Pete Best of the Beatles: 'Memba Him?
Before Ringo Starr joined the Fab Four in 1962, Pete Best was the original drummer in the Beatles. Guess what he looks like now!
Memba Them
7/12/2010 2:42 PM PDT BY Johnny Lopez
23 COMMENTS
1.
Pete Best was the best looking of the Beatles. I hear John Lennon had him kicked
off the band because of his good looks. Lennon did not want attention taken from
him.
Look how well he has aged ! He would have been every fan's favorite !!
0
0
2.
ps. George Martin took the blame for the replacement of Pete Best, he got the dirty job of giving Best the news. Best had a contract with the group. Today, he could have sued because of that contract and recouped monies. Its pitiful how you never hear Paul talk about Pete in light of the truth.
0
0
3.
2. It wasn't Lennon who had him kicked off. Lennon liked this dude. It was whiney Paul McCartney. Someone better looking than him.
I read Pete Best's story of how his mother made a nighclub in their basement and this is where the early Beatles (minus Ringo) played. There is a clip on you*tube where you can actually hear John agree with the crowd when Ringo replaces Best..the crowd is cheering "we want Pete" and Lennon says YES.
0
0
4.
2. "Look how well he has aged ! He would have been every fan's favorite !!
Pete was the fans favorite back then.
0
0
5.
FAB was just that BUT BILLY PRESTON the 5Th beatles was the great artist in the band but was banned in london because he is black
0
0
6.
Billy Preston was hiddened in the london roof top gig THE 5th beatle he was the real artist behind the fab just as the son of the real minnie pearl was the ghost writer of lov lov me do and many of thier hits.They didn`t have any songs and CBS built a fab band from them and ghost writters and real artists like billy preston backed them up untill they got rolling on thier own.Lodon in the 60`s was not friendy to blacks
0
0
7.
8.
2. It wasn't Lennon who had him kicked off. Lennon liked this dude. It was whiney Paul McCartney. Someone better looking than him.
I read Pete Best's story of how his mother made a nighclub in their basement and this is where the early Beatles (minus Ringo) played. There is a clip on you*tube where you can actually hear John agree with the crowd when Ringo replaces Best..the crowd is cheering "we want Pete" and Lennon says YES.
Posted at 12:49 PM on Jul 12, 2010 by Cheryl
Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2010/07/12/pete-best-of-the-beatles-memba-him/#comments-anchor#ixzz0tVZtP3Nj
Sorry, Cheryl, take your blinders off if you think anyone in this photo looks better than Paul. LMAO!
0
0
9.
Pete Best was a good enough drummer to take them to 2 different record deals and make them the #1 band in 2 different cities in 2 different countries before he was kicked out of the group for being the most popular. He was so popular that fans began referring to the group as Pete Best & The Beatles. When their EMI record deal was announced, he was the only Beatle shown in the front page photo.
It's a myth that he was unreliable. He only missed 3 shows (out of 700+) - no more than the others. Ringo missed WAY more than that. Best also played more shows in his 2 years with The Beatles than Ringo did in his entire career with The Beatles.
He didn't pop pills like the others, did well in school (John, Paul & George didn't). He was the most responsible one in the group. He (with help from his mother) was also acting as the groups unofficial manager after they fired Allan Williams (before they hired Brian Epstein).
When you see Brian Epstein interviewed as to what made him take notice of The Beatles, the first thing he says is that he was struck by "their beat". That was "the atomic beat", a Pete Best invention that all of the other drummers, including Ringo copied.
Also, George Martin didn't say fire Pete. He just wanted to use his 30+ year old studio drummer Andy White for the recording session. He said - and did the exact same thing when they replaced Pete with Ringo. He listened to Ringo, then decided used Andy White the following week.
He let Ringo play tamborine.
0
0
10.
There are numerous accounts of what led to Pete's dismissal from The Beatles. Ultimately, none of the stories is 100% accurate. I tend to believe that there was some jealously from Paul, in light of Pete's popularity with the girls. I also suspect that Pete wholly earned his "Mean and Moody" moniker. Pete simply didn't gel as well with the other Beatles, whereas Ringo had great chemistry, particularly during their critical Hamburg touring days, when he was filling in for an absent Pete. Ringo was considered among the top drummers in Liverpool at the time, and he was also a showman. I recall listening to an interview with a Hamburg barman (who worked at either the Keiserkeller or the Star Club) commenting how distant Pete seemed compared to the other three. Pete himself has admitted to shyness. It's unfortunate that this factored into the decision to replace him, but it's critical to the genesis of a band. Even if Pete had skills comparable to Buddy Rich, his personality didn't mesh.
While Ringo had his moments in the recording studio, he isn't a particularly exceptional drummer. George Harrison always said that Ringo was "rock steady". This is exactly what the Beatles needed during the height of Beatlemania. It's a quality I think Pete was lacking. Listen to Pete's drumming on the Anthology, on the Decca tapes, or on his solo material, and you'll hear the work of a passionate but modest drummer. George Martin had no problem with The Beatles using Pete on tour, as long as he got his own drummer in the recording studio. It's worth noting that while Andy White was a reasonably seasoned session player at the time, Martin still apologies to this day for replacing Ringo with White. There is nothing special about White's session work on "Love Me Do" to distinguish it from Ringo's version. I prefer Ringo's take.
I attended one of Pete's shows about ten years ago, and chatted with him afterwards. He's a really nice guy, and you can't help but feel a bit sorry for him after listening to his version of events. The positive today is that Pete earns nice royalties from the Anthology release, and he's still touring and recording. Pete brings a second drummer along with him on the road to fill out his sound during performances (as does Ringo, so there you go). The storytelling part of Pete's show was very entertaining. He's a modest man who seems quite happy with his lot in life. He's an all around decent guy.
Swapping Pete for Ringo was the right decision. The Beatles might have imploded otherwise, due to clash of personality. The puzzle pieces that created their history might never have fallen into place otherwise. Ringo was the peacemaker when The Beatles began to dissolve, and remained in the role well after their breakup.
0
0
11.
ATOMIC BEAT is a myth as even elvis was called the ATOMIC VOICED SINGER by CBS records everything was atomic age untill howard hughes stopped the atomic clock by taking on the AEC and showing how deadly atomic energy and weapons are.Billy Preston the 5th beatle is recored as the only real talent the rest are POP bubble GUM fabbys they were a fabricated super group of show boats.They had many ghost writers and many producers at CBS whom without they would have never been.POP goes POP as in over with fast the standard today set by CBS back than.No black beatle as in preston than they all quit! the 60s` man race wars and anti-war ad CBS pushing atomic and war they had to quit or be written off as fakes.CBS called all the shots on who was in or out of the band.
0
0
12.
BLACK BEATLE is a real beatle is BLACK as in billy preston and when CBS said NO NO the FABBY Cats split while billy was there from the start,ANYONY KNOWS A BEATLE IS BLACK but CBS records
0
0
13.
FABIANS hidding as FAB and CBS went fot it and BLACK AS A BEATLE as in a 5th beatle and wam C-YAZ bar band fighting raceism until CBS showed thier anti-black face than over and billy preston on THAT LAST GIG THE BLACK BEATLE got his backup from the fabians hidding as FABS
0
0
15.
Pete couldn't keep time properly in the studio. When studio time is valuable, you need a good drummer to play properly. If Pete couldn't keep up, then it was either a matter of hiring a session guy to play his part all the time in the studio, or just get a new guy. It was cheaper just to get a new guy.
0
0
