I've never been a big fan of "Love Me Do."   I'm wondering why the Beatles and/or George Martin didn't push for something like "I Saw Her Standing There" as the first single.  I think it's a great song (was never a single, I think) and it just kicks a**, compared to LMD.

I'm pretty sure the Beatles were playing ISHST before they went into the recording studio to do LMD.

Any thoughts?

I Saw Her Standing There would have been a number 1 ...

Yeah, I've got a recording of them playing ISHST from either the Cavern days or the Hamburg days, I don't quite remember, but I know it's from some time before they released their first LP.

Ask Me Why, one of my favs from PPM.

I should never never never be blueeeeeeee oo. greatness

What about Hello Little Girl? I think it could have been a number one in October 62.

Twist And Shout would have been a great one to start with. I'm not too sure about Hello Little Girl, they rejected it themselves later.

I believe the early versions of I Saw Her Standing There, recorded at the Cavern in late September, were rehearsals in preperation for a return trip to EMI recording studios -  Besame Mucho and a version of Love Me Do (both with Pete Best on drums) had already been recorded on 6 June 1962, and an early version of Please Please Me was recorded on 11 September 1962. Their next visit to the studios was on 26 November 1962 when they recorded Ask Me Why and re-recorded Please Please Me.

I suppose the only other completed song they could possibly have released is One After 909, which was also rehearsed at the Cavern in late September.

Twist and Shout would have been great and a definite hit - but it would have gone against their policy of only releasing their own self-written numbers. It was released on the Twist and Shout EP though and got very high in the UK charts despite Brian Poole and the Tremeloes dreadful version, which was out at the same time and reached number 4!

The only reasonable asumption is that ISHST wasn't written  before the end of 62, otherwise I'm sure the fabs would have proposed it to Martin.
I know it's on the Hamburg Star Club record but that's from the right at the end of 62.

So we know Love Of The Loved, Like Dreamers Do and Hello Little Girl as self-written songs they performed before June 1962. Together with Love Me Do. They had a couple of more (I'll Follow The Sun for instance), but those were obviously not ready for recording at the particular moment. Well, guess you are George Martin and have to make a choice between these four... I might still choose Love Me Do.

Quoted from Bobber

So we know Love Of The Loved, Like Dreamers Do and Hello Little Girl as self-written songs they performed before June 1962. Together with Love Me Do. They had a couple of more (I'll Follow The Sun for instance), but those were obviously not ready for recording at the particular moment. Well, guess you are George Martin and have to make a choice between these four... I might still choose Love Me Do.

Sorry if I'm boring you, Bobber ... but IF I were Sir George and the songs were:

Love Of The Loved
Like Dreamers Do
Hello Little Girl and
Love Me Do

... the single would have been Hello Little Girl with Love Me Do as the B-side ... I still think that Hello Little Girl is more uptempo and fits beter with the kind of pop music in 1962, at least in Britland.

If I were thinking of two singles:
Hello Little Girl/Love Of The Loved
and Love Me Do/Like Dreamers Do

'cos my ranking would be:

Hello Little Girl
Love Me Do and Like Dreamers Do (these two very close)
Love Of The Loved

P.S. If I Saw Her Standing There was written when Paul was 17 and the famous line changed by John was already done I'm sure that the song was composed and arranged by that time tho there are some very little differences between Star Club  and Please Please Me LP versions (the chorus for example) the main theme was there for sure ... a mystery for me is why they didn't recorded it for the single ... but they didn't make good decisions at the begining of their career ... Hello Little Girl and some others were rejected but how many mediocre covers they choosed instead of them and how many of the songs they gave away were hits in 1963 and specially 1964? Then we say that they'd not got enough material to record but that's not exactly true ... and the Anthologies and the songs they gave away prove this.

Heck, why NOT Love Me Do? They had a sack full of excellent songs, they only needed to randomly select one. It turned out to be Love Me Do.

Quoted from Lostio

Heck, why NOT Love Me Do? They had a sack full of excellent songs, they only needed to randomly select one. It turned out to be Love Me Do.

Absolutely. 'Love Me Do' fit the bill, it was a reasonable choice for a first single, and then to follow it up with 'Please Please Me' was a great one-two punch and well thought out. Just imagine if they'd released 'How Do You Do It' like GM wanted to? They'd have just been another Liverpool band. And even though they hated that song, they still made it sound great. I'll never understand why people want to change the history of the band and the songs they released. "I Saw Her Standing There", if memory serves, was the one of the last songs recorded for 'Please Please Me', if not the last, and it ended up being the first song on the album, and what a kick a** choice for an opener, but as a first single--nope.

Did ISHST hit number one in the US? I'll have to check.

I appreciate the discussion.  I guess I just hear ISHST alot on radio these days (compared to LMD); it seems to have stood the test of time better.  At least for CLear Channel.

But of course that's hindsight and LMD does have the melding of country and blues that would have been a little more unusual or innovative for 1962.