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Tuesday, September 4, 1962

The Beatles’ second Abbey Road recording session

For The Beatles

Last updated on June 4, 2021

From Wikipedia:

90 days after their EMI audition, the Beatles returned to EMI Studios, with their new drummer, to record their debut single in Studio 2. They began work on Mitch Murray’s “How Do You Do It”, which Martin had chosen for them, but they disliked the song and wanted to release an original composition. They recorded at least two takes of “How Do You Do It” and at least 15 takes of “Love Me Do”, then the best take of each song was mono mixed and pressed onto an acetate disc for Epstein to hear. The session tapes were later destroyed, as was common practice until 1963. This session’s version of “Love Me Do” was released as the Beatles’ first single; however, it was later replaced with a version recorded seven days later, and the original was destroyed. When the original was later released on compilations, it had to be sourced from an original mono 45 rpm single.

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Beatles – 1962 Dezo Hoffman Photograph From “Love Me Do” Session
From Facebook – 4 September 1962 Photo by Dezo Hoffmann © Apple Corps Ltd.(https://www.thebeatles.com/)

Session activities

  1. How Do You Do It?

    Written by Mitch Murray

    Recording • Unknown number of takes

    Unreleased track

  2. Love Me Do

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Takes 1 - 15

    Unreleased track

  3. How Do You Do It?

    Written by Mitch Murray

    Mixing • Mono mixing from take 2

    AlbumOfficially released on Anthology 1

  4. Love Me Do

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Mono mixing from unknown take number


Staff

Musicians

Production staff


Going further

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn

The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970.

We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!

Buy on Amazon

The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1: My Bonnie through Beatles For Sale (1961-1964)

Nominated for the 2018 Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.

The first book of the series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 1: My Bonnie through Beatles For Sale (1961-1964)" tracks the evolution of the band from their earliest recordings and initial hits, through "Please Please Me", "With The Beatles", "A Hard Day's Night", and "Beatles For Sale". From the first take to the final remix, discover the making of the greatest recordings of all time.

Through extensive, fully-documented research, these books fill an important gap left by all other Beatles books published to date and provide a unique view into the recordings of the world's most successful pop music act.

Buy on Amazon

Paul McCartney writing

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