Fun Facts About The Beatles’ ‘Love Me Do’

  • John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this in 1958, when John was 17 and Paul was 16. They made time for songwriting by skipping school. They had written songs before, but this was the first one they liked enough to record.
  • McCartney wrote this about his girlfriend at the time, Iris Caldwell.
  • This was the Beatles first single. It was released in England by Parlophone Records, but it took a while before they could get a record company to distribute it in America. The Beatles wanted Capitol Records to release it in the US, but they refused, figuring it would flop. It went to Tollie Records, who released it in America during Beatlemania, about a year after it was released in England.
  • Before they recorded this, Lennon always sang the lead vocal, but when his harmonica part was added, McCartney had to sing it because Lennon’s mouth was full of harmonica. Paul claims that you can hear the fear in his voice at the audition.
  • When John’s Aunt Mimi heard this song, she said to him “Well, if you think you’re going to make a fortune with that, you’ve got another thing coming.”

via Songfacts.com