John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote “Love Me Do” in 1958, when John was 17 and Paul was 16. They made time for songwriting by skipping school. They had written songs before, but "Love Me Do" was the first one they liked enough to record.

McCartney wrote this about his girlfriend at the time, Iris Caldwell. Lennon’s lyrics were inspired by the writings of Lewis Carroll. This was The Beatles' first single and was released in the UK on October 5, 1963 by Parlophone Records and climbed to #17 on January 2, 1963. Despite their UK success, the group had a lot of trouble getting attention in America. Parlophone's US counterpart, Capitol Records, wouldn't release "Love Me Do," figuring it would flop. It ended up getting American distribution on the smaller Tollie label, but not until April 27, 1964 during the height of Beatlemania. It rose to #1 on May 30, giving the group their fourth US #1 hit.

When the Beatles were playing regular gigs at a club in Hamburg, Germany, they played cover songs - mostly blues tunes by American artists - so it was a big deal when they introduced an original, "Love Me Do," into their set, as they didn't know how it would hold up against songs by Little Richard and Ray Charles. The song was well-received and gave The Beatles a lot of confidence, which led to them writing and performing more original songs.

When they played this for an audition with Parlophone Records, the producer they auditioned for was George Martin. He started tinkering with the song right away, adding the harmonica part. Fortunately, John Lennon knew how to play the harmonica and was able to come up with something.

The Beatles recorded versions of this song with three different drummers. At their first Parlophone audition in June 1962, Pete Best was still their drummer. When they recorded it on September 4, Ringo Starr was their drummer, but when George Martin decided it would be the single, he had them record it again a week later. At this session, he used a session drummer named Andy White and stuck Ringo with the tambourine. The version with Ringo drumming was released as the UK single, but the version released on the album had Andy White's drumming.

Ringo didn't pitch a fit when he got bumped at the session, but was very upset and felt very insecure, especially since The Beatles had just fired a drummer. The US single is the one with White on drums. Originally Lennon always sang the lead vocal, but when his harmonica part was added, McCartney had to sing it because Lennon's mouth was full of harmonica. Paul claims that you can hear the fear in his voice at the audition.

Various Sources