Is the source for 1982 12" "Love Me Do" single the master tape, or was master lost?

Thanks!

 

It's not as difficult as you think. You can find them on Ebay, although you'll have to shell out $$$$ for one.

 

You're correct. Spizer mentions that Love Me Do was mastered from the Canadian 45.

 

How does the 1992 CD single sound? It has both versions of Love Me Do.

 

I have an original Capitol Canada Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You 45.

Side 1 - 7XCE 17144-7
Side 2 - 7XCE 17145-5

I also have the 1982 EMI-Odeon Japan 12 inch single. The Ringo "Love Me Do" doesn't sound much different than the original CDN single from 1963.

I find it odd that the CDN "Love Me Do" 45 was dubbed from a U.K. single. All 3 unique Capitol Canada Beatles LPs were made from tape dubs direct from EMI U.K. Those tapes are still in EMI Canada's vaults.

Here is a comparison .mp3 of 4 "Love Me Do" 35 second samples from my collection.

1. Capitol Canada 1963 - needle drop - version 1
2. EMI Japan 1982 - needle drop - version 1
3. Past Masters CD - version 1
4. EMI Japan 1982 - needle drop - Andy White version

You'll not hear a lot of a difference between the CDN and JPN needle drops of version 1.

Would be nice to hear a sample of Steve's U.K. 45 next to these.

 

Here's one and you are correct...BIG bucks. With 15 hours left in the eBay auction the Beatles 45 is sitting at $113. U.S. / $119. CDN / £56.56 U.K.

THE BEATLES LOVE ME DO RARE ORIGINAL RED LABEL RECORD

Seller's a bit of nutter though. He says in the description, "There are no scratches and it is a very nice example of this rare and relevant record. Would look nice framed."

 

is under US$150 really that bad of a price for it? (honest question here)

 

The German songs are not on the CD EP and Singles boxes. (and I don't miss them at all on those sets).

 

I'm assuming then, that Ron didn't know the Canadian version was a needle-drop of a needle-drop? :thumbsdn:

Was it that difficult for Capitol to get a real, Parlophone 45 of Love Me Do?

 

Too many needledrops there, Jose!

The Canadian single was, according to Bruce Spizer, a needledrop.

So the U.S. Rarities LP contained a needledrop of a needledrop. Ron Furmanek has said on these boards that his own copy of the Canadian single was used.

I believe that somewhere in the EMI records is an instruction to destroy the Ringo "Love Me Do" master tape. I've got it in my head that this was carried out around August 1963.

EMI did keep first pressings of all their releases (not sure if this is still the case), so they should have an original "Love Me Do" somewhere - maybe it wasn't as good as the one they had loaned to them in 1982!

 

The Norwegian 45, released in 1964 is also the Ringo version.

 

$150 is a very good price. Usually, the red label Love Me Do will cost in the $300 price range.

The price will probably hold until the last few hours of the auction though..

 

Rich,

This may have been answered here, and I no longer have the vinyl of Rarities, but doesn't the album liner notes specify that it was sourced from the single and cleaned up as much as possible. It seems I remember the line, "but a few pops remain..."

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by readingm
I should have been more specific. I meant to ask is there any reason to own either of these strictly based on the sound quality of specific tracks. If this is the best place to find this version of "Love Me Do," are there any other tracks where the mastering would be considered definitive?

Something happened with the stereo version of "Get Back" on PM2. It found in much better quality on the 'Blue Album' cd...

 

LOL!!

 

Bumping this up....

Was looking at this old post when I realized I had the Record Collector Magazine mentioned in the post. So here is a bit of it with some history.

Around 1980, a reasonably clean, original 45 from Ron F. was used as the "best available source" for the track's inclusion on the Capitol compilation LP Rarities. The copy supplied by Ron was the Capitol Of Canada single. This single itself had been mastered not from tape but from a copy of the British Parlophone 45 sent to Capitol. A few years later, a new master tape was struck, this time using another, better-sounding 45 supplied by a record collector, and this has served as the official EMI master tape for the original "Love Me Do" ever since. Mike Heatley's interview with RC talked about this:

RC: You've just mentioned "Love Me Do". I was under the impression that last October EMI were going to reissue the original mono take of that song?

Mike Heatley: I'll tell you the story. We did not have the original tape of "Love Me Do". It was removed at the time the "Beatles' Hits" EP came out (September 1963). The company were instructed at that time not to use the original single version for the EP, but to substitute the album take instead. Then, in the run-up to the twentieth anniversary last October we were searching high and low, not only here but also in Canada, where the single also came out. We even found a friend of mine in Sweden, a collector called Steffan Olander, who got EMI in Sweden to issue the original "Love Me Do " a couple of years ago. He'd given me a copy of this single which was fine, except that about two-thirds of the way through the song became distorted. So there was no way we could use that version; and reluctantly we decided to use the album version for the reissue.

Now, just as the single and picture discs were being pressed up I had a call from another collector and I told him the story. He said he had a friend who had a nearly Mint copy of the original single. You have to appreciate at this stage, it was three days before the single was coming out, the picture discs were all ready to roll, the announcement had already been made to the trade - what could we do? In the end I arranged for a messenger to go to this person's house, pick up the record and deliver it to me here at EMI. I think in the end they said they were going to send a motorbike, and I said no, there's no way you're going to send a bike - what happens if he falls off?!! So in the end we sent a car to pick this record up and deliver it to me here on the Saturday. It was then stored in a safe over the weekend; I came in on the Monday morning, took the record straight up to Abbey Road, we played it and it was clean as a whistle; and that's the version we used for the 12".

 

Bumping this up...Record Collector Interview....

Bumping this up...Record Collector Interview....

 

Cool story. Thank God for collectors when companies make decisions they regret...

 

Hey - you missed a bit!

RC: There is some distortion on the 12" version on the harmonica parts in the middle.
EMI: That is on the original recording.
RC: But that isn't the original recording of "Love Me Do" which is on the American "Rarities" album, is it?
EMI: When the people at Capitol Records were putting together the American issue of "Rarities", they used a tape which was acquired from a dub; but when the tape was being cleaned up much of the quality of the recording was unfortunately lost.

Strangely enough, I recently re-read this great article ("The Beatles and E.M.I." - Record Collector #50, October 1983) and was reminded of the tantalising note at the end - "PART TWO OF THIS INTERVIEW FOLLOWS IN A FUTURE ISSUE"...

As far as I know the second part never did appear in a future issue - anyone know if it did?

It's a shame if it didn't as Mike Heatley was talking openly about The Beatles archive in a way that I don't think had been done before.

 

Was a new vinyl source used for the recent Past Masters remaster, or did they simply use the copy made in 1982? Anyone know for certain?

 

If it's the same transfer, it was speed-corrected for the newer release.

 

Yeah, it was the same 1982 transfer. Mike Heatley said they tried to get it from Canada which wouyld have been a needle drop copy. But that is what they already have. But it would have been a needle drop from back in the day vs one sourced from a 20 year old 45. No matter how much the 45 was protected, the plastic builds up some static. It can't help the sound. My father once owned a company that maufactured plastic for record companies. It was really crappy vinyl. But that is what they used in the states. Overseas was different. Sorry to have gotten off topic!

 

My memory is fuzzy here, but wasn't the other collector Mark Lewisohn?

Derek