P.S. I Love You

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P.S. I Love You is a the B-Side to The Beatles' 1962 debut single, Love Me Do. It also appeared on their 1963 debut album Please Please Me. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

[edit] Writing

Paul McCartney had written P.S. I Love You around the time of The Beatles' trip to Hamburg in 1962. Paul recalls in his authorized biography, Many Years From Now, "It's just an idea for a song really, a theme song based on a letter, like the Paperback Writer idea. It was pretty much mine. I don't think John had much of a hand in it. There are certain themes that are easier than others to hang a song on, and a letter is one of them. 'Dear John' is the other version of it. The letter is a popular theme and it's just my attempt at one of those. It's not based in reality, nor did I write it to my girlfriend [Dot Rhone] from Hamburg, which some people think." The female fans loved the sentimental lytics of the song, and it soon became an important part of their stage shows. Originally, the song was considered as the A-Side to their first single, but session producer Ron Richards vetoed this idea due to the fact that the title had already been used for a seperate, unrelated song. Richards recalls, "I was originally a music publishing man, a plugger, so I knew that someone had already done a record with that title," He was talking about a 1934 song originally by Rudy Vallée, written by Gordon Jenkins and Johnny Mercer.

[edit] Recording

The first time this song was recorded was during The Beatles' first session at Abbey Road Studios, on June 6, 1962, when an unknown number of takes were recorded. At the time, Pete Best was still the drummer for The Beatles, so he drummed on this recording. This recording, however, was destroyed after it would be decided that that version would not be released, a practice not uncommon in the early 1960's. The released version is from September 11, 1962, whe ten takes of the song were recorded. At this session, though he was the official Beatles drummer by this time, Ringo Starr does not play drums on the recording. Ron Richards had been displeased of his playing when he played with them on a September 4 session. For this reason, Ringo only plays maracas while session drummer Andy White played drums. P.S. I Love You was rerecorded three times for BBC Radio. These included versions recorded for Here We Go (Recorded October 25, 1962), The Talent Spot (November 27), and Pop Go The Beatles (June 17, 1963).

[edit] Recording Sessions

  • June 6, 1962: The first Beatles session ever at Abbey Road Studios. →


[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Guest Musicians

[edit] Production

[edit] Available Versions

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Paul McCartney

  • Live unplugged in Rio De Janiero, (Bootlegs)

[edit] Available On

[edit] Cover Versions

[edit] Source

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