Ringo Starr performs with The Beatles in Germany

Music

Ringo Starr Shares the Beatles Song That Defines His Career

There are plenty of songs from The Beatles that impacted Ringo Starr’s life but he says one was the most important of his career

by Ross Tanenbaum

Published on July 9, 2023

3 min read

Ringo Starr said The Beatles ‘Love Me Do’ is a career-defining song

“Love Me Do” was the debut single by The Beatles, released in the U.K. in 1962. While it wasn’t a No. 1 hit, it put The Beatles on the map as one of the band’s audiences should listen for. Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote the track. However, Lennon said it was mostly Paul’s song, but McCartney claimed it was entirely “co-written.”

“‘Love Me Do’ was completely co-written,” McCartney said in Many Years From Now. “It was just Lennon and McCartney sitting down without either of us having a particularly original idea. We loved doing it, it was a very interesting thing to try and learn to do, to become songwriters. I think why we eventually got so strong was we wrote so much through our formative period.”

When The Beatles first recorded “Love Me Do,” it was with drummer Pete Best. After Best was fired, The Beatles did it again with Ringo Starr, who was on the U.K. version. The third version featured drummer Andy White and this version was included in Please Please Me and the U.S. single.

In an interview with Vulture, Starr said he considers “Love Me Do” as his career-defining song, even though there are a few versions without him. However, since it was the first song, he considers it the most important of his career.

“Because it was the first song, my answer is ‘Love Me Do.’ We were on vinyl. We made a record,” Starr said. “Even though when I got to the studio, George Martin had a session guy for the drums, Andy White, but I played on it anyway. He played it, I played it — he’s on the album, I think, and I’m on the single, so go figure.”

“We were just blessed that George Martin took a chance on us because many record labels sent us down,” he continued. “But the fun was the fact that we were still touring. And only the BBC was playing the song. It would say, ‘Oh, at 3:14 p.m., this song will be on the BBC.’ So we’d all pull over and think, Wow, we’re on the radio. I mean, it was a really big moment. It was magic because we were on this piece of vinyl all to ourselves.”

How did ‘Love Me Do’ perform on the charts?

Fortunately for Ringo Starr, the single he was featured on for “Love Me Do” became a hit. It reached No. 17 in the U.K., which is low for The Beatles, but still enough to get them good radio play. In 1982, it re-entered the charts for the song’s 20th anniversary and reached No. 4.

In 1964, it was released as a single in the U.S., reaching No. 1. However, it wasn’t the first Beatles song to reach that peak in America, as “I Want to Hold Your Hand” hit that milestone before it. Starr wasn’t featured in that version, so fans can debate which version is better.

“Love Me Do” didn’t just change Ringo’s life, as each member of The Beatles achieved superstardom thanks to their debut track.