Re: Story about Ringo

I am delighted to read appreciation for Ringo's drumming. The variety and subtlety of his musical contributions in the Beatles' canon rank him among the greats. Listen to any track paying close attention to his work (drumming NOT singing)and forget the goofy public personae that he worked so hard to cultivate.

8^(

I know a guy who had occasion to meet Ringo some years back (not in some big public forum, but rather privately), and he said that the man was, well, the man! He was genuine and down-to-earth and an all-around good guy. Pretty cool, no? And to think that he used to play in this little combo that most of us might have heard of ...

When George Martin signed The Beatles and "Love Me Do" was to be recorded, he told them that they had to get rid of Pete Best as he wasn't up to the standard of the others in the group. John and Paul said that they had been thinking the same thing. George Martin didn't know that they had been thinking this and that they had Ringo in the wings ready to step in. As a result, he had a session drummer at the studio for the recording. They ended up recording two versions of the song, one with the session drummer and one with Ringo. As George Martin had not heard of Ringo, he didn't know whether he would be good enough or not, hence the second version without Ringo. If you listen to both versions of the song back to back, they are quite different. So if you are curious as to what The Beatles might have sounded like without Ringo (or Pete Best), two versions of "Love Me Do" are out there with two different drummers.

Happy Birthday Ringo.
7-7-40

I hate it when people bash Ringo. I don't get how anyone could not recognize his uniqueness. But then again, there are people that bash the Beatles, which I will never understand!