Video: 'Besame Mucho (Anthology 1 Version)'

(Wednesday, June 6, 1962, 7:00-10:00 p.m. British Summer Time) — The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best) visited EMI Studios at 3 Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, London, for the first time ever tonight to record, with George Martin producing, for Parlophone Records.

The Beatles first ran through a number of songs, and then recorded four tracks in Studio Two. Precise numbers of takes are unknown, but they were taped in the following order: “Besame Mucho” and three Lennon-McCartney originals: “Love Me Do,” “PS I Love You” and “Ask Me Why.”

Because none of the recordings was considered worthy of release, the session tapes were destroyed per standard protocol; however, at least two mono recordings (“Besame Mucho” and “Love Me Do”) have since been discovered and were released in 1995.

Video: 'Love Me Do (Anthology 1 Version)'

Assistant producer Ron Richards was initially in charge of the session – George Martin was only brought in when balance engineer Norman Smith was struck by the quality of “Love Me Do.”

Smith instructed tape operator Chris Neal to fetch Martin, who took over the rest of the session. It was unusual for a producer to be present for an artist test. However, on this day Martin stayed for most of the session.

Afterward, he invited them to the control room to talk and listen to the playback.