Wednesday 6 June 2012

Wednesday 6 June 1962


The First Abbey Road Recording Session

Today is the big day, one of the most important days in Beatles history.

At 7pm they had a recording session booked in Studio 2 of the Abbey Road Studios (3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, London).

The session, which acted as both a real recording session as well as an audition, took place between 7pm and 10pm in the presence of Ron Richards and Norman Smith. According to legend, George Martin was not supposed to be in the studio, but he was brought in by Norman Smith because he was baffled by the quality and potential of their songs, especially Love me Do.

Most of the material and documentation of this memorable day was destroyed, but we know for sure that Pete Best was on drums. George Martin was not impressed with his drumming (neither was he with Ringo Starr's work during their second recording session) and rumor has it The Beatles and Brian Epstein used that remark as a reason to sack Pete Best.

During the evening session they played four songs: Besame Much, Love Me Do, PS I Love You and Ask Me Why. All the songs were thought to have been destroyed, but in 1980 Besame Mucho turned up and in 1994 Love Me Do was rediscovered. If you want to hear what they sound like, you should get The Anthology 1 CD.

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