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Just been watching 'love Me Do' a history of The Beatles early years in the the 60s and surprised at the fact that, despite playing it thousands of times, listening to 'Wonderful Land' on programmes such as these, still has the ability to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Interestingly enough, both Love Me Do and its B side PS I Love You are unique in that no working takes have ever surfaced, whereas almost the full recording history of takes exists for all the other tracks on the Beatles' Please Please Me album!

I agree with you about the ability of "Wonderful Land" to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Uncleboko wrote:Interestingly enough, both Love Me Do and its B side PS I Love You are unique in that no working takes have ever surfaced, whereas almost the full recording history of takes exists for all the other tracks on the Beatles' Please Please Me album! I agree with you about the ability of "Wonderful Land" to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Of course, much depends on one's definition of a "working take", but there is at least one earlier take (6th June 1962) of Love Me Do, eventually released as track 22 on disc one of the double CD "Anthology 1". And there are two completely separate takes of the song made in September 1962.

The June take features Pete Best (of course), with the drums at times providing an almost bossa-nova rhythm. It's clearly not as good as the original UK 45 rpm version (4th September with Ringo on drums). It isn't even as good as the 11th September LP version (later used on foreign and reissue singles) with Andy White on drums and Ringo on tambourine.

JN (who bought the original Love Me Do single a few weeks after release and later knew immediately that the LP version was a different performance)

There was a limited edition mini CD released in Britain celebrating 30 years since initial release of 'Love me Do'. There were four tracks on the CD. Two versions of Love me do and two versions of PS I love you. It consisted of the tracks Ringo played plus the Andy White versions. Quite interesting to listen to the differences.

john wray wrote:There was a limited edition mini CD released in Britain celebrating 30 years since initial release of 'Love me Do'. There were four tracks on the CD. Two versions of Love me do and two versions of PS I love you. It consisted of the tracks Ringo played plus the Andy White versions. Quite interesting to listen to the differences.

Ah thanks for that - must have a gander at a certain site!