The five best candidates for being the ‘fifth Beatle’
The entire whirlwind of The Beatles’ success is something that only comes around once every century. By being in the right place at the right time and boasting some of the catchiest tunes in the world, the Fab Four turned in the kind of career that most people only dream of, with every single record being a completely different experience. It takes more than four people to take over the world, though, and there were more than a few people who have earned the right to be called the ‘fifth Beatle’.
Then again, no group member was really replaceable in the beginning. Everyone had their unique charm about them, and without any of their talents, the whole thing would have collapsed. Looking in the background of certain albums, though, there were always some advisors slowly guiding them along and seeing where they went beyond the standard pop song fare of the time.
That’s before getting into what they were like from a business perspective as well. The music industry is as much about making good financial decisions as it is about the music, and by having these juggernauts in their corner, the group developed a situation where they practically couldn’t lose in whatever scenario came their way.
Although The Beatles weathered the toughest setbacks any band had to face, it was always these people who guided them through and made sure that everything was smooth sailing in the background. They weren’t meant to be around beyond the 1960s, but a few background characters were instrumental in turning these simple tunes into the anthems of the golden age of rock and roll.
So, who was the fifth Beatle?
5. Pete Best
There will always be some sour grapes when someone gets kicked out of a band. For all of the band of brothers mentality that someone has for their fellow musicians, it’s sometimes for the greater good that certain people have to be cut loose. Although Pete Best was clearly not meant to go the distance in the same way Ringo Starr was, his way of keeping the group anchored in the beginning is the reason why they became such a fan favourite in Liverpool.
Outside of his mother owning the Cavern Club, Best kept the group stable from behind the kit. Whereas John Lennon and Paul McCartney could have exaggerated personalities, Best was the quiet one in the back with the curly hair bashing away. As it turns out, that quietness might have been a bit of a problem going forward.
Besides not looking the part, Best was clearly the weakest of the group when it came time to record, leading to Starr taking his place going forward. It’s not the legacy that any musician wants for themselves, but at the end of the day, how many people can accurately state that they were a part of one of the greatest bands in the world?
4. Geoff Emerick
A band has always had a symbiotic relationship with its producer. If the musicians come up with ideas for songs, the producer is the team captain, overseeing everything and making sure everyone knows their parts properly. That leaves little room for the engineer, but what Geoff Emerick did to the group’s sound is something that’s more felt than heard half the time.
Despite not coming on until the group’s middle period, Emerick’s outlandish choices are what made their music stand out as opposed to the thinner production of their early records. Even though it was against studio policy, his choice of putting mikes slightly closer to the drum than usual is what made ‘Paperback Writer’ sound so magical, and no one could ever forget the kind of psychedelic flourishes that came together when making something like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.
While Emerick eventually quit in protest halfway through The White Album, he did make up with them to a certain extent, even reuniting with McCartney in the 1970s for Band on the Run. There are some more dubious people in the studio that we will get to later, but Emerick is the kind of person that made those recordings sound much more exciting than any other group out at the time.
3. Billy Preston
The Beatles were never snobs about who they could perform with. Many people would have given their left arm for a jam session with them, but it was all about who best served the song. Although many people would include someone like Eric Clapton in this spot, Billy Preston is one of the few people who provided the glue during the darkest days of their career in the late 1960s.
Since the Get Back project wasn’t coming together, Preston stopped by the studio to jam on some tunes, after which the entire band lit up. Even though he’s credited on only a handful of tunes, a lot of his arrangement choices are key parts of their tunes, like the little piano lick in between the verses of ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ or hearing him filling out the mix on ‘Don’t Let Me Down’.
Out of all the potential fifth members, Preston was one of the few that Lennon was vocal about getting in the group, remarking in the Get Back documentary that he liked the idea of bringing in Preston as a member. The band may have imploded instead, but it’s worth it to imagine what a version of the Fab Five might have been had Preston been able to lay down some of his soulful chops to more of their tunes.
2. Brian Epstein
One of the biggest headaches of the music industry is having to deal with the business side of things. It only takes one listen of ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ to realise how much it bothered McCartney, and usually, a manager is the person who ends up taking care of that. And if they had only had Brian Epstein there for the latter half of the 1960s, perhaps the group could have stayed the course for a little bit longer.
Although Epstein was seen as a pseudo-father figure for the group when they first started, he was instrumental in steering them through the PR side of their career. He was the one who helped define their image as a loveable group of mop-top lads, and when Lennon came under fire for his infamous “bigger than Jesus” remarks, Epstein did a fantastic job getting the public back on their side by handling Lennon’s apology.
And to illustrate how much Epstein meant to the group, their relationship with their new manager and complete shithead Allen Klein during their final years should tell you everything you need to know. Epstein could be considered the one in charge of the boring stuff, but if the paperwork and agents weren’t happy, then The Beatles would have been in a lot more hot water far more often.
1. George Martin
Most of the people on this list are usually concerned with operating on one aspect of The Beatles’ music. Whereas Epstein was about choreographing the band’s image for the kids, Preston and Best could be considered the liferafts for the group at the beginning and end of their careers. From the minute they walked into the studio, though, George Martin was the definition of what a true ‘Fifth Beatle’ is supposed to look like.
From day one, Martin saw the charm and potential in the lads when no one else could when he brought them into Abbey Road Studios. Since the group had no knowledge of music theory, half of what Martin did on both the arrangements and transcribing their music is enough to give him some long overdue royalties if his estate were interested in pursuing any legal dispute over their songs.
But the greatest strength of Martin was his inability to say ‘no’ to whatever strange idea they had, whether that meant turning ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ into one of their greatest recordings or being given the bare minimum on ‘I Am The Walrus’ and turning it into an art rock extravaganza. Many people have been called the ‘Fifth Beatle’ throughout the years, but in terms of what the group sounded like from beginning to end, no one even comes close to what Martin did for the group.
