A CD-Single offering up the first Beatles single in the U.K.

This CD-Single is of some historic importance because it represents the first Beatles single that was released in 1962 in the U.K. "Love Me Do" was the A-side and "P.S. I Love You" was the B-Side. It was not until June 30, 1964 that the song would make it to the top of the Billboard charts in the U.S. for one week, by which time it was the fourth Fab Four single to hit #1. What you get here is the single version of "Love Me Do," which is currently available on Past Masters, Volume One," which comes after the album versions of the two songs from "Please Please Me." Of course, today these songs are considered quaint and these early Lennon & McCartney compositions are seen as being riddled with simplistic romantic clich?s. What you have to remember is that these songs were substantially different from what other British pop groups were playing at the time. What the Beatles were offering were closer harmonies than their contemporaries, plus the personal touch provided by the use of personal pronouns: the Beatles were not singing about love in the third person. The oddity ends up being the blues harmonica played by Lennon, which was employed more often on their first album.

I would end up voting for the rock ballad "P.S. I Love You" as being the better song of the pair; I have seen the argument made that it was relegated to the B-Side because there was another song with the same title floating around at that time. The melody is more complex and the rhythm had a distinctiveness that the Beatles would explore again down the road on songs like "And I Love Here," and which provides early evidence that the group was interested in all aspects of songwriting (pay attention to how the opening chords are not repeated in the rest of the song). Both songs were written by Lennon & McCartney and they share the lead vocals although clearly Lennon has the primarily role on "Love Me Do" and McCartney on "P.S. I Love You" in singing the harmonies. However, if you have a complete set of Beatles CDs, then you already have all three of these tracks.