Love Me Do - The Beatles (Drum Comparison) 

0:01 Pet Best 2:31 Ringo Starr 4:55 Andy White

(Ringo) leaving out that one kick hit acknowledges the space in the vocals and it really makes the drums feel like they're really working for the song.

Ringo has the 60s beat. Andy White sounds the way he's dressed.

Ringo has the swagger, you can hear it. White's drumming is very good, but sounds more like a military march

Ringo just has that special sauce.

It's important to remember that what you're hearing as "Andy" is actually Andy with Ringo on a tambourine at the same time. That's why there seems to be a little extra there... because there IS, and it's Ringo.

What most people don't know is that Pete Best had been playing the song with a skip beat before this recording from the EMI audition in June of 1962. At the audition they changed the arrangement of the song and asked Pete to try playing something different. In essence, Pete never had a chance to rehearse the version you hear on Anthology.

It's noticeable right from the off, that Andy White is rushing the beat. Most session drummers on 60s pop records did this. Ringo always played microscopically behind the beat and generated a more comfortable, less uptight feel.

Ringo plays more of a shuffle

I love Ringo, but I gotta say, Andy White was a respected session musician for a reason. His groove is hella tight.

Crazy. Ringo is the man.

If only they hadn't made Pete do a shuffle, the world would be a different place. I did a drum audition once and the band's entire set was fast punk shuffles. I was like, "did none of you realise how demanding that is?"

Ringo knows how to end a sentence

Ringo has the best pocket and swing, White’s dynamics and accuracy are superior, and Best’s falls apart. To be fair to him, it’s a different part. Ringo was a tremendous “feel”/pocket drummer, not a technical master. That ever-present aspect of his playing was indeed one of the things that ultimately made the Beatles what they were.

Si,me llevan al pasado,al año 1960 a escuchar a the beatles,sinceramente quisiera escuchar a paul (original)a john,a george y a pete,a pesar de tener los 4 ciertas limitaciones,con sus instrumentos....sonaban salvajes,rebeldes,sin libreto,sin limites,indomitos...esos eran los verdaderos beatles...hasta john lo dijo en una entrevista "el mejor espectaculo que hicimos fue en hamburgo"...yo no lo entendia...hasta que vi en youtube sus presentaciones en hamburgo...eran sencillamente,insuperables...❤

Glad i found this. All these beats seem so simple, that anyone, even a non drummer, could learn to play them in 5 minutes. Incredible!

Ringo by a mile

LOVE THE JEWS by APOLOGETIX a great parody of that song

White may be a more technically competent drummer, but for that elusive "you know it when you feel it" groove, my vote's with Ringo. Pete Best's a relatively distant third. That settles it, right? Thanks, Frank, for posting.

A melhor versão é a de Andy White, nem se compara!

Andy White gets the nod from me.

I mean, andy white's version isn't bad at all but it just doesn't have that ringo magic

wasnt andy white's the single version and ringo on the album?

Listen to Ringo and White first. They are both seasoned session musicians. Then listen to Best and what you hear is undisciplined, sloppy, and has unnecessary complications that could distract the band. Add a metronome (you can get an online version) and Ringo proves the most steady throughout. On other recordings you can hear Ringo add more fills and flourishes, but only when needed for the song. In short, Ringo and White played for the band. Pete played for the audience.

OMG, Ringo's groove easily is the best of the bunch. It's a vibe you can feel. As a pro musician gigging for 20 yrs with all sorts of drummers, Ringo matches the feels of the guitar strumming. The studio drummer keeps good time and is more technical, but he sounds like he is playing to sheet music and hits too hard for this song. That's not unusual for studio players, yes the are technically excellent but so is Ringo. Ringo finds the soul of the song. Another analogy is think of David Gilmour guitarist of Pink Floyd. Sure he doesn't do speed finger tapping and shredding but every F'n note in his solo's are filled wish passion & precision. Pete Best just sucks. Come on Pete, you knew once the band got signed you were done. Business decision and don't play dumb, you aren't a victim. Nice guy but ya suck, be happy getting as far as ya did.

Another chance for all the RU-vid Drum specialists to tear stripes of Pete. The one thing Pete has that all these experts don't is for 2 years he was a member of The Beatles . You could just about count those people on one hand who can make that claim . Love ya Pete .

TME - to m To myy ear all 3 seem to speed up and slow down a little. Thats probably because the band is speeding up and slowing down. On Pete that fact is not because of the skip beat although it probably sounded OK with the band ??

Andy White is without question the better drummer. I get Ringo is playing tambourine but take that out of the equation...he attacks the drums the best, BY FAR has a superior left foot (and it's not even close), his time doesn't wander as much, although it isn't rock solid, it's still damn good for natural timing/no click...it's easy to tell who's the session guy and who the club guys are. I can tell by the comment section that it's not the popular opinion but, when fandom is removed and listened with just the ear of a drummer, it's easy to hear.

I wish I could hear these with the music.

You e also got Ringo on tambourine on that Andy White cut - Ringo makes it even there

Starr’s version is the superior one. Fuller, rounded beat, nice cymbal accents. The other two sound flat and don’t do the fill completely

Andy White played like a Big Band Drummer from the 50’s, with the Bass Drum on every beat! That was common from the age of unamplified Double Bass players. Pete Best played like a Self Taught Drummer, who thought he knew what he was doing, but clearly didn’t. Ringo’s version had the right feel for the song, albeit a little basic.

I,ve always preferred the red label single, which I think is Ringo, rather than the black label single, which I think is Andy White's version.

the Rest is histori

There is Beatle magic in Ringo's rhythm . He has the feel 😎

Pete (is not the) Best, he's a child Ringo (is a) Starr, he's a Beatle Andy (is) White, he's a military

Pete was fired because he couldn't do the Beatles "Do"(haircut) Ringo Could and DID. He also shaved off his Beard.

Why did they remove Pete Best from the band? Because he was bad.

White is the best version

Problem Pete Best did it before Ringo and Andrew white

I'm a good groove drummer and I can absolutely see why Best lost the beatles gig from this track. He's lost during the harmonica solo and loses tempo. And Ringo to gets lost and loses energy. The best track by far is Andy Whites. Completely simple. He just keeps the beat, does not over play.

I played along with it on guitar ( G C D chords). Ringo's has a "feel" that makes the song swing. The song is in center stage and never gets overpowered. . Andy's playing feels rushed and his drumming is taking over the whole song. Pete's beat sounds like he's just hitting his two stick together , very amateurish.

But Pete best is d only drumer to record this song.and the others had been played it with more style..and it's because of Pete best

Ringo tiene magia!!!! La gran magia q dios le dio a los 4 genios!!!

nifty demixx. ringos tone and snare really pops. andy white sounds like a pro, but ringo had soul. pete was not so great. aint ai fun?

Ringo gets my vote.

Andy White does a good job, but it's the constant clapping that helps him out to sound better than he does. Ringo takes it for clean clear simplicity.

Andy White is definitely the better drummer here as the bass drum is more consistent. I also quite like what Pete Best is doing - I'm not sure if it works though. But that doesn't make him a bad drummer.

Ringo's beats are more complex as to where the accents are. Alan White's is more of a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang marching band square jawed, jarhead beat. Not quirky enough for a band destined to define the word, in EVERYTHING they did.

Andy White is the winner 🏆 🥇

this just one song...ther musical talent of Ringo contributed to future beats of future hits...he didn't overpower the trio of John, Paul, anf George...and that is what John didn't like the drumming of Pete Best .

There are pre-teen kids who play better than Pete. And yet, there are those who insist that Pete is a better drummer than Ringo. This is proof that it is farthest from truth.

Pete's drumming lacks energy; it's like he's going through the motions and would rather be somewhere else.

Pete holds a ok tempo until he goes to the ride cymbal.. then it all falls apart. He drags the tempo really badly and gets too busy at the same time. Everytime he goes to the ride the same thing happens. His bass foot beats aren't consistent at all, like he's not even paying attention to what his foot is doing. Not good. Ringo does much better, better feel, but then he starts rushing the tempo pretty noticably at the 3:31 mark. Much better foot work. White holds the best tempo overall but even he rushed the tempo a bit about 2 thirds into the song. Most people would never notice this in the full mix. These recordings make it pretty obvious why George Martin had a problem with Pete. Playing live is one thing, but when it comes to making records, you gotta do much better. You can have all the chops in the world but if you can't hold a good steady tempo in the studio, you won't be working for long. It would soon be proven that Ringo would be one of the most solid time keepers in the business.

Agreed, Pete Best does some cool progressive stuff like odd time signatures. Actually, the really, really odd timing ones. Its hard to explain just how odd it is. Oh I know, its so add it travels across the spectrum from cool to awesome to ground breaking and settles on the other side and landed at Pete Best sucks, like sucks so bad you pity him like when on David Letterman. Sucks so bad to pay him $ to just stop playing, i beg you Pete.

Ringo is destined to be a Starr 👏

session players are for artists who don't really write their own songs and/or they have producers who run the show. Ringo was exactly what John and Paul needed to get the Beatles off the ground, and as the songwriting got better and better, including George, Ringo was their man. Groove, timing, feel. Ringo was the best

don’t need to listen to; Ringo was THE Beatles drummer; I suggest looking up the BBC recording of Love Me Do; kind of Rockabilly

I would rather be honest, we like Pete.

That's why Best was fired, hahahah 😅😅

Pete Best, more like Pete Worst!

By Far Andy White Was Tight.

Y'all are comparing one apple to two oranges here. Read on to find out what really happened to Pete on that fateful day, June 6, 1962. But first, go listen to Pete's EMI audition of, "Besame Mucho", on Anthology 1, he's totally solid on it. Which then begs the question, why did Pete struggle with, "Love Me Do", during that same audition? Here's why. You see, The Beatles had been playing the song in the clubs and rehearsing it for the audition, and when they got to EMI they played it for the engineers and Assistant Producer, Ron Richards, whom Martin had put in charge of the session. George Martin wasn't even there, that's how little The Beatles meant to him at the start. But his staff auditioning the boys were so impressed by, "Love Me Do", in particular, that they sent for Martin who was in the canteen having tea. Martin arrived, took one quick listen, and out of nowhere he abruptly changed the arrangement, which included changing the drum pattern Pete was accustomed to playing the song with. The recording Martin provided to the Anthology project was not a final take by any stretch, it was a raw demo of the lads trying to learn the new arrangement. They recorded 4 songs that day, and were only there for a few hours, so they only did a few takes of, "Love Me Do". For all we know the take Martin provided to Anthology was their very first attempt at the new arrangement he sprung on them that day, especially since Pete's still hanging on to the skip-beat at the bridge. Pete was not happy about the change, neither was Paul. And understandably so. They didn't take too kindly to their original song (Paul wrote it, Pete came up with the skip-beat) being changed around by this posh London producer who knew nothing about Rock, and it sounds like the take we have is the band trying to hang on to their own arrangement. But get this! The truth of the matter is, Martin didn't even have a problem with Pete's drumming! Yes, that's right. It was his Assistant Producer, Ron Richards, who told Martin they they'd want to use a session drummer for the first record. So Martin agreed, and took ownership of the decision when he told Brian Epstein that Pete was fine to remain the band's drummer for all live performances but he wanted to use a studio-experienced pro drummer for the first record, and that no one would ever know. But here's the thing, Ron Richards later said, *"I had this thing about drumming, and when I asked Pete to play the song a certain way and he couldn't cope with this one part, I quickly told George we'd need a session man. But I was asking something too complex, which never made it into the song, and come to think of it, Ringo would not have been able to handle it, either."* Well, who else was there? The two EMI engineers working the session. The first one, Norman Smith, said of Pete's uneven play on, "Love Me Do", *"The problem wasn't with how Pete was playing, but rather with the new arrangement that he was being asked to play. it was a terrible arrangement."* And the second engineer working the session, Ken Townsend, said, *"I didn't see any reason why a session drummer would be needed to sit in for Pete. But such decisions were above my pay grade, so I kept my mouth shut."* Finally, must I remind you that Martin also rejected Ringo's first recording of, "Love Me Do", the same as he had rejected Pete's 3 months earlier. What's additionally noteworthy about that is the fact that unlike Pete, Ringo had weeks to practice the final arrangement Martin wanted, and Martin still rejected his recording, citing poor timing by Ringo -- an assessment Paul McCartney agreed with. So the next week Richards called session drummer, Andy White, and booked him for the official recording session the following Tuesday. White said it was the first time he'd been contacted about playing with The Beatles, so he had never been called about sitting in for Pete. It was Ringo's poor performance that prompted the hiring of Andy White. Even though they were already planning on doing it had Pete remained in the band, they had not yet made that call to White. If Ringo had delivered a satisfactory recording, they never would've called White. Oh yeah, and one more recollection from engineer, Ken Townsend: *"We had to do some heavy editing between all of Ringo's takes on, "Love Me Do", to come up with the finished version."* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------

Pete's drumming is great. Best love me do.

George Martin was a fool. He should have kept his opinions to himself. George Martin trying to make the Beatles sound commercial. No wonder John Lennon hated the guy.

Pete Best...yikes 😱

Best quality poor

Apart from these 3 takes: Pete's playing was boring, no variations, no ideas, no creativity - and moreover inconsistent - listen to theDecca tapes and other rare early recordings. He wasn't a horrible drummer but a mean one, not good enough by far for what's coming. Imagine Pete is drumming on Rain or Ticket to Ride ... 🥶

Pete Best is pathetic, and terrible, no wonder they got rid of him. I would too!

Bass guitar has to lock in to the bass drum pattern...its a must ... only andy white achieves this ... because he listened exactly to what McCartney was playing .....ringo and Pete best didnt ..thats why their versions are not as precise and...less driven and pronounced.