Andy White plays drums on the version found on the "Please Please Me" album. Ringo
is playing tambourine. The version without tambourine can be found on "Past Masters: Volume
One" and it remains the only way to tell the difference between the versions. A third
version was released to the public under "Anthology One" with Pete Best playing drums.
"Love Me Do" was part of the group's repertoire from the time it was released through
the autumn of 1963.
John Lennon plays the harmonica on "Love Me Do", which is not to be confused with the
so-called "Blues Harp", which is only capable of playing in a major key or it's relative
minor (for example, a "Blues Harp" in C can play melodies in C major or A minor). The
harmonica can play chromatic passages through the use of a button which modulates each
note. It is not possible to play the entire "Love Me Do" solo on a "Blues Harp" although
the intro is possible. Lennon is reported to have been inspired to include the harmonica into this song from listening to "Hey! Baby" by Bruce Channel and later meeting Dilbert McClinton, the harmonica player.
Eric Idle, of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" fame, was responsible for a parody of the
Beatles career, aired on TV for the first time in 1978, and called "All You Need Is Cash".
The comedy chronicles, in semi-documentary form, the career of a band known as "The Rutles".
Their first single is referred to as "Rut Me Do".
Paul McCartney has included "Love Me Do" in concert appearances throughout the late
80s/early 90s as a reggae mutation of "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" which he called
"P.S. Love Me Do".
