My Little Red Book

Bacharach and David wrote it for Woody Allen's film What's New Pussycat? Manfred Mann made the first recording in April 1965 at EMI Studios in London, and their single stalled at number 124 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart. Lee and Echols saw the film, loved Manfred Mann, and added the song to Love's set. Holzman, watching them play it at a club, was impressed by their manic intensity.

Love recorded it on 25 January 1966, the second of four days at Sunset Sound for the debut album, with Holzman and Mark Abramson producing and Botnick engineering. The backing track was taped live on four-track, and Lee overdubbed his lead and harmony vocals. They played it faster, with a stomping, tambourine-driven beat, and Echols said he had forgotten some of the chords after seeing the film. That became the arrangement they kept. Elektra released it in March 1966 as the band's first single, backed with A Message to Pretty. It topped the Los Angeles charts and reached number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 35 on the Cash Box Top 100, the first hit record released by Elektra.

Cash Box picked it as its newcomer of the week. Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground said the band listened to it repeatedly, trying to unlock Love's sound. Bacharach wrote in his 2013 memoir that he did not like their version because they played the wrong chords, though he was glad of the credibility it gave him in rock and roll. Dave Marsh ranked it number 868 in his 1989 list of the 1,001 greatest singles, and it has been called a standard of garage rock.