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Pete Best Version

Recording Details

EMI Recording Studios, London – Studio 2
Recorded: 6 Jun 1962

John: vocal (lower harmony), harmonica
Paul: vocal (higher harmony), bass
George: acoustic guitar ³
Pete: drums

At their very first session at Abbey Road, The Beatles began work on what would eventually become the A-side of their first single (My Bonnie/The Saints notwithstanding). The song was recorded to twin-track EMI BTR3 and mono EMI BTR2 tape machines simultaneously.⁴ Four takes were recorded, with Take 4 considered the best at this point.⁵ However, producer George Martin and the other staff at the session were unimpressed by the quality of the songs and the standard of the performances of the group that day. Notably, as Mark Lewisohn summarises, “Unhappy with both the drummer and the material, he [George Martin] decided to issue none of these first recordings, sweeping the session under the carpet” ⁶

In 1994, George Martin’s family found an acetate of Love Me Do from this session (presumably Take 4) which was then used on Anthology 1, released in 1995 ⁷

Ringo Starr Version

Recording Details

EMI Recording Studios, London – Studio 2
Recorded: 4 Sep 1962
Mono Mix: 4 Sep 1962
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios)
MAL Stereo Mix: 2022-2023

John: vocal (lower harmony), harmonica, handclaps ¹⁵
Paul: vocal (higher harmony), bass, handclaps
George: acoustic guitar
Ringo: drums

With a new drummer and a release-worthy single still yet to be recorded, The Beatles returned to Studio 2 with the expectation they would record four sides on this day.¹⁶ The intention was that two of the four would then become their first Parlophone single, to be released on 5 October. Unlike on 6 June, the session was recorded to a mono EMI BTR2 tape machine only. This time, George Martin opted for a safety-first approach, getting the Beatles to record an instrumental backing track before adding the vocals afterwards via superimposition.¹⁷ In this period mono to mono superimpositions were accomplished by sending the mono backing track from one BTR2 tape machine to another BTR2 whilst simultaneously recording the superimposition. For reasons unknown, this session turned out to be more difficult for the group than expected, it ran way over time and only two songs were recorded. At least 15 takes of the instrumental backing track were put to tape and George Martin’s initial impression was that Ringo didn’t represent much of an improvement over Pete. By the end of the session, John and Paul’s vocals had been superimposed along with handclaps and an unnumbered remix mono (RM) was created from an unnumbered take ¹⁸

Andy White Version

Recording Details

EMI Recording Studios, London – Studio 2
Recorded: 11 Sep 1962
Mono Mix: 11 Sep 1962
EMI Recording Studios – Studio 1 (control room)
Fake Stereo Mix: 25 Feb 1963

John: vocal (lower harmony), harmonica, handclaps ²⁵
Paul: vocal (higher harmony), bass, handclaps
George: acoustic guitar
Ringo: tambourine
Andy White: drums

For a number of complicated reasons involving publishers Ardmore & Beechwood, Dick James, and writer Mitch Murray, it was decided shortly after 4 September that How Do You Do It was to be ditched. After two sessions, the Beatles still only had one side of a single and so they returned to Studio 2 the following week to record a B-Side, this time with Ron Richards at the helm since, due to the prior difficulties, George Martin had at this point washed his hands of their first single. As the production team were not yet sold on Ringo’s drumming, Richards hired session drummer Andy White to ensure they got it right. With the B-Side (P.S. I Love You) recorded by Take 10, towards the end of session Richards suggested another remake of Love Me Do, thinking that it might be possible to improve on the 4 September version. This third version was recorded in 18 takes²⁶, live with no superimpositions, solely in mono, to an EMI BTR2 tape machine.²⁷ What’s strange is that ultimately the 4 September Ringo-on-drums version was chosen for the release of the single on 5 October, with the 11 September Andy White version later chosen for the Please Please Me album, released 22 March 1963. George Martin and Ron Richards could never remember if the Ringo version was selected for the single on purpose or in error ²⁸

References:

1. Goodden, Joe. (2008-2026). The Beatles Bible – Love Me Do. beatlesbible.com/songs/love-me-do/ John Lennon said in 1980 “Love Me Do is Paul’s song … I might have helped on the middle eight, but I couldn’t swear to it.” whereas Paul McCartney has said “Love Me Do was completely co-written”. Given both sides of the story, I’m inclined to lean towards Paul being the primary songwriter ↩︎
2. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 10) ↩︎
3. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (pp.30-31) states that both John and George are playing electric guitars which I believe to be incorrect for a number of reasons.
   Firstly, in contrast to what Hammack states, I don’t believe there was a backing track recorded, I believe the whole song was recorded live. This is for two reasons:
   1) The anecdote about difficulties with the arrangement makes no sense if they weren’t recording live and Paul also recalls that they were. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 669)
   2) In Ryan, Kevin & Kehew, Brian. (2006). Recording the Beatles (pp. 348-350), special mention is made that on 4 Sep 1962, instrumental backing was recorded before the vocals whilst no such mention is made about 6 Jun.
   Secondly, Missin, Pat. (2002-2025). patmissin.com/ffaq/q29.html brilliantly explains how John used a chromatic harmonica on Love Me Do which requires two hands to play. Therefore, if everything was recorded live, it seems unlikely he was also playing guitar.
   Thirdly, listening to the recording I can only hear a single acoustic guitar, which must be George due to all the reasons explained above. ↩︎
4. Ryan, Kevin & Kehew, Brian. (2006). Recording the Beatles (p. 350) ↩︎
5. From the tape box The Daily Beatle (Archived) via the-paulmccartney-project.com ↩︎
6. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 672) ↩︎
7. One version of events is that George Martin’s wife Judy found the acetate in a closet (Rense, Rip, 1995, Plans Gel For The Beatles’ Anthology Vol. One And Beyond. recmusicbeatles.com)
   Another version of events as relayed by Giles Martin is that the acetate was found in the loft and he confirms this is the source used on Anthology 1 (Virgin Radio UK, 2023, Giles Martin: The Man Behind The Beatles’ “Now And Then” Album youtu.be/WhaLCKIiZig?t=953) ↩︎
8. Missin, Pat. (2002-2025). patmissin.com/ffaq/q29.html ↩︎
9. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 30) ↩︎
10. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (pp. 30-33, 235-238) ↩︎
11. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 236) ↩︎
12. Please note this is not an exhaustive list. Thank you Maul for your incredible The Beatles The Complete Studio & Home Recordings pdf (last updated 2023) which compiles several major sources into a fantastic resource listing released versions of every Beatles studio and home recording ↩︎
13. The wise folks over at the Steve Hoffman Forums have determined that the 2011/2016 remasters are different, newer transfers than the 1995 versions. The general consensus also seems to be that the 2011/2016 remasters are preferable and lack the amounts of “amateurishly applied noise reduction” the originals have ↩︎
14. According to users of the Steve Hoffman Forums It would seem as though the 2017 DeAgostini vinyl pressings use the original 1995 masters and aren’t an improvement over them ↩︎
15. Again Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 31) states that both John and George are playing guitar on the backing track which I don’t believe to be true because of Pat Missin’s reasoning regarding the harmonica in Footnote 2. Additionally, listening to the song (especially the 2023 mix with is miraculous MAL-assisted stereo) I can only hear a single guitar ↩︎
16. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 724) ↩︎
17. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 726) ↩︎
18. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 31) ↩︎
19. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 30) incorrectly states that George plays his Gibson J-160E on 4 Sep. This is impossible since the original purchase receipt from Rushworth’s shows the guitars were collected on 10 Sep tilonlysilenceremains.com ↩︎
20. Astridge, Gary, 2006. Ringo’s Beatles-Era Drum Kits ↩︎
21. Wise, Tom. (2010-2011) comprehensivebeatles.blogspot.com. By the end of 1963, the Ringo version of Love Me Do no longer existed on tape. In 1967 the lacquer, mother, and all stampers for the UK 45 were destroyed, thus making it impossible to press any further first-generation releases. All further releases therefore had to be copied from existing vinyl records. I have added a column to show the sources used as well as the generation to show how far removed a release is from the original master tape (higher generations = reduction in quality) ↩︎
22. Wise, Tom. (2010-2011) comprehensivebeatles.blogspot.com. “If the Rarities master was created exclusively from the Canadian 45, it is third generation, a needle-drop of a needle-drop. If it also used the UK pressing, the Rarities master is a hybrid” ↩︎
23. I don’t know what happened during the making of the 1988 Past Masters version but it’s slightly sped-up and therefore slightly higher-pitched than any other version I’ve heard. It sounds nasal and distant and awful compared to the 2009 versions for example ↩︎
24. On The Beatles YouTube Channel (2009), Sean Magee states that the 2019 version of Love Me Do in the Singles Collection was sourced from a UK single combined with a second from a Swedish single (also 1st generation). Presumably this digital master created in 2019 was then used to create the 2023 stereo mix using MAL ↩︎
25. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 31) states “The takes included new vocal and handclap superimpositions” but unless they’re very buried in the mix I’m not sure they redid the handclaps. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 732) also states “It was probably done entirely live because there are no handclaps in the middle-eight” ↩︎
26. The user slane on the Steve Hoffman Forums makes a very good point about there being an example of take numbers for the same song carrying over between sessions with Hold Me Tight. So it actually seems likely that there were only one or two takes of Love Me Do with Andy White on drums on 11 September. This aligns with the fact the session was almost at an end when Ron Richards suggested another go at Love Me Do this day ↩︎
27. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (pp. 728-732) ↩︎
28. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 732) ↩︎
29. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 732) ↩︎
30. Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 242) ↩︎
31. There is no shortage of threads on the Steve Hoffman forums regarding the sound quality of the original 1987-88 Beatles CDs. In a nutshell, the mono master tapes for the first 4 albums were badly transferred using a stereo tape machine. To my ears this version of Love Me Do sounds like there’s a blanket over the speakers. The 2009 versions represent a significant improvement ↩︎
32. The Beatles EP Collection was released on CD in 1992 and for this project, transfers were made from the EP master tapes. These were done using the correct equipment (unlike the 1987 transfers of the first 4 albums) and despite the EP master tapes being a generation lower than the album master tapes, many listeners swear by the sound quality of this set ↩︎
33. It is indeed in mono on a stereo album. Confusing, I know. The 2009 stereo and mono Beatles remasters had different goals and were mastered differently so yes these are different ↩︎
34. This is still preferable to the 1987 CD but given the option between the 2009 mono and the 2009 stereo Please Please Me CDs, I’d pick the mono. To my ears the low-end is a bit spongy on the 2009 stereo. Overall the 2009 mono just sounds a bit more balanced and a bit more punchy to me ↩︎
35. To me this is too compressed and too loud. The best version on streaming is the version on the 2009 Please Please Me (stereo) album ↩︎