“Love Me Do” is the Beatles‘ first single, 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 2012, the song entered the public domain in Europe. This was my first encounter with The Beatles, I got the single from an aunt (still have it!). Love Me Do was the best song in the world for me for many years and I still love it!
It was written as early as 1958:
“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.”
– John LennonBut Paul remembers it a bit different:
“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”
– Paul McCartney
It was recorded over three sessions and 15 takes.
Paul McCartney: vocals and bass
John Lennon: vocals, harmonica and acoustic guitar
George Harrison: acoustic guitar
Ringo Starr: drums and tambourine
Pete Best: drums
Andy White: drums
Ringo Starr played drums on 4 September session, George Martin brought in a session drummer, Andy White, for the subsequent recording; Ringo had to play tambourine. Pete Best also played on one version (EMI artist test June 6 1962) that was released on the Anthology 1 set in 1995. 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.
“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 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!”
– Ringo (Anthology)
“First hearing Love Me Do on the radio sent me shivery all over. It was the best buzz of all time. We knew it was going to be on Radio Luxembourg at something like 7.30 on Thursday night. I was in my house in Speke and we all listened in.”
– George Harrison (Anthology)
The Beatles – Love Me Do:
Written in what the group thought of as a ‘bluesy’ style, LOVE ME DO was extraordinarily raw by the standards of its time, standing out from the tame fare offered on the Light Programme and Radio Luxembourg like a bare brick wall in a suburban sitting-room.
~Ian Macdonald (Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties)
Lyrics:
Love, love me do
You know I love you
I’ll always be true
So please, love me do
Whoa, love me doLove, love me do
You know I love you
I’ll always be true
So please, love me do
Oh, love me doSomeone to love
Somebody new
Someone to love
Someone like youLove, love me do
You know I love you
I’ll always be true
So please, love me do
Oh, love me doLove, love me do
You know I love you
I’ll always be true
So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do
Yeah, love me do
Whoa, love me do
–
If one element of the record can be said to have counted above all others it was Lennon’s wailing harmonica. Played with passionate overblowing and no ‘bent’ notes, it had little in common with any of
the American blues styles,1 instead suggesting to British audiences the blunt vitality of working-class
~Ian Macdonald (Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties
–
Check out:
– Hallgeir & Egil
Any 1958 pop song lyrics that aren’t “trite”? McCartney was 16.
Like the harmonica solo, but the lyrics are trite.
oops. “written in ’58”.
I kept hearing this on the radio at the time and liking it and not hanging on to who it was by. I thought the descending harmonies and the empty space between lines were stunning. It’s odd that it was written in 8, though, since it owes a lot, in execution at least, to “Hey Baby” and Roy Orbison’s “Candy Man”.