Taking photographs at the session was
Dezo Hoffmann who said that George Harrison tried to avoid the camera
because he still had a black eye that a Pete Best fan had given to him
at the Cavern.
The record began with a distinctive
harmonica solo by John Lennon.
Discussing the harmonica, John said,
"I can't remember why I took it up in the first place - I must
have picked one up very cheap."
In fact, John had shoplifted a harmonica
from a shop in Arnhem during the groups' first trip to Hamburg.
John had been particularly impressed by
the distinctive harmonica opening by Delbert McClinton on the Bruce
Channel hit 'Hey Baby.'
When the Beatles appeared with Channel
at the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton on Thursday June 21 1962, Lennon
drifted over to McClinton and told him how much he liked the harmonica
on the song and asked him how to play the intro. The two of them spent
fifteen minutes together.
'Love Me Do' coupled with 'P.S. I Love
You' was issued in Britain on 5 October 1962.
The record had a red label which
collectors can identify as the single with Ringo on drums - after all
the problems about having a session drummer; the first single issued
featured Ringo after all. However, in April 1963, further pressings of
the single on a black label featured the version with Andy White on
drums.
The single reached its highest position
of No. 17 in one London music paper for one week only, was No. 27 in
another, but at least managed to make its presence felt in all four
London musical weeklies, reaching No. 24 in Disc and No 32 in Record
Mirror, in addition to the Melody Maker and New Musical Express
placings.
Not unexpectedly, it went straight to
No. 1 in the Mersey Beat charts.
In Liverpool there were rumours that
Brian Epstein had bought boxes of copies. I neither believed nor
disbelieved at the time, the Liverpool scene in those days was rife
with gossip, much of it to be dismissed.
As with all rumours, they became
exaggerated as they passed from one person to another. At one moment
it seemed as if he had bought a few boxes of records to cater for the
anticipated demand locally, which was a sensible thing to do and on
the other, there were rumours of a roomful of records. It got out of
all proportion when someone suggested he might have bought up to 1000
records.
It reached a ridiculous stage when it
was suggested he bought 10,000 copies of 'Love Me Do.'
The official British chart was run by
Record Retailer magazine, although the music papers ran their
individual charts, the most respected one being run by the New Musical
Express. They both compiled their charts by having a number of record
shops throughout the country, which they contacted. They varied the
particular shops each week to prevent people going round the same
shops to buy up discs in order to hype their way into the charts. They
would phone a certain number of shops and ask for the sales positions
of their records.
They would then compile their charts
from that.
Brian Epstein would have been aware of
how the charts were compiled. For him to buy 10,000 records would have
been a futile gesture. 'Love Me Do' would have been No. 1 in both NEMS
stores whether they sold 50 or 5,000.
If NEMS had been a chart selection shop
in the weeks the charts were compiled, having 'Love Me Do' at No. 1
wouldn't have had a major effect on the final national figure. The
record would have had to make an impact in shops scattered throughout
Britain to achieve a placing.
Later on, there were people who did
obtain lists of chart shops and sent representatives traveling around
the country buying up records - but only three or four in each shop so
as not to make what they were doing obvious.
Epstein didn't do this, so buying up
10,000 copies would have been a useless exercise.
Brian Epstein said the story was untrue
and he did not buy a bulk order as alleged.
I tend to believe him. As a record store
manager who knew what he was doing he would have been aware that
buying such an amount for his two shops wouldn't have had any great
impact on the charts.
Previous page in this article
1 | 2 | 3 |
4 | 5
