The luck of Ringo: Can anyone imagine Pete Best singing "Yellow Submarine" or "With a Little Help From My Friends"?

American Thinker ^ | 07/07/2023 | Silvio Canto Jr.

[dfwgator]

Also if you hear George’s version of “It Don’t Come Easy”, you can hear why he ended up lending it to Ringo.

[dfwgator]

Some said that Ringo was Yassir Arafat’s doppelganger.

[Carriage Hill]

He was crap back in the 60s, and is crap today.
As long as he keeps his mouth shut, he’s tolerable.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

The Beatles gave Pete Best $500K for including recordings he was part of on their anthology album. And if you listen to the tracks, you’ll notice he couldn’t keep a beat.

[shotgun]

You aren’t aware that the Yassar Arafat/Ringo look alike jokes? It didn’t help that I grabbed the wrong picture to post.

[dfwgator]

If you listen to Ringo’s drumming with Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, you can tell he was light years ahead of Pete Best.

[dfwgator]

This one’s for you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj-2Tcuzy0I

[kinsman redeemer]

You aren’t aware that the Yassar Arafat/Ringo look alike jokes?

No. New to me. Thanks.

[rbg81]

Ringo isn’t a great singer, but his voice is distinctive.

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I agree, but he’s had some big hits (Photograph comes to mind). I really liked George Harrison as a singer best of all. His song “What is Life” is in my top 5. Always makes me feel better.

[dfwgator]

That was one of the great things about The Beatles, each had a distinctive voice that was suited for the different songs they did.

[Carriage Hill]

Now, THAT’s funny!
I liked/like The Beatles, just not Ringo.

[Fiji Hill]

Some folks wanted Ringo in the White House. This tune got a lot of airplay on KRLA, LA's Official Beatles Station, in the summer of 1964:

Ringo for President--The Young World Singers

[bethelgrad]

John and Paul would’ve sky rocketed no matter what. With Ringo they completed the bands image with a lovable comedic presence. And his drumming perfectly complimented the songs

[Fiji Hill]

The Invasion--Buchanan & Greenfield (1964)

[dfwgator]

I remember that one from Dr. Demento.

[woodbutcher1963]

Plus, he married a Bond Girl.

Barbara Bach. And is STILL married.

[Rummyfan]

The rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say, is that Martin replaced drummer Pete Best, an original member of the band and lifelong friend from Liverpool. Martin replaced Pete with Ringo. Martin's decision was all business. Pete just wasn't up to the task of being the drummer in a recording.

As one saying goes, it's show business not show friends. And Pete Best either just didn't have the talent or was not willing to work to up his play. But imagine having to live with that the rest of your life.

[Rummyfan]

It’s like saying, imagine Tom Sellect as Indiana Jones (as Selleck was supposedly offered the role, but could not do it because of other commitments).

Selleck could not get out of his Magnum commitment to do Raiders.

[John Milner]

George Martin did not fire, nor have Pete Best fired.

It’s true that he said Pete was not good enough for the recordings and told the group he would be using a session drummer and they could keep Pete for live performances.

The group (John, Paul, George) decided to fire Pete. But they also lacked the will to do it themselves and forced their manager, Brian Epstein to do the dirty work.

Meanwhile the group, and specifically George, pursued Ringo to join up, which he did following his weekend gig at a holiday camp.

The sessions for Love Me Do included versions with both Ringo on drums and Andy White. The original UK (and Canadian) single versions are the Ringo version. The US and rest of the world got the version with Andy White that also was on the Please Please Me UK album.

The Ringo version was wiped/lost. Such that when the Rarities album was released about 1980, the Ringo version was culled/mastered from a mint copy of the Canadian single.

[Seruzawa]

He has an old Mustang and a 57 BelAir. Can’t be all bad.