In a few months, Ringo went from being a Liverpool drummer to playing behind John Lennon and Paul McCartney. We call that a promotion or better, "the luck of Ringo."
He had a great sense of humor and the media loved him. Ringo had critical roles in the Beatles’ movies, such as his “ring” in Help and that funny walk to “This Boy: Ringo’s theme,” in A Hard Day’s Night.
Ringo did a couple of “lead vocals”, such as the # 1 song: “Yellow Submarine.” However, his greatest contribution was being a professional drummer, exactly what George Martin had in mind back then.
We remember Ringo’s birthday and I hope that he is doing well. By the way, Pete Best will turn 82 in November and you can send him a card if you are a charitable mood.
Can anyone imagine Pete Best singing "Yellow Submarine" or "Act Naturally" or "With a Little Help From My Friends" ? I can't.
As my late parents commented when they missed a big lottery ticket by one number, it wasn't meant to be. It was not. I told my parents on the phone that they didn't have the luck of Ringo. They had no idea of what I was talking about. A few days later, I told them the story of Ringo and they understood my reference.
Ringo looks phenomenal for his age. And he’s still out performing.
Can anyone imagine Peter Best singing.....
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). If he had been able to do it, I guess we’d just associate him with that character without thinking about it.
Andy White, a local professional drummer, was hired to play on “Love Me Do” (single release).
IIRC, Ringo was “playing” tambourine on that version.
Another take has Ringo playing drums sans tambourine.
So if you hear “Love Me Do” with a tambourine in background, that’s Andy White on drums.
His unique voice was also used for narration on Thomas and Friends.
They cut all of Clarence’s parts out of “Love Me Do.”
Ringo colors his beard and his hair which keeps him looking much younger than his chroni.ogical age,
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.
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
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.
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.
I believe the firing of Pete Best was more complicated than that. The other Beatles realized he wasn’t up to drumming, and they’d been wanting to tempt Ringo to join for a while.
George Martin did NOT replace Pete Best with Ringo.
He didn’t think Pete’s drumming was good enough for recording and told them all that he would use his own session drummers for the records.
The Beatles swapped out Pete for Ringo and when they brought HIM to record “Love Me Do”, George Martin didn’t want Ringo either.
He eventually softened.
No flamboyant drum solos (that I can think of). But, if you listen close, Ringo’s drumming is highly detailed and intricate. Also, I don’t think he ever missed a beat.