Ringo Starr Remade The Beatles’ ‘Love Me Do’ With Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler
Ringo Starr rerecorded The Beatles‘ “Love Me Do” with a little help from Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Subsequently, Tyler wrote about crossing paths with Ringo. The former initially wanted to change the song.
Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler was having trouble with his band and Ringo Starr could relate because of his time with The Beatles
In his 2011 book Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir, Tyler discussed getting recruited to work on Ringo’s 1998 album Vertical Man. “Around that time, [producer] Marko Hudson was working on a Ringo album and put me on the phone with him — never mind the fact that it was the first time I’d ever spoken with Ringo, one of my heroes (an actual Beatle), and to say the least I was beside myself,” Tyler wrote.
Tyler was having difficulty with the other members of Aerosmith at the time. “I thought to myself, if I’m having problems with my bandmates and you’re in The Beatles, I can only imagine what you went through,” he recalled.
Ringo Starr initially didn’t want Steven Tyler to reproduce 1 part of The Beatles’ ‘Love Me Do’
Tyler said he butted heads with the other members of Aerosmith on almost every album the band produced. Ringo said he could relate to that. At that point, Tyler had been sober for six years. “The funny part is that we spoke for almost an hour about all this stuff and he ends by saying, ‘Well, good luck man … enjoy your sobriety,'” Tyler recalled.
According to the 2015 book Ringo: With a Little Help, Ringo discussed how the cover of “Love Me Do” evolved. “Originally we backed off the John Lennon harmonica line, because I thought that might be pushing it,” Ringo said. “So Steven [Tyler] did some sort of scat version, then the next day I said, ‘No, c’mon, it’s so silly we’re hiding from this.’ So we did the harmonica again.”
How the original ‘Love Me Do’ and the new version performed on the pop charts in the United States
The original “Love Me Do” was a massive hit in the United States. The tune topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, staying on the chart for 14 weeks in total. It appeared on the compilation album 1962-1966. The album reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 175 weeks.
On the other hand, the new version of the song was not a single. It never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on the album Vertical Man, which reached No. 61 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for four weeks.
“Love Me Do” was a huge hit and it later became a bridge between The Beatles and Aerosmith.
