| Love Me Do |  | Artist: The Beatles
Label: Capitol
Category: Music
List Price: $5.99
Buy New: $5.00
You Save: $0.99 (17%)
New (9) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $3.02
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 417195
Format: Single
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
UPC: 077771594021
EAN: 0077771594021
ASIN: B00000DDSQ
Release Date: October 20, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Love Me Do | | • | P.S. I Love You | | • | Love Me Do [Original Single Version] |
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| Customer Reviews:
Beatles Parlophone debut November 30, 2006
Laurence Upton (Wilts, UK)
Love Me Do was the first single by the Beatles, released in Britain on 5 October 1962 on the Parlophone label. It was also included on the Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me (and the truncated American versions on Vee-Jay and later on Capitol) along with its B-side, PS I Love You. The album is stuffed full of vintage and classic early Beatles and represents better value for money than this single. For new listeners looking to start a Beatle collection, the Please Please Me LP is the place to start. Nevertheless, this obviously of interest as an artifact as it represents their first proper single (some material recorded in Germany when they acted as a backing group for Tony Sheridan had been released), and includes both versions of Love Me Do released at the time.
The song is one of the Beatles' earliest compositions, having been written in 1958 by Paul in Liverpool, with a few minor suggestions from John. A million miles from later complex pieces like A Day In The Life, it was nevertheless a fresh and uncompromising sounding debut that stood out against the bland fare on offer on British radio at the time. Distinguished by a harmonica solo from John Lennon (at the suggestion of George Martin, and influenced by Bruce Channel's recent hit Hey Baby), the single received one of its earliest plays on the BBC Light Entertainment's forces radio request show Two-Way Family Favourites, introduced by Jean Metcalfe. The harmonies sounded distinctive and the sound jumped out of the vibrating radio loudspeaker, and made a big impact on young listeners such as myself.
It was unusual then on a pop single to hear the bass guitar so prominently as it punctuated the drums and percussion. When it entered the British charts the following week, helped by some not entirely ethical multiple orders placed by record store owner and Beatle manager Brian Epstein, for many listeners it clearly registered a sea change. It can be seen as the birth on record of the Liverpool Sound and was quickly followed by a wave of other bands such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Big Three, the Fourmost, the Merseybeats and Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, quickly signed by record companies seeking to capitalize on a new phenomenon, and had an influence far beyond its chart placing.
It was released in Canada by Capitol on 4 February 1963, but not in America until 27th April 1964, when the tiny Tollie label put it out. By this time Beatlemania was in full swing, following several other hit single releases, and it reached number one, displacing Mary Wells' My Guy from the top position.
The Beatles originally recorded this song when Pete Best was with the band at their EMI audition on 6th June 1962. Ringo played drums on the 4th September session, which was essentially a rehearsal session. George Martin delegated Ron Richards to bring in Andy White for the sessions proper for the single on 11th September and relegated Ringo to tambourine. Ringo never forgave him for this.
Due to an error the original red label Parlophone pressing of the single featured the earlier version with Ringo on drums (as heard on the Capitol album Rarities and on the Past Masters 1 CD, and included here as track 3), but was replaced on subsequent black label pressings and worldwide single releases, and also on the album Please Please Me, with the 11th September Andy White version. Ringo, of course, featured on all nine subsequent BBC radio versions, one of which for Pop Go The Beatles is on the Live At The BBC 2CD.
This CD re-issue of the original single features the 11th September 1962 version backed with P.S. I Love You. This was recorded the same day, with Andy White on drums and Ringo this time on maracas. Written by Paul in 1961, the song was dedicated to his then girlfriend Dot Rhone. Both these tracks were recorded and mixed in mono, as they are presented here. The original stereo LP version of Please Please Me in the UK used re-processed stereo mixes of these two tracks.
The picture sleeve was newly created for this re-release as the single originally had the standard Parlophone plain green paper sleeve.
The 4th September version has had to be mastered from a collector's vinyl copy as the demo session tapes are not in the EMI archives (a less pristine archive copy had to be used for the earlier Rarities album).
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