Back in the misty dawn before the modern world began, with intercourse not being invented until the next year, George Martin had to make a decision: what song to put on the A-side of the Beatles’ first single. He eventually choose “Love Me Do.” For the B-side he went with “P. S. I Love You.”
Wait, what? “Love Me Do” is dull and repetitive to a fault. The beat is thudding, the singing lacks all distinction. Maybe the lead harmonica sold it but you can’t hear the guitars: did he believe, like Decca, that guitar groups were on the way out?
Listen to “P. S. I Love You” and you can feel the difference; literally, because the beat and the driving guitars make you want to move. The call and response that Paul provides at the second repetition of the verses gives the single an edge that makes you want to hear it over and over for the tension of waiting for that high. The only downside I can think of is that it’s one of Paul’s Broadway lookalikes with a cha cha beat. (Seriously. Wait for the last notes and then append cha cha cha.)
I know that Martin relegated “P. S. I Love You” to the B-side because there had been an earlier song by that name. I think that was a mistake. Not that anything by the Beatles could have done really badly at that time and place, but why not go for the best song regardless?
The beat of Love Me Do strikes me as more, uh, energetic, I guess? It’s got an enthusiasm to it, or something. And any edge-and-tension bit in PS seems outclassed by the pause between the pleeEEEeeEEeease… and the …love me dooOOoo.
Factor in that catchy little harmonica intro and outro, like you were saying, and it seems like the clear winner.
I had never even heard PS I Love You and I used to bop around to Love Me Do in my bedroom as a teenager. It’s a solid song. It has more complexity than you would think thanks to the subtleties of inflection, and it has a kind of driving energy to it. Plus I love Paul’s voice on this track.
I just looked up PS I Love You on YouTube and didn’t even stay for the whole song. Yawn.
Are you using the released “Love Me Do” with Andy White on drums and Ringo on tamborine or the real Beatles version with Ringo on drums? Let’s act like the Pete Best version never existed.
In 1991, the opening chords of Smells Like Teen Spirit signaled the start of something new. This was back to basics; the end of hair metal and party bands. Likewise, the harmonica intro in Love Me Do must have signaled the end of harmony groups that didn’t play their own instruments. This was almost bluesy; these guys were musicians.
Often, when the Beatles are mentioned in a retrospective about music/the 1960s, that harmonica intro is on the soundtrack before anyone speaks. It always seems to fit with the black-and-white footage, and the (probable) jump straight from the JFK assassination. P.S. I Love You is a good song, but it hasn’t been imprinted on me the way LMD was.
Unlike “PS, I Love You”, “Love Me Do” was always going to be on the first Beatles single. The original plan was for the A-side to be a song written by Mitch Murray called “How do you do it?” with “Love Me Do” on the flip side . The Beatles hated it and their recording of it was less than enthusiastic. Everyone but Murray’s publisher Dick James agreed “Love Me Do” was the better song and should be on the A-side. Dick James pulled Murray’s song so he could find a group to put it on their A-Side. This left an empty side that was filled with “PS” at the last minute.
I prefer P.S. I Love You because the melody is more complicated. I always loved the line “Be in love with you” was perfect in both melody and lyrics. In a way, it reminds me or Ira Gershwin’s lyrics for They Can’t Take That Away from Me – always a surprise even if you know the song well.
But I understand why Love Me Do was the choice. Its simplicity makes it grab the listener.
I’ll also say that How Do You Do? is also a great song.
I forgot to mention: The Beatles recorded two songs as a possible replacement for “How Do You Do It”. The one that was rejected was “Please Please Me” which needed more work before it became releasable.
The lads had been told just a few weeks earlier that guitar groups were on the way out. How does that square with the end of groups that don’t play their own instruments?
I’m pretty sure that lots of groups used harmonicas in the early 1960s, and not just bluespeople. Bruce Chanel, for one, had several hits that included harmonica. And this was also the peak of harmonica-heavy American folk.
I can agree that the Beatles sounded a bit different. But these first weak efforts didn’t change music. The number one single in the UK in October 1962 was “Telstar”. Nobody could really reproduce that song’s strangeness in all its glory, but it was out there before Beatlemania took over the charts. That was more than a year away.
I’m trying to strip away the oppressive weight of the future and look at October 1962, when there were no harmony groups in the top 20, and the mania was for Cliff Richards, who had had 14 straight top 10 hits with his band instrumentally scoring 8 more. The break with the blues was well established.
With Murray rejecting their version of “How Do You Do It?,” Martin arranged for them to return on 11 September to record two more McCartney-Lennon tunes, a new song called “P.S., I Love You” and the work-in-progress, “Please Please Me.” He hoped that one of these songs could serve as the principal side of the release.
I think one of those songs should have been. And it’s creeping closer to 50/50 in my poll. Better than I thought it would do.
“Which is the better song?” and “Which is the better single?” and “Which is the better first single—the better way to introduce the world to The Beatles?” are different questions, and if I’m interpreting it correctly, the OP is asking the last one.
“P. S. I Love You” is arguably the better song, but it’s softer and more low-key. It doesn’t immediately draw attention to itself on first hearing the way “Love Me Do” does. If I were listening to them with fresh ears that hadn’t heard either song before—hadn’t heard The Beatles, or any of the later music that was influenced by them, before—I think it’s “Love Me Do” that would grab me at first listen.
An interesting thing about that record is that it was one of the first debut records to sell on the strength of the artist’s existing fan base rather than radio play. New bands were usually “discovered” by a producer, but the Beatles were already appreciated by enough people for their stage performances for the record to fly off the shelves. Fans in Liverpool who didn’t even own record players bought it. And it didn’t hurt that their manager was primarily a record retailer. Brian Epstein ordered thousands more than he expected to sell just to juice the numbers, but remarkably, had no problem selling them. That’s how a record that only peaked on the charts at #17 primed the pump for the best selling act in History.
I loved this one too, as a teenager. I was a teenager in the 90s, so at that point all I had were compilation albums. There was a big CD anthology released which included some obscure titles, and that track was on there.
It’s interesting, I feel like I might have had a different experience of the Beatles because I came to them later, when all these deep cuts were being released. I also grew up in the age of boy bands, and it’s always been hard for me to think of the Beatles this way. Although I did have a huge poster of dreamy Paul McCartney, so maybe I can see it.
The harmonica hook does it for me. “Love Me Do” it is. “PS I Love You” is a bit more of a slow burn. The harmonies on it are excellent, and the music a bit more interesting, but for an immediate grabber A-side single, I’d go with “Love Me Do.”
At least, it’s one of Paul’s songs. “Love Me Do,” on the other hand, has Paul and John sharing lead vocals, and thus is a better example of the Beatles’ sound.
