Love Me Do is a strange little record. Of course, it was the first Beatles record in the UK, and the fab-four also recorded Love Me Do eight times for the BBC. More recently, Paul performed Love Me Do on Pinkpop 12-06-2016.

But that's not the complete story: all in all, the Beatles recorded and released five versions of Love Me Do, and a 6th version remained unreleased. And four different drummers played on these records! Here we present a compilation of all six studio versions of Love Me Do, including the previously unreleased version of 1969. In running order:

1) Pete Best on drums: recorded on June 6, 1962, poor Pete didn't realize that this recording would cost him his seat behind the drum kit. The EMI recording staff were unimpressed by his irregular time-keeping, and the other 3 Beatles didn't mind trading him in for a better drummer like Ringo Starr. But history has been too unkind to Pete Best. True, his timekeeping on the is recording is sloppy, but so are the vocals and the overall performance of the band. Perhaps they were nervous, or unaccustomed to working a in a studio? After all, it was the first time that they recorded a Lennon & McCartney composition.

Pete's drumming seems off during the 'middle eight' (someone to love...), but it seems harsh to blame Pete for it; they had played the song live in Hamburg, and had practiced it in the Cavern before the recording session. So this was the way that Lennon & McCartney wanted the drums to play, but Pete was held accountable for the - rather poor - result.....
Pete's version can be recognized by his drumming technique: it sounds like he hits the snare drum laterally instead of vertically, and he plays a busy pattern during the middle eight. Paul's bass sounds poor in this recording, since he as using his old amplifier. They would acquire their Vox amplifiers after this recording session. Paul's vocals are tentative at times, and his voice quivers a bit in places. This version was released on Anthology 1.

2) Ringo on drums, recorded on September 4, 1962. The fab-four assumed they were recording the definitive version for their single, but didn't know yet that there would be another session on September 11th for this little song......
Ringo's drumming is more regular than Pete's, and he hits the snare drum in the usual way. He doesn't vary the pattern during the middle eight, but has a few small fills. The rest of the band sounds more confident, and the bass sound is better defined (thanks to the new amplifiers).
This version can also be recognized by the hand claps (an overdub), and the absence of tambourines.
The hand claps do raise a question: George Martin wanted Paul to sing the middle eight, so that John could play harmonica. But if they had overdub capability, why not use overdubs for the harmonica and have John sing the middle eight?

3) Andy White on drums, recorded September 11th. Poor Ringo was relegated to play the tambourine, but he does it with verve and competes with White for the loudest percussion sounds. Andy White is an excellent time keeper, he plays as regular as clockwork. The overall sound of the recording is the best of the early 3 recording dates. This version can be recognized by the absence of handclaps, and the presence of the tambourine. Also note that a fair dose of reverb is applied to the vocals. This version would make it unto most copies of the single, although the first pressing used Ringo's version.

4) Billy Preston on keyboards, recorded on January 28, 1969. The Fab 4 revisited Love Me Do during the Let It Be recording sessions. Of course, Ringo Starr on drums, while Billy Preston is at the Rhodes electric piano (and Alan Parsons at the controls as engineer). This fourth version has not been released, and in its rough form sounds not too interesting. We edited the Let It Be version to produce a pleasant - stereo! - mix, that might well have been included on the Anthology series. The complete version is available elsewhere in BDJ's Cellar full of Remixes.

5) P.S. Love me do - Paul McCartney, featuring Chris Whitten on drums. Paul made a song mixing two of his first 2 songs, P.S. I love you and Love me do and called it "P.S. Love me do". P.S. I Love You" was the b side of "Love Me Do" single in 1962.
A live version of “P.S. Love Me Do” recorded on April 21, 1990 at Maracara Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was released as a b-side on a U.K. CD single on October 8, 1990 which featured a live recording of The Beatles track “Birthday” as the a-side. Here we use only the Love Me Do verses of the song. There is not much appeal in this hybrid song. Perhaps Paul released this single to show the finger to Michael Jackson and Sony, who owned the rights to most Beatles songs and refused to trade them to Paul: these two songs are the only Beatles songs that McCartney controls, because when he first signed to EMI they had a publishing company called Ardmore and Beechwood which took the two songs, "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You". In doing a deal somewhere along the way Paul was able to get them back and the copyrights now belong to Paul's company MPL Communications Ltd.

6) Ringo vocals: recorded on VH1 Storytellers, a live album by Ringo Starr released in 1998. The album flopped worldwide..... Perhaps this Love Me Do is Ringo's revenge on George Martin and the rest of the world, since this is clearly the best sounding version.

So which of those 6 versions is 'best'? You decide!