The Beatles had a lot riding on their debut single in the early 1960s. Would the band make a decent first impression or be doomed to be nothing more than a house band for dark, dank clubs across Europe? The music they recorded at EMI Studios had the potential to elevate them from local Liverpudlian heroes to international stars. Of course, plenty of bands have successfully come back from a poorly received debut. But would such a comeback be possible for a relatively unknown band from northern England?
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Even with their countless hours of stage time under their belt, the Beatles were facing an obstacle they had never before encountered. Unsurprisingly, the band had strong feelings about which songs did—and didn’t—meet their necessary criteria for a successful debut single.
Why The Beatles Insisted On Choosing Their Debut Single
In the early 1960s, shopping for songs in Tin Pan Alley was a far more common practice than bands releasing original material. But as history would show time and time again, the Beatles were anything but ordinary. The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney was well underway. And that’s what the band wanted to highlight with their first singles. So, the band voted for an original they felt had some real weight behind it: “Love Me Do.” Their producer, George Martin, disagreed.
As McCartney explained in Anthology, Martin wanted the band to record Mitch Murray’s “How Do You Do It?” Macca recalled, “We listened to the demo and said, ‘It’s a hit, George. But we’ve got a song, “Love Me Do.” George said, ‘I don’t think yours is such a big hit.’” McCartney said he and his bandmates pushed back against Martin. “We’re students and artsy guys. We can’t take that song home to Liverpool; we’ll get laughed at. But George insisted that his song was still a hit.” So, the band worked up what Martin considered a hit-worthy arrangement of his debut pick.
The band still hated it. “We had played “Love Me Do” on stage, and it felt quite good. It was one of Paul’s and John’s. We wanted that,” George Harrison said in Anthology. “The other song we were being offered was really corny. George Martin listened to both songs. And I think he decided “How Do You Do It” could still be our second single. But then we sped up “Please Please Me,” and that was it.” The latter song would become the title track of the Beatles’ debut album, which they released several months later.
George Martin Still Wasn’t Convinced It Was The Right Choice
Just because the Beatles got their way doesn’t mean they had successfully convinced George Martin of “Love Me Do”’s potential. “I spent a long time looking for songs,” the producer said. “What I wanted for the Beatles was a hit. I was convinced that “How Do You Do It” was a hit song. Not a great piece of songwriting, not the most marvelous song I had ever heard in my life. But I thought it had that essential ingredient which would appeal to a lot of people, and we did record it. John took the lead.”
“They didn’t like doing it,” Martin continued. “But we made a good record, and I was very close to issuing it as their first single. In the end, I went with “Love Me Do” but would still have issued “How Do You Do It” had they not persuaded me to listen to another version of “Please Please Me.””
The Beatles’ producer ultimately put his foot down about a different aspect of their debut single production: the drummer. Martin had already hired a session drummer to replace Pete Best when the Beatles brought in their new pal, Ringo Starr, as their fourth and final bandmate. Martin opted not to use Starr, despite him being available to record, which led to “Love Me Do” being one of Starr’s least favorite Fab Four tracks.
In the end, “Love Me Do” peaked at a relatively modest No. 17 in the U.K. Still, it would only take a couple of short years after the Beatles released their debut single for Beatlemania to set in worldwide. Their subsequent success seemed to prove that the band—and their producer—had picked and fought their battles wisely, even if some egos were bruised along the way.
Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone/Getty Images
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