On this day in music history: June 6, 1962 - The Beatles audition for producer George Martin at Abbey Road Studios in London. The band will play songs from their on stage repertoire including early Lennon/McCartney originals “Love Me Do”, “PS I Love You” and “Ask Me Why” and the pop standard “Besame Mucho”. Initially Martin is not very impressed with them until George Harrison famously quips that he doesn’t like the producer’s tie, when he asks the band if there’s something they don’t like after critiquing their performance. Harrison’s remark will break the tension and Martin is so charmed by their wit that he signs them. Now officially signed to EMI Records’ Parlophone imprint, The Beatles will return for their first recording date on September 4th. In the interim, original drummer Pete Best will be fired from the band in August, and is replaced by Ringo Starr. Thought to have been destroyed years before, the band’s original audition recordings of “Love Me Do” and “Besame Mucho” will surface in private collections during the 80’s and 90’s and are released for the first time on the compilation album “Anthology 1” in 1995.

On this day in music history: May 30, 1964 - “Love Me Do” by The Beatles hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1 week. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it is the fourth US chart topper for “The Fab Four”. The song is the bands’ first single released in the UK and is first recorded on September 4, 1962. Not feeling that the song has been perfected, it will be re-recorded a week later on September 11, 1962. Unlike the original UK 45 release (#17 UK) which features Ringo Starr on drums, version two features session drummer Andy White on drums and Ringo on tambourine. It is this take that will become the common version of “Love Me Do” after EMI destroys the master and session tapes from the September 4th session that features Ringo on drums. The US 45 (belatedly issued as a single in the US on Vee Jay subsidiary Tollie Records in March 1964) uses the second version. The single’s B-side “P.S. I Love You” will also chart, peaking at #10 on June 6th. Vee Jay Records will only have the rights to The Beatles recordings it has released until the end of 1964. Capitol Records will claim exclusive rights to release the band’s music in the US, filing suit against Vee Jay Records. Having unsuccessfully blocked Vee Jay from releasing the “Introducing… The Beatles” album and a handful of singles, the Chicago based label will continue to recycle the material on a number of releases until its licenses run out. Experiencing financial problems (for various reasons) since 1963, Vee Jay Records will file for bankruptcy in August of 1966.

On this day in music history: October 5, 1962 - “Love Me Do” b/w “P.S. I Love You” by The Beatles is released. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it is the debut single by the Liverpool, UK based quartet. “Love Me Do” is one of the earliest songwriting collaborations between Lennon and McCartney, written circa 1958 - 59 while the two are playing hooky from school. Paul will write the main body of the song and John will write the songs’ middle eight. The original UK single release of “Love Me Do” is recorded on September 4, 1962 at Abbey Road Studios in London with Ringo Starr on drums. The band will re-record the song a week later on September 11th with session drummer Andy White playing drums as producer George Martin is not throughly satisfied with Ringo’s drumming on the initial recording. He will be regulated to playing tambourine on the second version as well as the B-side “P.S. I Love You”. Martin will eventually have a change of heart, and the first version with Ringo on drums is released as the band’s first UK single. However, when their first album “Please Please Me” is released in March of 1963, the Andy White version is included. The original September 4th session tape of “Love Me Do” is erased following the song being mixed down to mono. In time, the mono master tape with that version is also lost, making the September 11th recording with Andy White the standard version by default. The original “Ringo” version of “Love Me Do” will be reissued by EMI in the early 80’s, dubbed from a copy of the original 1962 red UK Parlophone 45. “Love Me Do” will peak at #17 on the UK singles chart.

On this day in music history: September 11, 1962 - With producer Ron Richards (George Martin is absent that day), The Beatles record the second version of “Love Me Do” along with “P.S. I Love You” and an early take of “Please Please Me”. George Martin who is unaware that original drummer Pete Best has been replaced by Ringo Starr, hires session drummer Andy White. Ringo will be regulated to playing tambourine during the session. One of their earliest collaborations, John Lennon and Paul McCartney write the song circa 1958 - 59 while playing hooky from school. “P.S. I Love You” is written in 1961 while The Beatles are performing in Hamburg, Germany. Lennon and McCartney will later remark that The Shirelles song “Soldier Boy” was the inspiration for the lyrical concept of “P.S. I Love You”. The band will first record “Love Me Do” on June 6, 1962 during their audition for EMI Records, recording it again on September 4th (the initial UK single release). This second recording of “Love Me Do” will become the common version of the song after 1963 when the the master tape with the original September 4th session is destroyed by EMI. In fact, when the original UK single version is reissued in the early 80’s, it has to dubbed from an vinyl copy. The September 11th session tapes are also lost after mono mixes are prepared, so no true stereo mixes exist for either song. 

On this day in music history: June 6, 1962 - The Beatles audition for producer George Martin at Abbey Road Studios in London. The band will play songs from their on stage repertoire including early Lennon/McCartney originals “Love Me Do”, “PS I Love You” and “Ask Me Why” and the pop standard “Besame Mucho”. Initially Martin is not very impressed with them until George Harrison famously quips that he doesn’t like the producer’s tie, when he asks the band if there’s something they don’t like after critiquing their performance. Harrison’s remark will break the tension and Martin is so charmed by their wit that he signs them. Now officially signed to EMI Records’ Parlophone imprint, The Beatles will return for their first recording date on September 4th. By then, original drummer Pete Best will be replaced by Ringo Starr. 

On this day in music history: May 30, 1964 - “Love Me Do” by The Beatles hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1 week. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney,  the song is the bands’ first single released in the UK and is recorded in September of 1962 reaching #17 on the singles chart there. Recorded on September 11, 1962, it is actually the second version of the song recorded. Unlike the original UK 45 which features Ringo Starr on drums, version two features session drummer Andy White on drums and Ringo on tambourine. It is this take that will become the common version of “Love Me Do” after EMI destroys the master tape from September 4, 1962 that features Ringo on drums. The US 45 (belatedly issued as a single in the US on Vee Jay subsidiary Tollie Records in March 1964) uses the second version. “Love Me Do” will be The Beatles fourth US #1 single in three months. The B-side “P.S. I Love You” will also chart, peaking at #10 on June 6th.