Beatles The Love You Make Lyrics
Roman Bayramdurdiyev
"Love Me Do" is the debut single by the English rock band the Beatles, backed by "P.S. I Love You". When the single was originally released in the United Kingdom on 5 October 1962, it peaked at number 17. It was released in the United States in 1964 and topped the nation's song chart. Re-released in 1982 as part of EMI's Beatles 20th anniversary, it re-entered the UK charts and peaked at number 4.[5] "Love Me Do" also topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand.
The song was written several years before being recorded, and prior to the existence of the Beatles. It features John Lennon's prominent harmonica playing and duet vocals by him and Paul McCartney. Three recorded versions of the song by the Beatles have been released, each with a different drummer. The first attempted recording from June 1962 featured Pete Best on drums, but was not officially released until the Anthology 1 compilation in 1995. A second version was recorded three months later with Best's replacement Ringo Starr, and this was used for the original Parlophone single first pressing. A third version, featuring session drummer Andy White in place of Starr, was used for the second pressing and also included on the band's Please Please Me album and on the 1964 Tollie single in the US. It was also included on the American LPs Introducing... The Beatles and The Early Beatles.
"Love Me Do" was completely co-written ... It was just Lennon and McCartney sitting down without either of us having a particularly original idea. We loved doing it, it was a very interesting thing to try and learn to do, to become songwriters. I think why we eventually got so strong was we wrote so much through our formative period. "Love Me Do" was our first hit, which ironically is one of the two songs that we control, because when we first signed to EMI they had a music publishing company called Ardmore and Beechwood which took the two songs, "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You", and in doing a deal somewhere along the way we were able to get them back.[7]
Lennon had previously sung the title sections, but this change in arrangement was made in the studio under the direction of producer George Martin when he realised that the harmonica part encroached on the vocal. Lennon needed to begin playing the harmonica again on the same beat as the "do" of "love me do".[11] However, when a similar situation later occurred on the "Please Please Me" single session the harmonica was superimposed afterwards using tape-to-tape overdubbing.[12]
Described by Ian MacDonald as "standing out like a bare brick wall in a suburban sitting-room, 'Love Me Do', [with its] blunt working class northerness, rang the first faint chime of a revolutionary bell" compared to the standard Tin Pan Alley productions occupying the charts at the time.[13]
First issues of the single, released on Parlophone in the UK on 5 October 1962, featured the Ringo Starr version, prompting Mark Lewisohn to later write: "Clearly, the 11 September version was not regarded as having been a significant improvement after all".[17]
Capitol Records Canada pressed 170 singles which were released on 4 February 1963 with catalogue number 72076.[19] This pressing was dubbed from the original UK single and featured Starr on drums.[20]
In 1969, during the Get Back sessions, The Beatles played the song in a slower, more bluesy form than they had in earlier recordings. This version of "Love Me Do" is one of many recordings made during these sessions and subsequently appeared on some bootlegs. The song featured no harmonica by Lennon, and McCartney sang the majority of the song in the same vocal style he used for "Lady Madonna".[citation needed]
In 1989, McCartney blended the two songs from the Beatles' first single into a medley called "P.S. Love Me Do" for some dates of his 1989/90 World Tour. A little-known studio version of the medley first became available on a Special Package (1990 Japanese tour edition) of his solo album Flowers in the Dirt. The song became more widely known when a live version was released as a bonus track on the 12-inch single and CD single of "Birthday" from the double live album Tripping the Live Fantastic. Music videos for both "Birthday" and "P.S. Love Me Do" were released.
The Beatles' first recording session under contract to EMI was on 6 June 1962.[14] They first attempted "Love Me Do", as well as three other songs, at this session.[14] George Martin, originally absent from the session, arrived during the recording of "Love Me Do" and altered the arrangement so that McCartney sang the words "love me do" instead of Lennon, enabling Lennon to play the harmonica starting on the word "do". McCartney recalled:
George Martin said, "Wait a minute, there's a crossover there. Someone else has got to sing 'love me do' because you're going to have a song called Love Me Waahhh. So, Paul, will you sing 'love me do'? God, I got the screaming heebie-jeebies. ... I can still hear the shake in my voice when I listen to it.[22]
This version of "Love Me Do" also featured a change in drum rhythm during the middle-eight, moving to a skip beat that Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn deemed "disastrous". Both Martin and Ron Richards agreed that Pete Best's drumming was unsuitable for future recording.[23]
Lennon had learned to play a chromatic harmonica that his Uncle George (late husband of his Aunt Mimi) had given to him as a child. But the instrument being used at this time was one stolen by Lennon from a music shop in Arnhem, the Netherlands, in 1960, as the Beatles first journeyed to Hamburg by road.[33][32][34] Lennon would have had this with him at the EMI audition on 6 June as Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby", with its harmonica intro, and a hit in the UK in March 1962, was one of the thirty-three songs the Beatles had prepared (although only four were recorded: "Bsame Mucho"; "Love Me Do"; "P.S. I Love You" and "Ask Me Why", of which only "Bsame Mucho" and "Love Me Do" survive and appear on Anthology 1). Brian Epstein had also booked the American Bruce Channel to top a NEMS Enterprises promotion at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom, in Wallasey on 21 June 1962, just a few weeks after "Hey! Baby" had charted, and placed the Beatles a prestigious second on the bill. Lennon was so impressed that night with Channel's harmonica player, Delbert McClinton,[35] that he later approached him for advice on how to play the instrument.[36] Lennon makes reference also to Frank Ifield's "I Remember You" and its harmonica intro, a huge number one hit in the UK July 1962, saying: "The gimmick was the harmonica. There was a terrible thing called "I Remember You", and we did those numbers; and we started using it on "Love Me Do" just for arrangements".[37] The harmonica was to become a feature of the Beatles' early hits such as "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You" as well as various album tracks. Paul McCartney recalled, "John expected to be in jail one day and he'd be the guy who played the harmonica."[9]
Martin then decided that as "Love Me Do" was going to be the group's debut release it needed to be re-recorded with a different drummer as he was unhappy with the 4 September drum sound[41] (Abbey Road's Ken Townsend also recalls McCartney being dissatisfied with Starr's timing, due probably to his being under-rehearsed; Starr had joined the group only two weeks before the 4 September session).[42] Record producers at that time were used to hearing the bass drum "lock in" with the bass guitar as opposed to the much looser R&B feel that was just beginning to emerge, and so professional show band drummers were often used for recordings.
Paul McCartney: "George got his way and Ringo didn't drum on the first single. He only played tambourine. I don't think Ringo ever got over that. He had to go back up to Liverpool and everyone asked, 'How did it go in the Smoke?' We'd say, 'B-side's good,' but Ringo couldn't admit to liking the A-side, not being on it" (from Anthology). "Love Me Do" was recorded with White playing drums and Starr on tambourine, but whether using a session drummer solved the problem is unclear, as session engineer Norman Smith was to comment: "It was a real headache trying to get a [good] drum sound, and when you listen to the record now you can hardly hear the drums at all."[44] Ringo Starr's version was mixed "bottom-light" to hide Starr's bass drum.[45]
In his memoirs, assistant engineer Geoff Emerick supports the Lewisohn version, recounting that Starr played drums at the 4 September session (Emerick's second day at EMI) and that Martin, Smith, and McCartney were all dissatisfied with (the underrehearsed) Starr's timekeeping.[48] Emerick places White firmly at the second session, and describes the reactions of Mal Evans and Starr to the substitution.[49] Emerick also noted that Martin only came in very late for the 11 September session, after work on "Love Me Do" was complete.[49]
Andy White confirms that he was booked by Ron Richards for the 11 September session, not by George Martin, who he says "could not make the session, could not get there till the end, so he had Ron Richards handle it". White also says that he recognises his own drumming on the released version of "Please Please Me", recorded that same session with him on drums.[50]
"Love Me Do" was released on 5 October 1962, and reached no. 17 in the UK charts in November, to the surprise of Martin, who doubted the song's commercial appeal.[51] After the Beatles became famous, it was released in other countries. In Australia, it was released in 1964, and reached no. 1 on 14 February that year.[52] It reached no. 1 in New Zealand on 4 June 1964. At first, US copies of "Love Me Do" were imported from Canada, which included Starr on drums.[53] On 27 April 1964, Vee-Jay Records released the single on the Tollie label[54] with White on drums.
EMI released a 50th anniversary limited-edition replica of the original single, featuring "Love Me Do" backed with "P.S. I Love You", in October 2012. The 7-inch disc was originally scheduled to hit stores on 5 October but was recalled when it was discovered that the pressings contained the Andy White version instead of the Ringo Starr version as intended. The White version was recalled, and the correct version with Ringo Starr on drums was issued on 22 October 2012.[68]
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