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.
By 1962, 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 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.
"P.S. I Love You" was recorded and released by The Beatles in 1962. Composed principally by Paul McCartney credited to Lennon–McCartney, and produced by Ron Richards. The song was released as the B-side of their debut single "Love Me Do" and is also included on their debut album Please Please Me (1963).
Written in spring 1962, while Paul McCartney was in Hamburg, while The Beatles were the house band at The Star Club. This song is sometimes considered to be a dedication to his then-girlfriend Dot Rhone. However, McCartney denies this; he described “P.S. I Love You”:
‘It’s just an idea for a song really, a theme song based on a letter, like the Paperback Writer idea. It was pretty much mine. I don’t think John had much of a hand in it. There are certain themes that are easier than others to hang a song on, and a letter is one of them… The letter is a popular theme and it’s just my attempt at one of those. It’s not about any particular person’.
The version featured on the single and album was recorded in ten takes on 11 September 1962 at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, London. Producer George Martin had booked session drummer Andy White as a replacement for Pete Best, whom he considered not technically good enough for recording purposes; Martin had been unaware that the other Beatles had already replaced Pete Best with Ringo Starr, who attended the session and plays maracas on the song.
Ringo didn’t play drums on the record. Producer Ron Richards brought session player Andy White in as a replacement, as Starr hadn’t proved good enough during the band’s 4 September session. Starr was relegated to maracas during ‘PS I Love You’.
Martin was not present at the session; in his absence, it was run by Ron Richards. Richards told the group that the song could not be the A-side of their single because of an earlier song with the same title: "I was originally a music publishing man, a plugger, so I knew someone had done a record with that title. I said to Paul, ‘You can have it as B-side, but not an A-side".
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