The Beatles Song of the Day is “Love Me Do.” “Love Me Do” was first released as a single by The Beatles on October 5th, 1962- it was the first single The Beatles ever released and it reached #17 on the charts in the United Kingdom. The B-Side was “P.S. I Love You” “Love Me Do” would be the first song on side 2 of the “Please Please Me” album. The song was one of the first written by a 16-year old Paul McCartney on a day he was skipping school. He was unable to finish it and showed it to John who may have helped him finish it. Paul McCartney: vocal and bass guitar/ John Lennon: vocal, harmonica, rhythm guitar/ George Harrison: acoustic rhythm guitar, backing vocal/ Ringo Starr: drums on version 1/ Andy White: drums on version 2. Recorded at Abbey Studio. Producer: George Martin.

Rating of the song 1 to 5 stars ****

• There are two versions of “Love Me Do.” The first was on September 4th,1962 with Ringo on the drums. George Martin was satisfied with this take but he wasn’t happy with Ringo’s performance. This would be the version that was released as a single. The second version- was recorded a week later, September 11th, 1962 with session drummer Andy White replacing Ringo. This would be the version that went on the album. Ringo was crushed when they brought in Andy White to take his place. The other Beatles weren’t happy about a session drummer being used either and insisted on the version with Ringo be the one released as the single.
• The song is dominated by John’s harmonica playing. That to me is the most memorable thing about the song. John’s harmonica playing was influenced by Delbert McClinton’s harmonica playing on Bruce Channel’s hit “Hey, Baby” Earlier in 1962 The Beatles had opened a few shows for Bruce Channel and John got to talk with McClinton about his harmonica playing and they hung out together a bit. John played harmonica on nine Beatles songs.
• The song’s length is 2:19.
• In Rolling Stone Magazine’s The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs- “Love Me Do” is #87. In “100 Best Beatles Songs” by Spignesi and Lewis- it is #98. I do not think “Love Me Do” has aged very well. I always try to think of how it would have sounded to ears at the time it was released though, compared to most of the crap that was popular at that time, “Love Me Do” had to have sounded revolutionary. It is though overshadowed by the great songs that were to come. The fact that “Love Me Do” ranks so low in both Top 100 lists- tell you something about how many great songs The Beatles had done.
• “Love Me Do” is Donovan’s favourite Beatles song.
• The original title of the song was “Love, Love Me Do” but shortened to “Love Me Do”
• “Love Me Do” is mentioned in my favourite Bad Company song “Shooting Star” -“Johnny was a school boy when he heard his first Beatles song, “Love Me Do” I think it was…”
• The word “LOVE” is mentioned twenty-five times.
• It was said that Beatles manager Brian Epstein ordered 10,000 copies for his record store the first week to get the record moving up the charts!
• When the song came out Beatles fans who were used to seeing them play the song at The Cavern felt it didn’t have the energy of the live performance. They also didn’t like it that the arrangement had been played with. George Martin had changed the solo vocal line crossing into the harmonica break- Paul sang it instead of John as they had been doing in their live shows.
• “Love Me Do” when it was released in 1964 in America during the height of Beatlemania would shoot to #1 on the Billboard Pop chart.
• Paul would years later say that “Love Me Do” was The Beatles greatest philosophical song- that it was simple and true.
• George Martin at this time would write that he was convinced that he had a hit group on his hands but he wasn’t all that impressed with “Love Me Do” He just knew there were better things ahead for the boys.

“Love Me Do” {Lennon-McCartney}