beatles did put out a few singles that could be called breezy, but they generally tried to stay away from the ultralight stuff, even the ones they wrote themselves. Example- They gave away World Without Love because they thought it was too breezy and corny.
It just seems that way now. Back then, Love Me Do sounded pretty tough.
I Have a 7 inch demo acetate of “love me do” on a white label typed with group name being “THE BEETLES”. It’s a 45rpm mono no year or other details except timing. I bought it from a London dj who bought it from a reputable London record store which said it had come from a customer in Liverpool who found it in a Liverpool pub. Which pub I don’t know, if story genuine I don’t know either. Trying to find some light on the matter.
Hi, I know it’s 6yrs later if you get this message but I also bought a 7″ mono acetate with a typed beetles label on of “How do you do it” from a London dj bbc who had bought this from a reputable dealer in soho who had received it from the pub in Liverpool. Now either these are ripoff bootlegs or coincidence. I can’t find anything anywhere that describes these as a bootleg and have been looking for 6yrs or so and found no info. Another coincidence my name is Peter!
Had the Beatles released “How Do You Do It” as their debut single, it surely would have gone to number 1, but the fact that they didn’t write it and it wasn’t their style may have adversely influenced their reception on subsequent releases. Of course, we’ll never know, but the fact that they were a self contained unit of writing, singing and playing their A-sides might have been tarnished by that one song. Gerry & the Pacemakers dispensed with the “Ooh la la” backup vocals. Otherwise it’s the same arrangement.
Gerry’s version is “rockier” than either Murray’s demo or the Beatles’ version. Slightly faster tempo and more strident rhythm guitar playing. Gerry sings it in a stronger voice than either of the other two as well.
Actually, Jim, if you listen more closely, the arrangements are quite different in a striking number of ways besides the ooh-la-las, and I actually feel like the Pacemakers’ version wins out overall . First, the intros are completely different (not necessarily for the better in the P’s version). Second, the P’s version has no harmony vocal in the verse (though Paul’s harmony is pretty standard). There are several differences in the bridge (the song doesn’t really have a chorus). On the B’s version, Ringo plays it with a “Latin tinge”, and George plays “obligato” licks (both very nice touches). Then the aforementioned ooh-la-las (making it even more cheesy in order to kill it?). And, of course, John’s signature growl (the one non-bland aspect in the entire arrangement). But the P’s add syncopated alternating chords, both in the middle and at the end, and two extra measures, for a very nice effect. Moving on, you have the funky piano solo vs. George’s very weak guitar solo (another point for the P’s). In the final verse, the B’s simply repeat the lyrics from the first verse, while the P’s switch it to “If I only knew”, with the accent on “ONly”, and “Then perhaps you’d fall for me like I fell for you” (both nice variations), with a chord substitution on “you” along with syncopated accents. This leads nicely into another lyrical variation (“when I do it to you”), and a strong, clean finish reprising the alternating chords from the bridge (as opposed to the weak repeating lines and abrupt da-da-da in the B’s version).
All that said, I still love the Beatles version, and it certainly had the makings of a hit, had it been released. But while I understand their resistance to having their first single be a cover, I think the cheesiness factor doesn’t hold up, considering some of the cheesy songs they wrote themselves not long after, From Me to You being a great example.
The Beatles may have done a professional job with How Do You Do It, but it does not sound like a Beatles song. It lacks energy, which I believe was done deliberately by the boys to dissuade George Martin releasing the song. As others have noted above, Gerry Marsden rocks the song like he wanted to actually record it without having his hand twisted behind his back. History shows that the Beatles and the Pacemakers both made the correct decision with the song. I wonder how many hit songs Mitch Murray wrote?
The first bootleg I bought (in the mid ’80s) was a 7″ 45 rpm single on red transparent vinyl with How Do You Do It? on one side and the promo film version of Revolution (with the live ‘shoo be doo wop’ vocals) on the other. Until then, the only thing I’d heard about the song was that Martin had wanted them to record it but they refused. It was a nice find!
Just heard it on a oldies radio station where i live in Spain, could’nt for the life of me get the vocals. So the web was contacted!, well!, blow me down with a hair dryer and put me in curlers, ‘THE BEATLES’. Good vocals but blatently no enthusiasm. Glad they stuck to thier guns. The rest as they say……………
When I hear the Anthology version, I’m glad the Beatles released Please Please Me instead. How Do You Do It could have been suitable for a B-side or an album filler.
For years I thought this song was a Beatle song that was used to kick-start all those Liverpudlian groups like Gerry’s (such as the Merseybeats, the Fourmost, Cilla, etc). Ah well…
Mitch murray was ahead of his time when you consider that he could not have been influenced by the mersey sound when he wrote How do you do it!
And yet the song was very merseyish in sound..
It is now well known from Mark Lewisohn’s book, All These Years, from 2013 that George Martin had nothing to do with this song not being released, and that he let the Beatles believe that they talked him out of recording it in favour of one of their own songs. In the week between their recording sessions on 4 September 1962 and 11 September 1962, both Mitch Murray and Sid Coleman from Ardmore & Beechwood, who were publishing the single, put an end to it. Murray thought the Beatles version was a “piss take” and Coleman didn’t like it. Martin was told that the Beatles first single had to have Lennon-McCartney songs, and that is what happened. Not his decision, nor was signing the Beatles to Parlophone in the first place. Time to stop perpetuating the myths.
Exactly, Richard. You’re the first to put it in its proper perspective.