I'm a Tenor Sax player, not a drummer. So, take my comments with a grain of salt. I think Andy White is a good enough drummer. However, I liked Ringo Starr the most. The Best was the worst of the three, ironically. Back in the day, I actually played some pickup jobs where the drummer was not even as good as Pete Best. This was in the late 1970s and the 1980s. The guitar player and keyboard player / vocalist I worked with would usually have the same bass guitarist / vocalist. The drummer we normally used couldn't make it every time, so we would have to use whoever was available. A couple of night, Pete Best was better than the drummer available. An added benefit of Ringo Starr was that he could sing one of the songs in a Beatles set. I could do some backing vocals and harmonize. However, I always thought my voice was the worst in our pickup group, so I never sang lead. If everyone in the band could sing lead once a set for four 45 minutes sets a night, it made things easier on the regular vocalists. As for Ringo, I thought he was perfect for the Beatles. Can you imagine Keith Moon with The Beatles? He wouldn't fit, even though Moon was a better drummer than Ringo.
Pete’s timing just not solid, Ringo timing solid and swinging, Andy’s timing a little more solid with less of a swing, almost like he is playing to a click and Ringo is not , and Pete couldn’t play to a click…😂
Pete was asked to do a different arrangement by the studio eliminating the skip beat. Which was confusing. They were to get it right on the next session.
I always knew Pete Best was pretty awful, but hearing his track isolated, it seriously sounds like a 7 year old who’s been taking drum lessons for about a month. I only feel bad for him in that it sounds like the other Beatles never gave him any warning about how bad a job he was doing, but anyone who says he held a candle to Ringo is a moron.
Ringo was my blind pick. I see what they mean by he didn’t overdo it, didn’t try to fill every quiet space. I didn’t think I would use the “ interesting” to describe drumming but his was the most interesting of the three.
My God listen to the difference in the bass drum playing alone between Ringo and Pete Best! Best just could not cut it as a drummer for recording at least at that point, his track here is pretty horrible. Now you hear why on the earlier tracks done in Germany backing Tony Sheridan the producer actually took away Bests bass drum! White is a pro and lays down the simple groove well, both his and Ringo’s are fine for the song, its just a groove.
No doubt Ringo is always the best. Had Ringo not met the Beatles in Hamburg and so couldn't have sacked Pete Best in the end, Andy White would still have been a better replacement for Pete Best.
Some quotes from Lennon. We just needed a drummer for Hamburg. Pete had a kit AND rehearsal space. When we first played with a real drummer (ringo) it was WOW. Pete didn't fit in with is socially. Pete was ok at the start but he didn't progress like the rest of the group. and Pete was a drummer but ringo was a better Beatle.
Plus people keep saying the other 3 were jealous of Pete's good looks but I believe in the audio you're talking about Lennon said "Pete was good looking and that was good."
A lot of the difference in sound, between these drummers, has to do with the drum kit. If Pete had a better drum set, or his drums were tuned up different, he might have sounded way different. Also, the microphone technique on these, was it the same ? Could mic placement be responsible for a big part of how different these sound ?
Ringo was left-handed. He didn't have that much strength or in his right foot, which makes White's bass drum more audible, but Ringo has a unique sound that made the Beatles the band they were.
Pete wanted to be the star - he provided a venue to perform But the creative artists were John and Paul - and their empathetic dynamism WAS the band - until James Paul's death in Sept 1966
Good comparison thanks. I remember an interview with Norman Smith, who engineered the early Beatles recordings. He though that Peter Best was OK but missing something, or it wasn't quite right, and pointed it out to George Martin, then when the rest of the band brought in Ringo, it still wasn't right, so they brought in Andy White as a known solid session drummer to nail it- studio time costs money and in those days, not much tolerance for messing around on record company time. In my years of playing in bands, sometimes things click with the right people, and other times someone doesn't quite click, and I guess Ringo clicked. I do remember my late uncle from Liverpool who himself was a drummer, used to watch the bands in the early days including the Beatles. He said Peter Best was a good solid drummer for rock and roll, and also knew Ringo was a good drummer, though he knew Paul, John and George were very jealous of how the girls all followed Pete around after the gigs.
I'm not a drummer but a bassist and guitarist, and it sounds to me like Ringo's technical "inferiority" to White is a result of him actually listening to the other musicians and playing with them, rather than laying down the law for the others to follow. For me, this is a much more musical approach, and explains why Ringo's drumming on songs like Day Tripper, In My Life, and Rain fits so perfectly into the total arrangement, and most session musicians could not have done as well. Love Me Do was a primitive, almost proto-Beatle song, and White did an adequate job.
Ringo was chosen because he was the best fit for the Beatles style. He's laconic and quick witted, just what the other three needed, a guy who was willing to be the downtrodden clown. They got that with Ringo, he was the perfect fit. His drumming chops were less important. Pete was seen as a threat to the popularity of Paul because he was decently groomed and handsome. The other three didn't want a ready made potentially simmering conflict. So Pete was thrown under the bus. The Beatles always knew that in the studio, if Ringo wasn't up for a complex piece, a session drummer could do the business. Ringo was still being paid after all and the record buying public wouldn't be any the wiser. Out on a live gig, the audience would easily drown out Ringo's shortcomings so no-one either in the band or all the support behind them would give a rats, so long as they sold records. It's been said that other sessions players did many drum parts. Ringo might have felt miffed, but he was the latest recruit and probably saw himself as having little say. In that regard he was very much subordinate to the other three.They loved him for his quick wit, but it can hardly be said that he had much say in matters. Dunno, Ringo just seemed right for the Beatles powerhouse...l🎉
Pete's problem was he wasn't a very versatile drummer. He couldn't do as much as Ringo and "He couldn't keep time well" as George Martin said. They also needed a good reason to get rid of Pete's Mom. She was interjecting herself into the band too much. They killed two birds with one stone.
I say I am the best drummer in Liverpool. I have a fan club, so I’m set for life. After hearing this clip, I am going to give you a pass. Epstein knew what he was doing. Your two years were great for you, like the other guy who filled in on the Aussie trip. Enjoy your asterisk *️⃣ in musical history.
It's not even remotely close, Ringo's playing is just so relaxed and groovy. White feels like a drum machine set slightly too fast and Best is a total amateur.
