P.S. I Love You
Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
(c. End of May 1962) 1
Table of Contents
Pete Best Version
Recording Details
EMI Recording Studios, London – Studio 2
Recorded: 6 Jun 1962
John: backing vocal, guitar
Paul: lead vocal, bass
George: backing vocal, guitar
Pete: drums
Little is known about the Pete Best version of P.S. I Love You. The following extract from Lewisohn shows that those who were there were in agreement about the recordings.
“P.S. I Love You and Ask Me Why aren’t available for study, but [Ron] Richards would remember being little impressed by either. His view of the former was that he wouldn’t consider it for an A-side because it shared the title of a well-known song. Norman Smith’s interesting last analysis of the recordings was that ‘it was twenty minutes of torture – they made a dreadful sound! – and then they came up to the control room’” 2
The original session tape box 3 (first publicised in 2020) reveals that five takes were recorded, with Take 1 considered the best at this point. Interestingly, the tape box notes that lacquers (acetates) were made from Take 4 of Love Me Do and Take 1 of P.S. I Love You. Presumably, George Martin’s acetate of Love Me Do (found in 1994) 4 was made from Take 4. It’s interesting then that an acetate has so far never surfaced for Take 1 of P.S. I Love You
Instruments
John Lennon
Likely 1958 Rickenbacker 325 Capri with Bigsby vibrato 5
George Harrison
Likely 1957 Gretsch PX6128 Duo Jet with Gretsch Bigsby vibrato 5
Paul McCartney
1961 Höfner 500/1 6
Pete Best
1960 Premier Marine Pearl (14″ x 22″ bass drum/ 8″ x 12″ rack tom/ 16″ x 16″ floor tom/ 5.5″ x 14″ “Super Ace” snare); Zyn cymbals (16″ crash/ 18″ custom “sizzle” ride)/ Zildjian cymbals (18″ crash/ 14″ hi-hats) 7
Releases Overview
As of April 2026, all five takes of P.S. I Love You from 6 June 1962 remain unreleased and unbootlegged. Remarkably, after Geoff Emerick’s death in 2018, his estate discovered the 6 June 1962 session tape in his possession. It was ordered destroyed in the 60s but Emerick had managed to hang on to it all these years.8 There is currently an ongoing legal dispute as to whether the tape is rightfully owned by the Emerick estate or by Universal Music Group. Hopefully something can be worked out and we’ll finally get to hear P.S. I Love You from this session one day. Perhaps on a Please Please Me Special Edition…
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: backing vocal, guitar
Paul: lead vocal, bass
George: backing vocal, guitar
Ringo: maracas
Andy White: drums
After their first two sessions at Abbey Road, 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. This version of P.S. I Love You was recorded live with no superimpositions, solely in mono, to an EMI BTR2 tape machine. It was completed by Take 10 (some were probably false starts or breakdowns)9
Instruments
John Lennon
1962 Gibson J-160E plugged into an amp 10
George Harrison
1957 Gretsch PX6128 Duo Jet with Gretsch Bigsby vibrato 11
Paul McCartney
1961 Höfner 500/1 12
Andy White
1956 Ludwig Black Diamond Pearl Buddy Rich Super Classic (14″ x 22″ bass drum/ 9″ x 13″ rack tom/ 16″ x 16″ floor tom/ 5.5″ x 14″ snare); unknown cymbals (20″ ride/ 18″ crash/ 14″ hi-hats) 12
Releases Overview 13
Mono/Stereo? |
Release |
Remaster |
Format |
Release(s) |
Recommended |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
P.S. I Love You |
Mono |
|
Vinyl |
|
✅ |
|
P.S. I Love You |
Fake Stereo |
1963 |
Vinyl |
Please Please Me LP (Stereo) |
❌ |
|
P.S. I Love You |
Mono |
1987 |
1987 |
CD |
Please Please Me |
❌14 |
P.S. I Love You |
Mono |
1992 |
1992 |
CD |
All My Loving EP |
✅15 |
P.S. I Love You |
Mono |
2009/2012 |
2009 |
CD/Vinyl/Streaming |
Please Please Me (Stereo) |
🟡16 |
P.S. I Love You |
Mono |
2009/2014 |
2009/2014 |
CD/Vinyl |
Please Please Me (Mono) |
✅ |
P.S. I Love You |
Mono |
2019 |
2019 |
Vinyl |
The Singles Collection |
✅ |
References:
- “This was Paul’s creation … ‘but’, qualified John, ‘I think we helped him a bit.’” Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (pp. 649-650) ↩︎
- Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 670) ↩︎
- The Daily Beatle (Archived) via the-paulmccartney-project.com ↩︎
- 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) ↩︎ - These two electric guitars were the only electric guitars used by the band during 1962. Additionally the Gibson J-160E electric acoustics were not used until the 11 September 1962 session and we know unknown acoustic guitars were used before this point. So the available options are: Rickenbacker, Gretsch, unknown acoustics and here I have made an educated guess based on Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 34) and Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 667) ↩︎
- Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 34) ↩︎
- Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 236) ↩︎
- Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 238) ↩︎
- Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (pp. 729-731) ↩︎
- Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (p. 730) ↩︎
- To be honest, I’ve listened very closely to the track multiple times, watched guitar covers on YouTube, listened to fan made stereo mixes, and if there is a second guitar in the mix it’s not doing much or is very hard to hear. I think it’s George just doing the odd single strum ↩︎
- Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (p. 242) ↩︎
- 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 ↩︎
- 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 P.S. I Love You sounds a bit distant and weird. The 2009 versions sound much more immediate and represent a significant improvement ↩︎
- 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 ↩︎
- 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. P.S. I Love You on the 2009 stereo sounds a bit mushier than on the 2009 mono where it sounds more open ↩︎