The musician Ringo Starr knew never belonged in The Beatles: “I never thought he was great”
There was never any reason for anyone to poke fun at what Ringo Starr was doing whenever he worked with The Beatles.
Sure, the guy never claimed to be the best songwriter in the world, and there were more than a few times where he seemed to be doing the least amount of work in the studio, but every single track that he laid down is what gave their songs the sense of groove that they needed to work. His drum parts became singular hooks unto themselves, and there was no way for anyone to copy that if they were to have brought in a session player for everything.
Then again, that didn’t stop George Martin from trying out Andy White on the first official version of ‘Love Me Do’. Starr was always bitter about being demoted to tambourine on one of his first official recording sessions with the rest of the lads, because it wasn’t like he was fumbling over his kit or anything. He just had some nerves, and when he officially started playing with the group, he was going to beat the drums like his life depended on it.
And even when you look at the other drummers that the band played with over the years, none of them seemed to be able to handle everything quite like Starr did. Jimmie Nicol was always going to be a stand-in until Starr returned to the road, and while he did a serviceable job working with the rest of the band on a few songs, he wasn’t meant to last. Nor was Paul McCartney going to last as the drummer, either. He was a capable timekeeper, but no one had the same type of swing that Starr did.
That’s abundantly clear now, but when the band first started working with Pete Best, it wasn’t exactly gelling like it was supposed to. The whole reason why Andy White showed up at The Beatles’ recording sessions in the first place was that Martin suggested that their drummer wasn’t good enough, and when Starr came in, he fit like a glove with the rest of the band in front of him.
At the same time, I’m not going to sit here and say that it was easy for Best to move on, either. He had slogged it out just like the rest of them during their days in Hamburg, and having Starr waltz in and steal his spot wasn’t going to be easy to get over. But when listening to the way that Best played with the rest of them, Starr knew that he could bring something better to the table than what his predecessor was doing.
Make no mistake, Best was a capable drummer, but Starr knew that he wasn’t the right fit for what the band needed, saying, “They had a good style. I don’t know, there was a whole feel about Paul, George, and John. And Pete [Best], it’s no offence, but I never felt he was a great drummer. He had sort of one style, which was very good for them in those years, I suppose, but I think they felt that they wanted to move out of it more. So I just played the session, and then we went and got drunk, and then I went home.”
A lot of the tension of having a new guy in the band wasn’t going to suddenly go away, but when they went global, there weren’t too many people chanting ‘Justice for Pete’ or anything. Starr was clearly the right man for the job, and in terms of his quick wit in interviews, he seemed to have the same kind of charisma as the rest of his lads, which couldn’t really be said for Best’s reserved demeanour.
He serves his purpose beautifully when working during their early club gigs, but if the band was going to move up the ladder, they needed something more. And when you have a tour de force like Starr behind the kit, it was almost like the band didn’t need to worry about the drums anymore. They had found the perfect timekeeper, and when they started travelling together, they also found another best mate.
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