- It was 50 years ago today that The Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do.
Hoy se cumplen 50 años del lanzamiento de 'Love Me Do', su primer sencillo.
05/10/1962 - 05/10/2012.-
«Love Me Do» is The Beatles' first single, backed by "P.S. I Love You" and released on 5 October 1962. When the single was originally released in the United Kingdom, it peaked at number seventeen; in 1982 it was re-issued and reached number four. In the United States the single was a number one hit in 1964.
The song is an early Lennon--McCartney composition, principally written by Paul McCartney in 1958--1959 while playing truant from school at age 16. John Lennon wrote the middle eight. Their practice at the time was to scribble songs in a school notebook, dreaming of stardom, always writing "Another Lennon-McCartney Original" at the top of the page. "Love Me Do" is intrinsically a song based around two simple chords: G7 and C, before moving to D for its middle eight. It first profiles Lennon playing a bluesy dry "dockside harmonica" riff, then features Lennon and McCartney on joint lead vocals, including Everly Brothers style harmonising during the beseeching "please" before McCartney sings the unaccompanied vocal line on the song's title phrase. Lennon had previously sung the title sections, but this change in arrangement was made in the studio under the direction of producer George Martin when he realised that the harmonica part encroached on the vocal (Lennon needed to begin playing the harmonica again on the same beat as the "do" of "love me do" although, according to Ian MacDonald, for the earlier 6 June audition the harmonica was overdubbed, allowing Lennon to sing the title phrase unhindered). This is illustrative of the time constraints on this particular session - their first recording session proper; as for instance, when a similar situation later occurred on the "Please Please Me" single session, the harmonica was superimposed afterwards using tape-to-tape overdubbing. Described by MacDonald as "standing out like a bare brick wall in a suburban sitting-room", "Love Me Do" with its stark "blunt working class northerness" rang "the first faint chime of a revolutionary bell" compared to the standard tin pan alley productions occupying the charts at the time.
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«Love Me Do» es una temprana canción de John Lennon y Paul McCartney, principalmente compuesta por McCartney entre 1958 y 1959. La canción fue lanzada como sencillo en el Reino Unido, en su primera versión, el 5 de octubre de 1962, con «P.S. I Love You» ocupando el lado B del disco. Alcanzó el n.º 17 en una de las listas británicas, siendo relanzado, ya en su segunda versión, en 1982, alcanzando en esta ocasión el n.º 4. En Estados Unidos, que desde el principio se había editado en su segunda versión, el sencillo fue n.º 1 en 1964.
La canción comenzaba con una armónica de blues tocada por John Lennon, agregándose Lennon y McCartney con las voces principales simultáneamente (George Harrison intervino en la armonía vocal); a pesar de que era Lennon el que tenía que cantar el solo del título de la canción, finalmente se decidió que lo interpretara McCartney, ya que Lennon tenía que utilizar la armónica cuando regresaban los instrumentos en el «do» de «love me doo».