On This Day

Although there is a lot of music from the 1950s and early '60s that I now listen to all the time - rock and roll, blues, rhythm and blues, girl groups, folk music - very little filtered past the BBC at the time. I used to listen religiously to programmes such as Two-Way Family Favourites, introduced by Jean Metcalfe in London and Bill Crozier in Germany, in the hope of hearing something by the Shadows, or Buddy Holly, or Duane Eddy, the best I could hope for or even knew of - hopes usually dashed by the likes of Jim Reeves or Bert Kaempfert, and I vividly remember hearing Love Me Do for the first time. I even taped it off the radio and played it over and over, amazed that I could actually hear the bass guitar and marvelling at the youthful voices and the harmonica solo. It was fifty years ago today that Love Me Do hit the shops, and even reached no. 17 in the charts, mainly due to Brian Epstein buying up thousands of copies and persuading all the acts on his books that were on tour to buy up copies in the chart-return shops in their area.

George Martin had signed them to EMI after their audition when Pete Best was on drums. Among the songs they played Love Me Do then, but he had been replaced by Ringo when they made their second appearance, a rehearsal session when they again included Love Me Do. He wanted them to recorded a Mitch Murray song called How Do You Do It? for their first single, but they didn't like the idea and deliberately played it rather badly, until he acquiesced to their choice.

Again, he wasn't happy with the drums and when they came in to record the single a week later, he had a session drummer named Andy White on call, and poor Ringo was told to shake a tambourine. Due to a mix up, the original red label pressing of the single, the one I heard on the radio, was the version from the rehearsal session and had Ringo's drums, but all later pressings and on the album Please Please Me, the 'correct' version was used.

The CD single pictured here was released on its 30th anniversary and included the Ringo version as a bonus track. They'd destroyed the master and had to master it from a copy of the vinyl single which I believe was borrowed from the BBC Gramophone Library where I used to work, and may even have been the same copy I heard on the Light Programme one Sunday lunchtime all those years ago.

The enormous waves that the Beatles began to make with this modest song continue to spread across the world even today.

On the same day that Love Me Do was released, a film called Dr No featuring a shady character called James Bond was premiered in London.

L.
5.10.2012

Here is a review of the CD single that I wrote in 2006 for a large online retailer:
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 is 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 début 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 on 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 paper sleeve.

Blip #804
Consecutive Blip #017
Day #926

Lens: Pentax 18-55 mm kit lens (close-up filter +2)


Lozarhythm Of The Day:
The Beatles - Love Me Do (Ringo Version) (recorded 4 September 1962)

One year ago: Treasure Trove #5: Postcard Pinboard