First released: 1962, October 5

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And so it came out, the fruits of two long recording sessions. Ardent Beatles' fans will be aware that the content of the single changed in 1963. Copies pressed before then featured the 4 September version of Love Me Do , Ringo on drums. (Clearly, the 11 September version was not regarded as having been a significant improvement after all.) But later copies, and those available today, feature the Andy White version, from 11 September. The swap took place at the time of the EP release The Beatles' Hits , which included the version with Andy. It was decided that future pressings of Love Me Do should all have this take. To ensure this, the master tape of Ringo's version was destroyed.

The single rose to 17 in the charts, a healthy debut. Sales were heavily concentrated in the Liverpool area, leading to speculation, not disproved to this day, that Brian Epstein, as manager of a record shop, surreptitiously 'bought in' copies of the disc, 10,000 it was said. He denied this (he could do little else) but associates have since admitted that it was likely to be true.

- Mark Lewishon "The Beatles Recording Sessions"