by JimN » 14 Nov 2015, 14:12
Just for clarity (on a topic legendary for the amount of misinformation about it), the three (3) issued takes of Love Me Do were released in this order and with these gentlemen in the drum chair:
(a) Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You - Parlophone "red label" single 45-R 4949, released October 1962.
It has Ringo Starr on drums. Absolutely not Andy White. There is no tambourine on the recording.
But... the master tape was mislaid or destroyed quite early on (possibly as early as March 1963, according to George Martin's autobiography) and releases of the single in other territories, as well as some 45rpm re-pressings for the UK market, feature a different take of the song (see b below). I understand that the correct master has never been found and that consequently, when the song was included on the "Past Masters vol 1" LP/CD, it was dubbed from a clean copy of the original 1962 single. The "Past Masters" compilation is thus the easiest place to locate this original version.
(b) "Please Please Me" LP - Parlophone PMC 1202, released March 1963.
Although it is widely supposed that the LP was recorded in a single day (11th February 1963), only ten of its fourteen tracks were cut that day. The others - Love Me Do, P.S. I Love You, Please Please Me and Ask Me Why - were all recorded in 1962.
Possibly because the master tape for the original single version of Love Me Do was already lost, the version selected was the alternative take with Andy White. It feels different from the version on the red label single and is easily-distinguished by the presence of a tambourine (played by Ringo).
(c) "The Beatles Anthology Volume 1" - CDx2 - EMI/Apple 8 34445 2, released November 1995 (can it really be twenty years already?). Track 22 on Disc 1 contains the June 1962 "audition" recording of the song with Pete Best on drums.
Last edited by
JimN on 15 Nov 2015, 13:01, edited 1 time in total.