Happy Birthday
"Love Me Do"
.
The iconic Beatles song, which marked the recording debut of the four English boys, turns 60.
It was in fact composed by Paul McCartney and John Lennon and released in 1962 (on the B side of the single PS I Love You).
The
first official single was released on 5 October
.
That blues harmonica, played by Lennon, which became unforgettable (and which was inspired by the American rhythm and blues artist Bruce Channel in Hey! Baby).
The song, which was later included on the Beatles' debut album "Please Please Me" in 1963, had a complicated gestation during the recording phase.
In fact, there were three drummers who alternated on different occasions.
The first recording was on June 6, 1962 at the Abbey Road Studios in London with Pete Best;
in mid-August, Best was replaced by Ringo Starr and on September 4 a new recording was performed again at Abbey Road Studios.
Not satisfied, a week later, on September 11, the band returned to the studio for a new session with drummer Andy White and Ringo on tambourine.
The first version of the single is however the one with Ringo Starr on drums and the same was included years later in the American version of Rarities and in Past Masters, volume one.
The version with Andy White is the one featured on the Beatles 'first English album, Please Please Me, on the EP The Beatles' Hits (and in all subsequent albums where the song is featured) as well as in the reissues of the single occurred in 1976 and in the 1982. A slower blues version of Love Me Do, featured on some bootlegs, was played by the Beatles in 1969, during the Get Back session for the Let It Be album.
Among the stories told about Love Me do, the one that Lennon had stolen that harmonica in an Arnhem shop in 1960 and the other that the manager Brian Epstein tried to make Love me Do a hit in the United Kingdom by buying ten thousand copies of the album himself.
