How to Play “Love Me Do” On Guitar?
The English rock band the Beatles’ official first song is “Love Me Do,” followed by “P.S. I Love You.” When it was first released in the United Kingdom on October 5, 1962, it peaked at number 17. It was the number-one hit in the United States when it was released in 1964. It was re-released in 1982 as part of EMI’s Beatles 20th anniversary celebrations, and it re-entered the UK charts, peaking at number four.
In this simple beginning guitar lesson, we’ll learn how to play the Beatles’ classic, Love Me Do. This tune is an excellent method to learn about song structure. Songs in the course have previously repeated the same chord sequence throughout the song. So, let’s start!
Who are The Beatles?
The Beatles were a 1960s English rock band from Liverpool. They are sometimes referred to be the most impactful band of all time, with a lineup that includes John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The group was instrumental in the emergence of the 1960s counterculture and the acknowledgment of popular music as an art form. Their sound, which was based on skiffle, beat, and 1950s rock and roll, innovatively blended elements of classical music and conventional pop; the band eventually explored musical genres ranging from lullabies and Indian music to psychedelic and hard rock. The group revolutionized many parts of the music business as pioneers in recording, composition, and artistic presentation. They were frequently publicized as leaders of the era’s youth and societal movements.
Led by the band’s key composers, John and Paul McCartney, the Beatles established themselves in clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period beginning in 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe on bass. The core 3 of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison had been together since 1958 and had gone through several drummers, including Pete Best, before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. After their debut hit, “Love Me Do,” in late 1962, manager Brian Epstein molded them into a professional group, and producer George Martin led and improved their records, substantially increasing their domestic popularity. As their success expanded into the extreme fan frenzy known as “Beatlemania,” the band earned the moniker “Fab Four,” with Epstein, Martin, as well as other members of the band’s crew occasionally referred to as the “fifth Beatle.”
The Beatles became international…
The Beatles became international sensations by early 1964, leading the “British Invasion” of the US music industry and shattering multiple sales records. They made their cinematic debut shortly after with A Hard Day’s Night (1964). From 1965 through 1967, they released more inventive records, such as Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) and achieved financial success with The Beatles (commonly known as “the White Album,” 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). (1969). They created Apple Corps in 1968, a multi-armed multimedia organization that now oversees initiatives linked to the band’s heritage. Following the group’s dissolution in 1970, all four members achieved success as solo performers. Lennon was assassinated in December 1980, while Harrison died in November 2001 of lung cancer. McCartney and Starr are still active musicians.
Most outstanding music act of all time
The Beatles are the most outstanding music act of all time, with over 183 million certified units sold in the United States and an estimated 600 million units sold globally. They have the most number-one albums on the UK Albums List, the most number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the most singles sold in the UK. The band was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and each of the four significant members was inducted separately between 1994 and 2015. In 2008, the trio topped Billboard’s list of the Billboard Hot 100’s all-time most successful musicians. Seven Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, one Academy Award, and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards have been bestowed upon the band. Time listed them among the 100 most influential persons of the twentieth century.
The Backstory of the “Love Me Do”
This was written by John Lennon, and Paul McCartney in 1958, when John was 17 and Paul was 16. By skipping school, they created time for songwriting. They had previously created songs, but “Love Me Do” was the first one they loved enough to record. McCartney penned this about his then-girlfriend, Iris Caldwell.
“Love Me Do” was the first single released by The Beatles. It was released by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom on October 5, 1963, and peaked at number 17 on January 2, 1963. The band’s popularity skyrocketed with their following two UK singles, “Please Please Me,” which peaked at #2 on February 27, and “From Me to You,” which peaked at #1 on May 8.
Despite their popularity in the United Kingdom, the band struggled to get noticed in the United States. Capitol Records, Parlophone’s US equivalent, refused to release “Love Me Do,” assuming it would fail. It was eventually released in the United States on the tiny Tollie label on April 27, 1964, amid the peak of Beatlemania. On May 30, it became the group’s fourth US number-one hit.
1962 and After That…
By 1962, The Beatles were regularly performing at a club in Hamburg, Germany. They generally played cover songs, especially blues tunes by American musicians, so introducing an original, “Love Me Do,” into their repertoire was a major deal since they didn’t make sure how it would hold up against songs like Little Richard and Ray Charles. The song was well-received and instilled confidence in The Beatles, leading to them creating and performing additional original songs.
When they auditioned for Parlophone Records, the producer they auditioned for was George Martin, who went on to become a crucial role in the Beatles’ history by helping create their sound. He started experimenting with the tune immediately away, adding the harmonica portion. Fortunately, John Lennon could play the harmonica and came up with something.
The Beatles recorded three different drummers for this song. Pete Best was still their drummer during their first Parlophone audition in June 1962. Ringo Starr was their drummer when they recorded it on September 4, but when George Martin thought it would be the single, he made them record it again a week later.
Andy White and After That
He recruited a session drummer named Andy White for this session and stuck Ringo with the tambourine. The version with Ringo drumming was published as a UK single; however, Andy White’s drumming was used for the album version. When Ringo was bumped during the session, he didn’t throw a tantrum, but he was irritated and felt uncomfortable, especially because The Beatles had just dismissed a drummer. The US single features White on drums.
Lennon always did the lead vocal before they recorded this, but when his harmonica part was included, McCartney had to sing it since Lennon’s mouth was full of harmonica. At the audition, Paul believes that you can hear the anxiety in his voice. “Love Me Do” was recorded on a one-track mono tape. There is no stereo version.
This was mostly a McCartney composition. Despite the fact that he and Lennon shared equal authorship credits on their songs. Certain songs were inherently Lennon compositions, and some McCartney songs. The majority of the song was written by McCartney at his house on Forthlin Road. The middle stanza, “someone to love, somebody new, someone to live, someone like you,” was written by John Lennon.
How to Play “Love Me Do” On Guitar? – Chords
In the playing of “Love Me Do,” basically, we need three chords. We have a G major, a Cadd9 which is a variation of a normal C chord. And a D major chord. So, we are playing this with a four-fingered G so with our third and little finger down. Cadd9 is just with your first two fingers down a string from that G. Then we just got a normal D chord. And we can play this whole song which was one of The Beatles’ first hits.
How to Play “Love Me Do” On Guitar? – Chords Sequence
We are going to get you into a close-up now. Let’s just have a quick close-up on these chords for “Love Me Do.” We have a G chord, then we’re going to move the first and second fingers down a string. And we strum from string five. And that gives us our Cadd9, which is a much easier C chord to go to when we are changing between G and C. Which we are going to be doing for the majority of this song.
As well as it is an easier change, it sounds quite nice as well. But it does stop as we are to go all the way for that C chord there. So, we want two strums of each chord if we’re strumming along with the lyrics. And we can do this to get a feel for the song. Once we’ve had three lines of the song, we just stay on that C chord for a little longer. Then there’s a pause; there’s an actual mute; it’s four strums of a C chord. Then we go back to doing the G – C little routine again. So, let’s have to go through that little routine.
Let’s have a go from the G chord from the top…
After two Cadd9, again a G, Cadd9 again, and stay on the C for three lines and, after all, mute. Then we start from the G again on the “Do” of the “Love me Do” line of the lyrics, to the Cadd9, and just alternate G to a C. And any time then they’re not singing, or there’s the harmonica plane, you just go through those two chords. Pretty straightforward if we can accelerate this strumming and make it sound a bit cooler; let’s go for four strums per chord. You can strum all the strings; however, if we strum just the thicker strings on the first strum and then everything on the second one. Basically, the root note of the chord and then going down for everything sounds really cool; it’s going to sound really elevate everything.
How to Play “Love Me Do” On Guitar? – Bridge Section
Then we have the “someone to love” section that we couldn’t do before, but now we can because we have an extra chord and that chord is a D chord. We have two bars of the D if we just strum this on the beat. Cadd9, back to a G, and the same as that again, and finally, Cadd9 back to a G chord.
Final Thoughts
That’s the full proper way how to play “Love Me Do” by The Beatles. Do check out any of these songs if you like what this lesson does and you want some similar songs on the Deplike Learning App and follow the Deplike Blog to catch new posts about guitar playing or start to use the Deplike Learning App for tutorials of your favorite guitar songs.
“Love Me Do” is a simple song to learn for a novice. We hope you enjoyed this lesson and learned how to play The Beatles’ “Love Me Do” on guitar. The Deplike Learning App appears is a great tool for learning new songs. You may study the chords, select a song from the app, learn how to play it. And explore the artists using the active learning approach. Using the Deplike Learning App, you will discover various songs, including “Love Me Do,” which you learned in this post.
