Hans Hot 100 Beatles Songs: #92: ‘Love Me Do’

The countdown so far-

‘Love Me Do’- October 5, 1962 the first single release by The Beatles. It reached #17 in the UK Singles Chart- and got the whole ball rolling. The talk around the campfire has always been that Beatles manager Brian Epstein bought enough copies to get the single on the charts. Released in 1964 in the United States during the crazy Beatlemania days- it went to #1. The song was written mainly by Paul McCartney back when he was sixteen years old. At the time ‘Love Me Do’ was recorded Ringo Starr had just joined the band as their drummer. He plays drums on the version released as a single in the UK. George Martin had been unhappy with the drum sound on the version with Ringo- and brought in session drummer Andy White for a retake of the song and that version is the one on the Please Please Me album.

Here is what Ringo later had to say about the whole affair-

On my first visit in September we just ran through some tracks for George Martin. We even did “Please Please Me”. I remember that, because while we were recording it I was playing the bass drum with a maraca in one hand and a tambourine in the other. I think it’s because of that that George Martin used Andy White, the “professional”, when we went down a week later to record “Love Me Do”. The guy was previously booked, anyway, because of Pete Best. George didn’t want to take any more chances and I was caught in the middle. 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 apologised 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!