Aurora Starchild
There would be no Beatles without Sir Ringo Starr, but the latecomer didn’t understand his value for years. The Fab Four was initially comprised of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and drummer Pete Best. After playing for two years, their producer George Martin replaced Pete with Ringo. And poor Ringo thought his stint was over as soon as it began!
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Ringo Starr Quit His Other Band to Join The Beatles on a Moment’s Notice
According to The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, it was John Lennon who invited Ringo Starr (real name Richard Starkey) to join The Beatles on August 14, 1962. But according to Ringo himself, it was their manager, Brian Epstein, who made the call.
“It was a Wednesday and Brian called. I don’t remember John calling although it’s in somebody’s book,” Ringo said in an interview. “’Would you join the band?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘No really join the band.’ I said, ‘Sure yeah when?’ And he said, ‘Now.’”
At the time, Ringo was playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. They had gigs lined up and Ringo didn’t want to leave them on a moment’s notice. So he told Epstein he’d be there Saturday, which was the day his other band took off to rest.
“And that was it,” said Ringo.
Two Days Later, Pete Best Was Formally Fired From The Beatles
Two days later, Beatles drummer Pete Best was fired by Epstein. According to Best, this is how it all went down:
“[Epstein] said ‘I’ve got some bad news for you. The boys want you out and Ringo in.’ He said George Martin wasn’t too pleased with my playing [and] the boys thought I didn’t fit in.”
Two weeks later, The Beatles were recording “Love Me Do.” It’s not the fastest Beatles song by far, but at the time, Ringo wasn’t keeping up the pace.
“I didn’t rate Ringo very highly,” said Martin, according to Michael Seth Starr’s book Ringo: With a Little Help. “He couldn’t do a roll — and still can’t — though he’s improved a lot since.”
Beatles Producer George Martin Brought in Another Drummer to Play “Love Me Do”
George Martin had a timeframe to adhere to, so instead of waiting for Ringo to improve his drumming, he brought in a studio drummer, Andy White.
“Andy was the kind of drummer I needed,” Martin said. “Ringo was only used to ballrooms. It was obviously best to use someone with experience.”
Any music artist would be a little on-edge after being replaced, even if temporarily, that soon into their new gig. But this hit Ringo hard.
Ringo Starr Had an Incredibly Hard Life Before He Was Famous
While Ringo hasn’t explicitly linked childhood abandonment issues to his reaction to White, that could have come into play. He told Rolling Stone in 2015 that as an adult, his therapist said “it sounds like you were abandoned and lived in a slum.” Indeed, he had an incredibly hard life. His father pretty much left his mother after they divorced when he was only two and he grew up in severe poverty without plumbing. He was in and out of hospitals due to childhood appendicitis, peritonitis, and then tuberculosis. The latter put him in a sanatorium for two years. That’s where he learned how to play drums.
To become a part of a band just after it’s signed onto a label like EMI Records, and then to get sidelined upon the first studio recording, would fit right into Ringo Starr’s tragic history.
Ringo Thought He Was About to Be Fired Like Pete Best
“I was nervous and terrified of the studio,” Ringo said. “When we came back later to do the B-side, I found that George Martin had got another drummer sitting in my place. It was terrible. I’d been asked to join The Beatles, but now it looked as if I was only going to be good enough to do ballrooms with them, but not good enough for records.”
Why wouldn’t Ringo be replaced the same way Pete Best was replaced? Maybe Martin was just shopping for drummers and Andy White was the new guy.
“The other bloke played the drums, and I was given the maracas,” Ringo continued. “I thought, ‘That’s the end. They’re doing a Pete Best on me.’ I was shattered. What a drag. How phony the whole record business was, I thought. Just what I’d heard about. If I was going to be no use for records, I might as well leave.”
Martin later realized how deeply he’d hurt the drummer and apologized to him.
“I didn’t realize until quite later on how much I’d hurt him, and I didn’t mean to,” Martin later admitted in an interview. “He is a good solid rock drummer. Above all, he does have an individual sound.” Martin passed away in 2016.
Despite Being Hurt, Ringo Remembered George Martin Fondly Over the Years
“I’ll never forgive him for that,” Ringo told Esquire’s Jeff Slate in 2014. “He’s apologized many times since, but it hurt at the time, that’s for sure. But George was the right man for the job; the right man for us. He was full of ideas and was open to anything we threw at him. And we threw all sorts of things at him.”
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