Even though it only peaked at number 17 on the British charts, the song that started it all for the Fab Four was not only the group’s first record but also their first hit

The Beatles’ debut tune that helped launch Britain into the Swinging Sixties and ignite a worldwide obsession for the four-man band from Liverpool celebrated its 50th birthday yesterday.

Love Me Do was an interesting song, but it wasn’t the thing that really launched their career

Even though it only peaked at number 17 on the British charts, Love Me Do was not only the group’s first record but also their first hit.

“It’s obviously the first single, but more importantly, it established their policy of only releasing songs that were written by the Beatles themselves,” said Hamish MacBain, assistant editor at British music magazine NME.

“The fashion at that time was not for big groups to write their own material, so the Beatles were being quite radical in that sense by issuing a single that they had written themselves,” said MacBain.

Love Me Do was recorded in September 1962, though the so-called “fifth Beatle”, producer George Martin, pushed for the release of another song, penned by British singer Adam Faith but performed by the Fab Four. But the Beatles got their way, and Love Me Do, written like so many of their succeeding hits by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, went on sale on October 5, 1962.

The group’s insistence that their singles at least should be all their own work “established a trend that lasted obviously their entire career and became the norm for big groups that became rock bands”, MacBain said.

“You were not considered a serious rock band by the mid-60s unless you were writing your own material.”

The catchy lyrics and recognisable harmonies of Love Me Do were recorded at London’s Abbey Road studios, later made famous by the group as the title of one of their LPs.

Although it kick-started their career and became a British hit, Love Me Do did not spark Beatlemania, said Simon Zagorski-Thomas, a reader in music at University of West London’s college of music.

“Love Me Do was an interesting song, but it wasn’t the thing that really launched their career,” said.

Instead, it was the group’s 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States that made the Beatles a phenomenon distinct from all previous British bands and launched them globally.

Love Me Do is not considered by most observers to be among the Beatles’ masterpieces, MacBain said. “In terms of songwriting it’s pretty basic, and it’s certainly not as good as the stuff they were coming out with a few months later.”

P.S. I Love You was recorded on the B-side of the track, and both songs were featured on the group’s first album Please Please Me, named after their second hit single, which was released in March 1963 and included songs they had not written.

BBC Four TV will air a documentary tomorrow about Love Me Do, with an eyewitness account claiming that the group’s manager Brian Epstein bought 10,000 copies of the single to boost sales.

While the rumour has never been proved, Epstein’s friend and business associate, Joe Flannery, claims in the documentary that the copies were purchased.

Remastered versions of The Beatles’ studio albums will be released on vinyl on November 13 in North America.

The Beatles’ achievements

Throughout their relatively short time recording and performing together, the Beatles set a number of world records – most of which have yet to be broken.

• The Beatles are the bestselling musical group of all time, estimated by EMI to have over one billion discs and tapes sold worldwide.

• The Beatles have notched up the most multi-platinum selling albums for any artist or group (13 in the US alone).

• The Beatles have had more number-one singles than any other group. Ironically, they could easily have had even more number ones, because they were often competing with their own singles.

• The Beatles have had more number-one albums than any other group (19 in the US and 15 in the United Kingdom).

• The Beatles spent the highest number of weeks at number one in the albums chart (174 in the UK and 132 in the US).

• The most successful first week of sales for a double album (The Beatles Anthology Volume 1, which sold 855,473 copies in the US fromNovember 21-28, 1995).

• In terms of charting positions, John Lennon and Paul McCartney are the most successful songwriters in history, with 32 number-one singles in the US for McCartney, and 26 for Lennon (23 of which were written together). Lennon was responsible for 29 number-one singles in the UK, and McCartney was responsible for 28 (25 of which were written together).

• During the week of April 4, 1964, the Beatles held the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart. No one had ever done anything like this before, and it is very doubtful that anyone can do it again.

• The next week, April 11, the Beatles held a record 14 positions on the Billboard.

• The Beatles’ Yesterday is the most covered song in history, appearing in the Guinness Book of Records with over 3,000 recorded versions.

• The Beatles have the fastest-selling CD of all time with 1. It sold over 13 million copies in four weeks.

• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the bestselling album of all time in the UK (over 4.5 million copies sold).

• The Beatles broke television ratings records in the US with their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

• On June 12, 1965, the Beatles were made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen.

• The Beatles appear five times in the top 100 bestselling singles in the UK. No other group appears more than twice.

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