No matter what your view on the music industry, you cannot deny that The Beatles changed the face of it back in the 1960s. It's amazing to think that four lads from Liverpool took the world by storm. In truth the accolade was only worthy of three of the band members.
Whilst George Harrison was very creative in his ways, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the ultimate song-writing duo and penned virtually every tune in the band's back catalogue. Ringo Starr however, was the unconventionally untalented one and, if anything he is the luckiest man in the world.
Prior to Ringo's inclusion in the band, the drummer for The Beatles was one Pete Best. His mother owned the Casbah Club in West Derby where the band played many of their early gig. Pete was released from the band in 1962 for reasons unknown to everyone but himself and the rest of the band.
There are a lot of Chinese whispers about why he was sacked, varying from the fact that he was seen as the more attractive member which detracted attention from John and Paul to one about him rejecting manager Brian Epstein's advances. One reason given was that George Martin, who was to become the band's producer, had been dissatisfied with Best's drumming and intended to replace him on their recordings.
Best was effectively the Merseyside equivalent of Elvis Pressley at the time. Every gig the band played at the female fans would go wild for him, more so than the other band members.
During the band's famous Hamburg days, Best was at the forefront of the success alongside Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe. As the band played the Star-Club in Hamburg's red-light Reeperbahn district, word spread about Best and his fellow bandmates.
Best with Sutcliffe and the Big Three in Hamburg during happier times
Prior to the recording of the band's first single "Love Me Do" Starr, then of Rory Storm - another band from the Merseybeat era, had auditioned to drum on the single, he failed the audition and producer George Martin used studio drummer Andy White instead. The official line from The Beatles Anthology series broadcast on ITV in the mid-nineties was that Pete was either turning up late for gigs or in some cases not turning up at all and that was the reason he had to go.
His replacement was the compelete opposite of Best. Ringo Starr was a bit rugged looking and appeared in general fairly dim. His dry humour wasn't as widely appreciated across the Atlantic when the band toured in 1964, as it was on Merseyside.
Starr wasn't exactly complimentary about his predecessor whom he claimed in an interview with Playboy magazine in October 1965 that Best was a drug user. The world's luckiest man clearly wasn't aware what he was letting himself in for as Best sued the band for libel that month for the comments which was settled out of court.
Ringo's vocals on Yellow Submarine proved why he was merely a drummer. It was very similar to what you would hear on the karaoke at Ned Kelly's on a Saturday night. Paul McCartney said on the Anthology that the tune was born out of "that little time before you drift off to sleep". Credit has to go to Brian Epstein for releasing such a monotonous single. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison had to accomodate Starr's dulcit tones by lowering their vocal range for that single.
Following the band's split in 1970, Starr went on tour with his own tribute band called Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band. He also went on to provide the voiceover for the children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine. I have to say that when I watched it, it sent me off to sleep straight away and to this day it still does.
Since 1988 Pete Best has been touring with his own band, The Pete Best Band. He also hosts "An Audience With Pete Best" in which he takes fans on a magical mystery tour through the band's early years and answers questions from audience members. He has, from time to time, played at the Mathew Street Festival weekend to raptuous response.
Ringo Starr may acknowledge the privileged position he finds himself in today but he does not consider how different things could've been. Pete Best however realises how fortunate he was to be part of the early years of The Beatles and as he says on his website "put the beat in The Beatles".