Quoted from Bobber

I seem to remember that the original version was quite slower and that The Beatles more or less pimped it up and gave it a more Beatlesesque sound. Still it didn't work for them, but it was The Beatles' version that Gerry and the Pacemakers recorded. Not sure if it is a fact though.

That's the way I remember it. Even though it wasn't their song, if it hadn't been for The Beatles Gerry would probably never have had the hit.

Quoted from McLennon

does anyone have Mitch Murry's version?

I've been after that too - there is an except of it on the Anthology 1 DVD. I wanted to see just how much The Beatles added to Mitch Murray's original arrangement.

Did you know Mitch Murray is now a professional speach writer?!

Quoted from The End

Did you know Mitch Murray is now a professional speach writer?!

Is that where you get all your copy from then?

Quoted from Bobber

Apparently. And I tend to agree.

Don't get me wrong: I do like "Love Me Do," but if they wanted to impress George Martin enough to warrant recording another song over the "bona fide" hit, I'd say pull out something a bit more rockin'.  Of course, "Love Me Do" worked, despite it being a pretty soft song.  

I never did understand where "Love Me Do" came from, especially so early in their career.  They started out doing smoking covers of American R&R, yet their very first original composition was a soft ballad?!  It took balls, I gotta say that.  Their roots were in searing R&R, yet they debut with what would later be classified as "Soft Rock."

Quoted from Buttmunker

I never did understand where "Love Me Do" came from, especially so early in their career.  They started out doing smoking covers of American R&R, yet their very first original composition was a soft ballad?!  It took balls, I gotta say that.  Their roots were in searing R&R, yet they debut with what would later be classified as "Soft Rock."

??? I don't know how you come to this conclusion. LMD is very much in keeping with their sound at the time. It was (and still is?) a jaunty little R'nB based pop song with a (then) trendy harmonica sound. It sits very nicely with the rest of the material on Please Please Me (hardly an album of "smoking" or "searing R'n'R") and is very similar to the next two singles (Please Please Me was much slower before Mr Martin got his hands on it and From Me To You is definately of the same ilk.) Don't forget the likes of The Sheik of Araby and Besame Mucho from Decca. And it's hardly a ballad. Rather than unusual it is typical.
George Martin was in charge and I don't think he would have accepted the release of something like Seventeen. He was trying to produce music that would have the widest possible appeal. Rather than requiring "balls" it was more a safe bet.

Well, since I started this thread, I should add one parting note on "How Do You Do It"

Don't misunderstand me, never implied it was one of their best early tunes--far from it. Just meant that it wasn't their worst--but that's all subjective It's pretty obvious the Beatles sounded something less than inspired on the disc, and I was merely pointing out the comparison between it and the Pacemakers version.

(ps: I wonder if Peter Noone would've scoffed at it--sounds right up the Hermit's alley ) (not to demean them, even some of THEIR stuff was slightly decent by early Brit Invasion standards --e.g., "No Milk Today" "Kind of a Hush" (although they were later singles) etc..)