Video will appear as you scroll through the story
The Beatles · S4 E6
Love Me Do
October 5, 1962. The first single. Harmonica, a simple melody, and the sound of four young men who are about to change everything. It reaches number seventeen
September 4, 1962. John, Paul, George, and Ringo set up in Studio Two at Abbey Road as the lineup the world will know, and George Martin presses record.
The Beatles, Love Me Do (1962). The first single. A harmonica, a simple melody, and four young men who have survived Hamburg, a sweaty cellar, a Decca rejection, and a drummer change to get to this exact moment.
Love Me Do, The Beatles (1962)
John and Paul wrote 'Love Me Do' around 1958, making it one of the oldest songs in their catalog by the time they finally recorded it. John's harmonica carries the track: he picked up the technique from blues musician Delbert McClinton after sharing a bill at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom earlier that year. The single was recorded twice: on September 4 with Ringo on drums, and again on September 11 with session drummer Andy White because Martin didn't yet trust the new drummer's timing. The September 4 version, with Ringo, became the UK single.
Sources
Lewisohn, Mark. "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions." Hamlyn, 1988/2018.
Lewisohn, Mark. "Tune In." Crown Archetype, 2013.
“I thought 'How Do You Do It' was a surefire hit. But they said, no, we want to record our own songs. I admired their nerve.”
— George Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 1979
TAP TO REVEAL: What song did George Martin originally want as the Beatles' first single?
Number Seventeen
'Love Me Do' is released on October 5, 1962, on Parlophone, a label best known for comedy records. The Beatles hear it on Radio Luxembourg for the first time while driving back from a gig, and they pull the van over to listen. It enters the charts at number 49 and slowly climbs to number 17: modest by the standards of what comes next, but high enough to prove that a second single is worth the risk.
Sources
The Beatles. "The Beatles Anthology." Chronicle Books, 2000.
Lewisohn, Mark. "Tune In." Crown Archetype, 2013.
EMI Studios (Abbey Road), 3 Abbey Road, London
The studio where the Beatles recorded 'Love Me Do' on September 4, 1962, beginning a partnership with a building that would last their entire career. It was renamed Abbey Road Studios in 1970 after the Beatles made the address the most famous in recording history.
P.S. I Love You, The Beatles (1962)
The B-side of 'Love Me Do,' recorded in the same session. Paul sings lead on a song the pair wrote as teenagers, inspired by the old tradition of signing off letters with a postscript. It's softer and sweeter than the A-side, a gentle ballad that showed George Martin the Beatles could do more than rock and roll.
P.S. I Love You, The Beatles (1962)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Every great debut single has a B-side that nobody talks about. This is Paul at his most romantic, writing the kind of song that made teenage girls in Liverpool decide the Beatles were worth skipping lunch for.
On the version of 'Love Me Do' released as the Beatles' first UK single, who played drums?
'Love Me Do' cracks the top twenty, and George Martin tells Epstein to bring the band back. On November 26, 1962, John, Paul, George, and Ringo walk into Abbey Road and record a song that will change everything: 'Please Please Me.'
0 XP earned this session