Posted on 07/07/2023 7:34:47 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Happy birthday to Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) who was born on this day in 1940 and turns 83 today. Ringo is one of the two surviving members of what we used to call “The Fab Four.“ The band stopped recording 50-plus years ago and we are still talking about it. I guess that's impressive.
Ringo will probably go down in history as one of the luckiest men ever born. Talk about “being in the right place at the right time” or winning the biggest lottery of all time. "The luck of Ringo" or something like that.
In the summer of 1962, The Beatles, new producer George Martin, walked into a studio to record their first single. Martin settled on “Love Me Do,” a Lennon-McCartney tune, and it did reach the top 20 in the UK. It did not chart in the US. The B-side was “P.S. I Love You”, one of their most underrated songs!
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. I recall Martin in a documentary saying that they could keep Pete but that he'd use a studio musician to play drums on the record. Martin understood the friendship dynamics of the band but he had a job to do and a record to make and subsequently play.
Pete Best was out. Ringo Starr was in. Pete ended up with 9 to 5 job and sadly no one will write an article about his birthday. Ringo has a big mansion and everyone remembers his birthday.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Also if you hear George’s version of “It Don’t Come Easy”, you can hear why he ended up lending it to Ringo.
Some said that Ringo was Yassir Arafat’s doppelganger.
He was crap back in the 60s, and is crap today.
As long as he keeps his mouth shut, he’s tolerable.
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.
You aren’t aware that the Yassar Arafat/Ringo look alike jokes? It didn’t help that I grabbed the wrong picture to post.
If you listen to Ringo’s drumming with Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, you can tell he was light years ahead of Pete Best.
No. New to me. Thanks.
Ringo isn’t a great singer, but his voice is distinctive.
That was one of the great things about The Beatles, each had a distinctive voice that was suited for the different songs they did.
Now, THAT’s funny!
I liked/like The Beatles, just not Ringo.
Ringo for President--The Young World Singers
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
I remember that one from Dr. Demento.
Plus, he married a Bond Girl.
Barbara Bach. And is STILL married.
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.
Selleck could not get out of his Magnum commitment to do Raiders.
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.
He has an old Mustang and a 57 BelAir. Can’t be all bad.
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