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The Beatles’ first official single as a band was “Love Me Do.” According to John Lennon’s then-wife, though, this wasn’t the group’s best song. In fact, she thought this Lennon-McCartney original was “monotonous.” Here’s what we learned from Cynthia Lennon’s 2005 memoir.
The Beatles released their first single ‘Love Me Do’ off ‘Please Please Me’
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr made up the finalized Beatles lineup. As one of the first singles released under this band name, the Beatles created “Love Me Do.”
“Love, love me do / You know I love you / I’ll always be true / So please, love me do / Whoa-oh, love me do,” the lyrics state. “Someone to love / Somebody new / Someone to love / Someone like you.”
On Spotify, the McCartney and Lennon duo are credited as the songwriters for “Love Me Do.” In 1980, Lennon elaborated on the song’s origin in All We Are Saying with David Sheff, according to the Beatles Bible.
“‘Love Me Do’ is Paul’s song. He wrote it when he was a teenager,” Lennon said. “Let me think. I might have helped on the middle eight, but I couldn’t swear to it. I do know he had the song around, in Hamburg, even, way, way before we were songwriters.”
Cynthia Lennon shared her thoughts on the Beatles’ first single
After John and Cynthia Lennon married, the Beatles signed a five-year recording deal with Parlophone. After that, they recorded “Love Me Do,” which became the band’s first single. Cynthia Lennon detailed her thoughts on this song in her 2005 memoir, John.
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“John and Paul had written it, and I was surprised they’d chosen it because I didn’t think it was one of their best — I found it a bit monotonous. But John said that was the one George Martin wanted: he liked John’s harmonica playing on it.”
“John told me they’d done so many takes of ‘Love Me Do’ that he never wanted to hear it again.”
It took time for the song to land comfortably on the music charts. After “Love Me Do” found success, the Beatles became one of the world’s most popular rock bands. The song was eventually added to the band’s first album, Please Please Me, which debuted in 1963. Now, the remastered version has over 180 million Spotify plays.
What songs did Paul McCartney and John Lennon write for the Beatles?
As a songwriter duo, McCartney and Lennon are the masterminds behind most Beatles hits. That includes “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Hey Jude,” and “Blackbird.”
Other Beatles members wrote for the group, with Ringo Starr creating “Octopus’s Garden” for Abbey Road. On Spotify, Harrison is credited as the sole songwriter for “Here Comes the Sun.” Now, music by the Beatles is available on most major streaming platforms.
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