One of McCartney’s debut original works, one of the first own compositions in the repertoire of The Beatles, the band’s first single and, of course, the first real hit – all these definitions fit the famous “Love Me Do” (“Love me”), which began worldwide popularity of the “Liverpool Four”. The history of the song will be discussed later in the article.
John Lennon claimed that the authorship of the composition belongs to Paul McCartney, and spoke uncertainly about his participation in composing the future hit:
Paul wrote the bulk of it when he was sixteen or even earlier. It seems I had something to do with the middle.
1972
“Love Me Do” is Paul’s song. He wrote it when he was a teenager. Let me think… Maybe I helped with the middle part, although I’m not sure about it. But I knew for sure that he had this song back in Hamburg, long before we became songwriters.
1980, All We Are Saying, David Sheff
But Paul McCartney has repeatedly claimed that the song was the fruit of their joint efforts with John:
We wrote “Love Me Do” entirely together. Maybe it was originally my idea, but some of them actually came up 50/50, and I think this one was just that. It was just that Lennon and McCartney were sitting next to each other and neither of us had a really original idea.
We enjoyed doing it. It was very interesting to learn to do this, to become songwriters. I think gradually we became so strong because we wrote so much during our formative years.
Many Years from Now, Barry Miles
“Love Me Do” opened the tally for the first Beatles original songs that the band began to perform in front of an audience. Lennon recalled:
We started presenting our own compositions in Liverpool and Hamburg… She [“Love Me Do”] was the first of our songs that we dared to play. It put a lot of pressure on us because we were playing such great tracks by other people: Ray Charles, Richard and others. So it was pretty hard to go out and sing “Love Me Do”. We thought our songs were a bit stupid. But gradually we coped with this and decided to test them.
Anthology
Thanks to the persistence of Brian Epstein, with which he convinced George Martin of the prospects of The Beatles, the group was signed to EMI. The first audition was not the most successful, but the young musicians managed to conquer Martin. Although the terms of the contract were not particularly favorable, the Beatles got the opportunity to work in the cool Abbey Road studios and release a record on one of the most famous labels at that time.
October 5, 1962 single “Love Me Do” with the song “PS I Love You” was released in the UK. The song soon reached number seventeen on the UK Singles Chart.
Later, the Beatles willingly recalled the impressions of their first success.
Ringo Starr:
For me, that was the most important thing. That first piece of plastic. You won’t believe how wonderful it was. It was amazing. We were on the record!
1976
John Lennon:
We were successful in Hamburg. At the Cavern we were successful. But if you want to know when we “knew” we had achieved recognition, it was when we hit the charts with “Love Me Do”.
George Harrison:
When I first heard “Love Me Do” on the radio, I was shaking all over. It was an incomparable high for all time. We knew it was going to be played on Radio Luxembourg around 7:30 on a Thursday night. I was at home in Spica and we were all listening to the radio. It was great…
In the US, the single “Love Me Do” was released only in the spring of 1964, when The Beatles had already won the hearts of the American public. By the end of May, the song topped the Billboard charts.
Interesting Facts
- There are recordings of the song featuring three different drummers: Pete Best, Ringo Starr and Andy White.
- Anniversary editions of the single “Love Me Do” were re-released in 1982 and 2012, for the twenty and fiftieth anniversary of the song.
- According to McCartney, George Martin suggested using the harmonica played by Lennon, but he recalled that the song attracted him precisely with the part of this instrument.
Love Me Do lyricsLove Me Do lyricsLove, love me do
You know I love you
I’ll always be true
So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do
you know i love you
I will always be true to you
So please love me
Oh love me Someone to love
Somebody new
someone to love
Someone like you
Someone else’s,
to love someone
someone like you
