Andy White - showing why he was a busy session drummer. Ringo Starr - showing why he was picked as the Beatles drummer. Pete Best - showing up when they had no one else to fill the position.
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.
Yes, very few people acknowledge how fantastic those drums & tambourine sounded together. It defined "Love Me Do" That, and the overdubbed bass note right at the start.
For fun, I used a tempo app to compare how each drummer fared at keeping the time. Ringo and White only varied by about 5 bpm (I'm sure some of the variance also just lies in the app detection etc.). That's tight! Best's timing varied by more than 15 bpm! Of the three - I find White's playing is technically close to perfect, but Ringo's is definitely the most musically interesting. This is a great comparison! Thanks for posting this.
(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.
That's the answer to the question why the Beatles as a band were so extremely good. Every member of the band always (except for the time when John deliberately messed up the bass on The Long And Winding Road) did their best to serve the song and nothing but the song.
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.
It can still happen today when people get hired for drums. Some people love the laid back sound, some want the drums right on top of the beat. And some people prefer different sounds depending on what song/style it is. Definitely agree that Ringo sounds more laid back and gets a better groove.
@@geoffgjofin a way you could say Ringo played in a gentler more responsive and sensitive way, with far more energy but controlling it all the way. He had more to bring.
I have to comment. Ringos lilt was so magical.The way he could ride the ride symbol for example. Without his drumming it’s not the Beatle sound. As good as, in particular , Paul’s bass playing was, the magic was in Ringos drumming.
@@M5guitar1 Ringo by far was the ugliest Beatle. Good looks means better success in the money game of entertainment. Handsomest Pete could have made the Beatles richer quicker. But no. The Beatles without Pete were complete idiots at making money. They don't even own publishing rights to their own music. SONY does.
I'm a drummer and found Pete's snare work was OK but you couldn't hear his bass drum most of the time, and Andy White was OK, but I have to agree that Ringo's work was by far the best of all.
"Andy White was OK?" He was right on the beat and the tempo. Ringo's tambourine work with him was fantastic, and I do mean that. Those two working together defined "Love Me Do"
The drumming is somewhat annoying but Ringo's is best. It's more subtle than White's clunky sound. Wish there was another in common song comparison for Pete and Ringo cause now I hate Love Me Do more than ever.
@@oppothumbs1 Ned from Spain, a Beatle / Ringo fan and life long drummer. For 60 years I have hated this track, so thank you for your camaraderie. There are Beatle tracks out there that both played on and Ringo wins every single time.
@hedgefundshyster..3241 Any pro musician with ears would tell you the exact opposite, and the swinging feel of Ringo's beat is very likely freeing Paul to play it the way he's hearing it. White's stiff and at times sluggish right foot is probably making Paul dig in a little more, but the magic of the groove in this song comes from its swing, cool restraint, and space. Ringo always nailed that- a truly great musician.
Wow. Good way to put it. I've been going back and forth trying to figure out precisely what the special sauce is that makes Richy sound better than a seasoned session pro like, White. i see this comment and think, hmm you know that is an apt description of the drumming and the man. That chin up, slightly smug thing he does when he's being cheeky.
Sorry Pete, but...sorry. Andy White is clean and clear. Ringo has swing, the only one of the three to swing. In fact Ringo seems to have a built in swing in his playing. You can hear it on many songs, and it does make a difference. He also had an innate ability to kind of hear where the song was going, and drum accordingly. I admit I wasn't much of a Ringo fan, but over the years I have grown to respect him for what he did. It was more than just good drumming. He fit his style to the song, and brought out the best in the song. Time and again. Would the Beatles have been as good without him. Maybe, maybe not, but he brought something to the Beatles, and they would have been quite different without him.
@@leonardoiglesias2394 Quite right. It's interesting that the bass and drums to a song are very important to it, but for the most part are not copyrightable.In any case, what Ringo did was very important to the sound of the Beatles.
I liked Pete's idea for the middle 8. If he could have refined it and stayed in tempo, it would have been an interesting addition to an otherwise boring song for drums.
I've heard a Pete Best interview in which he stated his belief that he was fired due to jealousy from other band members because he had a strong fan following. Now, given how close he came to being amidst the adulation of Beatlemania, I can't blame him for trying to apply a salve to his hurt feelings and wounded pride. But the reality, as shown by this recording of a "drum competition", was that Pete was a crappy drummer. Even on a simple song like "Love Me Do", Ringo's drumming showed style, and his ability to craft a perfect part for that song was evident. As the songs grew in complexity, Pete would have been left in the dust. If he hadn't been fired early on, he would surely have been canned then. In fact, had he not been fired early on, The Beatles would likely not achieved superstar status. Try to imagine the sound of "She Loves You" or "I Want To Hold Your Hand" without Ringo's propulsive drumming, and it's impossible to imagine.
He wasn’t a very intuitive drummer nor a good one. But he was a very egotistical guy about his looks. So basically he really wasn’t good for the band and had no business being in it anymore.
@@LindaLaurenPsychicMedium Well this doesn't make sense, as he went straight into the group Lee Curtis and the all stars, who did have a deal with Decca records!
I can't find anything wrong with Pete Best, at least no reason to fire him. He was on beat and on tempo. This was a pop band, not Count Baise, not the LSO. Andy White is exaclty the guy you'd call to sub in with Count Base or the LSO.
@@frankieRandle8779 Have you HEARD their DECCA AUDITION? Pete NOT SO BEST SUCKED. Course they all were kinda ROUGH round the edges......AND THOSE THUG LEATHER JACKETS HAD TO GO!They looked like they'd mug you in an alley.
I am a layman but one thing I noticed is that Ringo's play is the only one where I did not fall asleep and I could listen through without starting to think about sg else. I have no idea why is that, but I realized now why he was the drummer in Beatles.
The name "Beat Brothers" was used by producer Bert Kaempfert for the backing bands he used to record the fabulous Tony Sheridan. The early Beatles, as the Beat Brothers, backed Tony on My Bonnie and a few other songs that Tony arranged for that first album. Not all of their contributions to the recordings actually made the final cut-- they were still quite raw. Someone on the scene in Hamburg at the time has said that Ringo never played on any charted recording. I've encountered the same statement in other comment sections. Different musicians, accomplished ones, made up later versions of Beat Brothers to back Tony. And, as I understand it, the Beatles were (mostly) young clunky kids at the time, very unpolished musically. They kept audiences amused with lots of onstage goofiness. Pete was the exception. While he was also a newbie on drums, Pete didn't "do goofy." He was well-mannered and also extremely handsome, and all the girls fixated on him. This would be viewed as a tremendous asset to any promoter, of course. But there were a couple of guys quite unhappy about it....
@@carlosvelasquez9922 Hi Carlos! I'm not sure who was finally on the recording, but I think so! As stories say, Pete gave it a try. I have read that many Beatles tracks were ultimately done by Alan White.
@konstantia1607 My bonie is a great track . In the Decca audition, the 4 of them were equally horrible , Pete didn't have the chance in the Abbey Road studios , Ringo was just lucky he had the opportunity
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.
@@michaelsorrells6426The Beatles were credited as The Beat Brothers only when backing Tony Sheridan on his German single, My Bonnie, because Beatles sounded like a German word the record company didn’t want printed on the label. They were never officially known The Beat Brothers, and certainly did not go into the EMI audition under that name.
This video has no historical accuracy since both Andy White and Ringo played on the latter version of the song. Andy White on drums, and Ringo on the tambourine.
This comparison is extremely instructive. Best has trouble with time (to my ear), White sounds very precise and professional... but Ringo has an undeniable groove, a swing baby! Starr's time is also impeccable, with the allowance that his style includes a slightly rushed downbeat and a slightly dragged upbeat.
It's not "instructive" at all. Ringo had weeks to practice it, whereas Pete was ambushed with a new arrangement at his session. Ringo's version was edited from multiple takes and published, and Pete's is an unedited raw demo. Good grief, get a clue. smh
@@Cosmo-Kramer Insofar as information of any kind is by definition instructive, I stand by my statement. Furthermore, Lennon among others asserted that Best was a "lousy drummer" (his words), who could play straight 4/4 time all the way through, but was not inventive or skilled. You can take it up with John when you reach Paradise, I guess.
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.
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.
Listen to the easy, jaunty swing in Ringo's kick pickups...even with no other instruments audible, he makes me want to dance. He has good time, but even more than that, he has *feel* for days. He groks what the song should sound like, the kind of energy it should project, and he gets his drums to do that.
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.
Context: Pete Best, song being “written” first run through and heavy bass drum aka the Atomic Drum Beat volume lowered by Abbey Road engineers, Ringo had Three months with the band to work on LMD…and George Martin went with Andy White’s version…only for the EP (45) first release in the UK…Andy White comes in and Nails it, and all releases including the 20th Anniversary.. Ringo’s version found for Anthology plus earlier Rarities releases. P S I Love You Andy White solid. Ringo sweats blood that he was going to get the Pete Best Treatment. First tour Ringo’s sick and George thinks that Ringo is going to get the sack threatens not to go…fearing Ringo might be permanently replaced…. Context, Ringo was my favorite Beatles during Beatlemania, Brian Epstein offered the job to Three other drummers before Ringo was selected and offered to Pete to build a band around him. Another band fired their drummer to get Pete, the band was the 2nd most popular in Liverpool. Pete if he had a good lawyer could have demanded payment on Beatles as he had a signed contract with EMI. If not so distraught, and taken Epstein’s offer he would have been on tours all over the UK. Best’s Curly hair wouldn’t take a Beatle hair cut, didn’t help that he alone of the Beatles he had a fan club. What happened is history, however Best had a better singing voice than Ringo and having Paul take over yet he drums and the other band members told to sit down when he had his solos. Ringo, the left handed drummer on a right handed kit had intuitive feel for what the band’s song needed, Lennon and McCartney, and in time Harrison’s creativity, and experimental harmony plus great stage presence and humor is what made the band unique, plus their energy popular.
While it's true that Pete has zero time to practice Martin's new arrangement for LMD, Ringo did not have "three months" to practice it, he had 3 weeks (maybe two). That is, before his September 4th recording. If he was allowed to re-record it after White did his, as Ringo claims to be the case, then yes, Ringo had longer to practice it. But still, nowhere close to 3 months. More like 5 to 6 weeks, tops. You're also mistaken about Pete joining the second most popular band after getting the sack from The Beatles. He joined, Lee Curtis & The All-Stars, and they were a mid-level band. They only surged to become the 2nd most popular band (behind The Beatles) AFTER Pete joined them. As for Pete's hair being too wavy and thick for the moptop, that had nothing to do with him getting sacked. Ringo's not even wearing it on The Beatles' first album cover. The haircut was not a thing 'til the band arrived in America. Millions of kids in Europe had it, it was no big deal, and JP&G certainly didn't care about every member of the band having it, or they would've insisted Ringo wear on their first album cover. And once the cut did become an international rage, with everyone getting it, Pete did get it with his post-Beatles band. It was a bit clumpy given how thick his hair was, but he made it work. JP&G never asked Pete to get it because they knew he wasn't going to be around long-term anyway. There was only one reason why they sacked Pete, and that was because they were insanely jealous of his status as the far and away most popular Beatle. Okay, two reasons. George had his own motive, and that was to get his buddy Ringo into the band, so he'd have a voting partner on band matters, including which songs go on the albums. Pete was good mates with John, and would be loyal to John on such matters, so George had to conspire to replace Pete with Ringo.
@@nicolafiorillo4048 Yes, George and Ringo were mates. But not at first, really, they did not hang out together alone. Nor did John or Paul hang out with Ringo alone. Ringo would hang out with all the Beatles in the clubs after shows, as did Ringo's front man, Rory Storm, and many other rockers on the scene. No, the only Beatle Ringo hung out with one-on-one outside the clubs was Pete, when Ringo first arrived in Hamburg. The two Liverpudlian drummers who were so far away from home naturally gravitated towards each other, and went sightseeing together, taking in movies, and propping up pubs 'til dawn. So Pete was actually the closest Beatle to Ringo. But that all changed, unbeknownst to Pete, well over a year later in December of '61. Pete was ill and couldn't perform one night, so he called his mate, Ringo, and asked him to fill in for him. Ringo, who had always coveted Pete's job (again, unbeknownst to Pete), jumped at the chance. Well, George Harrison saw this as his big opportunity to get Pete, the most popular Beatle, out of the band, thereby elevating himself to the position of "3rd Beatle", the spot on the totem pole he felt he deserved (at a minimum) based on tenure and being the group's lead guitarist. So at the show George privately asked Ringo if he'd like to permanently join the band, and Ringo replied, *"I'd love to, but you've already got a drummer."* Which was music (pardon the pun) to George's ears! Ringo's coded response was loud and clear: *_You get rid of Pete, and I'm in._* What an absolute snake in the grass! Both Ringo and George. And Paul and John, too, for eventually joining the conspiracy -- something they would have done sooner had they been signed sooner. You see, ever the pragmatist, Paul knew they needed a recording contract to survive sacking their most popular bandmember. George wanted it done yesterday, but Paul kept kicking the can down the road, knowing full well that such a colossal betrayal before that contract was secured, could very well have been an existential mistake on their part, the wrath of the the fans likely would have been impossible to overcome. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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?"
Not much more to say here. There are some really great, on the mark observations. Initially, I'm thinking Pete Best's timing sounded really good but when it got to Ringo, I'm sorry folks (actually, I'm not), Ringo's swing and feel is undeniable. He's not just keeping a beat. I was even thinking, going into this, well this is a really simple song, how much can this comparison prove? It actually makes the case for Ringo even more. I was almost shocked (not completely) at how stiff Andy White sounded. Based on this example: 1# Ringo #2 Pete Best #3 Andy White More than anything, this comparison shows you how what you may think are simple variations in a "simple" beat can make a gigantic difference!
The "skip" beat was removed by the time Ringo was hired; George Martin commented Ringo could not execute the "skip" beat either. Take that Pete Best naysayers!
Andy White's version is on the album. Ringo's version was erroneously released as the single in the UK which caused George Martin to have the master tapes destroyed. That's why we've never had a remix of the Ringo version until technology allowed them to copy one of the old 45s and digitally separate the instruments like they did with Johns voice on the "Now And Then" demo.
@@TuberOnTheLoose but i remember ringo saying in the anthology something like "white didnt do anything great that i couldnt do when we make the album" or something like that.
@@noseloquedigo92514 He did say something like that years later, but the fact remains George Martin rejected the September 4, 1962 take of "Love Me Do" because of Ringo's drumming and brought in Andy White for the September 11, 1962 recording session.
@@TuberOnTheLoose An explanation for Ringo's comment, *"Andy didn't do anything that special that I couldn't copy it for my version",* is that the version we have for Ringo is NOT the one from September 4th which Martin rejected, but a second recording he was permitted to do AFTER White's September 11th recording.
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.
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.
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.
For me the difference is 'feel'. Pete didn't have it, nor indeed much else apart from a basic beat. Andy is more the technical session guy, doing an efficient and professional job. Ringo just has it. Feel, swing, just a natural who could bring something to the song other than simple timekeeping.
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 ?
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.
@TigerRogers0660 I don't think it would be possible because back then, every recording was mono. Personally, I think someone recorded themselves playing drums and scammed people who listened. I call this a fake video.
How do you think they were able to make 'Now And Then' recently, isolating Lennon's vocal? It's technically possible now through newly advanced software.
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.
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.
Andy White is the better session drummer but Ringo's sound matches the rest of the song better. Bands are about formula. Ringo suited the Beatles sound. Andy is way more crisp and it's a tight professional sound but it also has an emotionally detached quality. He's there to play a gig.
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.
Ringo s version is dead thatsxwhy andy version is fuller remember george martin never liked ringos version thatsxwhy andy is who we hear for this song george Martin didn't want ringo in studio when recording but John said differently
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
I've heard about it. And if that's true, he had no chance at all to show the quality of his drumming when he had to make a last-minute change that might confuse him or make him nervous, in a tense studio situation! But: That doesn't excuse his tempo fluctuations in the normal verse part.
There's a plausible theory that this is related to another Beatles drum mystery - that Bernard Purdie claimed that he overdubbed drums on some Beatles tracks. The theory starts in Germany where the Beatles recorded My Bonnie and a bunch of other stuff for Bert Kaempfert. They took Pete's kick drum away and made him play with just snare and hihat in order to improve his timing. Much later, after Beatlemania was in full swing, there were attempts to reissue those tracks to cash in on the Beatles popularity, and that, so the theory goes, is when they added the kick in a US studio. And that, so the theory goes, is when Purdie was brought in. The tracks from that session that wound up on Anthology would be from the master tapes so definitely NOT with the rumored Purdie overdubs. If you make a drum stem of Ain't She Sweet from Anthology, there's a ton of snare playing the typical double-single part that was so popular in 1960, but I don't hear any kick - do you? Cry for a Shadow has what sounds to me like very soft kick in a few places and a ton of floor tom in the middle. On My Bonnie, I don't hear kick either. Hunting around TH-cam I've yet to find a version of My Bonnie with a clearly audible kick, so that's the missing piece in proving the theory. If anybody can find one of those old vinyl cutouts with a clear kick drum, that would almost certainly be Purdie - I'd love to hear that! Of course it wouldn't be the same as it would have been had Purdie been at the original session because everyone could have played with his groove instead of him just overdubbing. It might have been any of the other tracks as well. I've just been looking for My Bonnie since it's the best known from that session and the one that played a role in Epstein's involvement with the Beatles.
@@kevinmoore4237 Bert Kaempfert did not "take away" Pete's bass drum and toms, good grief. Lol He simply told him not to play them. And his reason had nothing to do with Pete's timing, it had everything to do with Pete's power, volume. Kaempfert was a 40-year old fuddy-duddy easy listening producer, best known for his polka. He had no palate for rock n' roll, he was only working with Sheridan as a crooner, and the thunderous drum sound of Pete's signature "Atom Beat", and The Beatles heavy brand of rock n' roll, turned him off completely. Bert's engineer at the session said, *"We were completely unprepared for The Beatles' sound. They were loud, Loud, LOUD! We'd never heard anything like them before."*
@@arniezanzibar5309 Just to be clear, you don't mean "live recorded evidence" of *Love Me Do,* right? You just mean other songs wherein Pete keeps it simple and plays solid, correct? Because I'm not aware of any live recordings of Pete playing, "Love Me Do".
Many folks have commented on the quality of Pete Best Aaa drummer, but probably the sleaziest thing he was involved with (second perhaps to his repeated claims over the years that the only reason he was kicked out of the Beatles was because of the jealousy about his looks): Those who were around at the time will recall that, immediately after it became clear that the Beatles were going to be huge, the album-market was flooded with (sometimes very vaguely-related) knock-off albums: For example “Alvin and the Chipmunks Sing the Beatles”, VeeJay Records re-release of their “Introducing The Beatles” album, etc[*]. But, in the context of the current discussion, the most notable example was the album put out by The Pete Best Combo with the title… …wait for it… “Best of the Beatles”! …which, by the way, contained exactly zero songs by the Beatles. [* There was even a rumor going around at the time that the band The Beau Brummells (with their 1964 hit “Laugh, Laugh”) chose their name so that their albums would appear alphabetically immediately following the Beatles in the record bins in the stores.)
@@Cosmo-Kramer : Maybe. It’s possible that he didn’t have anything to do with selecting this album’s title, but given his actions and his ridiculous claims in all other aspects concerning this whole unfortunate fraud, I think we can all agree that suggesting that he would do something like this is “wildly speculating” is hardly accurate
@@NichaelCramer What fraud? What ridiculous claims? I've heard scores of interviews by Pete Best and never once heard him claim something that was untrue.
@@Cosmo-Kramer : Well, the most obvious issue is his often-repeated claim that “the only reason” he was asked to leave the Beatles was because of the jealousy about his good looks, that “he was always the one who got all the girls”. Or more generally, simply that, other than that that there was “no difference” between him and RS.
@@NichaelCramer Pete's correct, that was the only reason he was sacked. And he's also right, he did get all the girls. I don't think you have any concept of how much more popular Pete was than John, Paul or George. As for your last sentence, Pete never said that "other than that there was no difference" between him and Ringo, in fact Pete has said he was a better drummer than Ringo. And in some more diplomatic moments, he's said that he and Ringo had different styles and he'll leave it up to others to judge whose drumming they preferred.
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.
Andy White's drumming sounds way more crisp and energetic. No wonder they hired this guy to play for the studio recordings. Hell, they should have sent home Ringo as well, and kept White as the official 4th Beatle.
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.
Ummm, no. Ringo was NOT a "seasoned session musician". He had less studio experience than Pete had. And George Martin rejected Ringo's version of the song, citing poor timing, an assessment agreed with by Paul McCartney. Paul tried to persuade Martin into giving Ringo a second chance but Martin wasn't having it and hired Andy for the official recording session the following week. Additionally, this is an apples to oranges comparison, as Ringo had many takes on an arrangement he'd been practicing for weeks, and according to EMI engineer, they had to do some heavy editing between his takes to get the finished product. Pete, on the other hand, was ambushed out of the blue by Martin changing the arrangement at their audition, telling Pete to ditch the skip-beat he'd been playing the song with in the clubs and rehearsals. The recording we have is nothing more than a raw demo of Pete and the band trying to learn Martin's impromptu new arrangement...it was NOT a finished product like the Ringo and Andy versions y'all are attempting to compare it with. Do your research before spouting off nonsense. smh
I want to read opinions from drummers who are not Ringo fan-boys or have an agenda such as "I like the feel imparted by playing behind the beat" or "This guy plays too uptight and mechanical". Just tell us how each rates in unbiased terms!
No such animal. Every drummer has their own idea of how a drum part should sound, and they base their opinion of other drummers on that. The only objective measure is the metronome, which shows that Ringo and White play a much steadier tempo, while Best's tempo wavers a lot. Apart from that, it's pretty much subjective.
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.
Another chance for all the TH-cam 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 .
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.
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 ??
Creo que Pete no era tan mal baterista , se nota en Cry for a Shadow, solo que no era el baterista para The Beatles , si no , ellos mismos lo hubieran despedido al mes de estar en Hamburgo , y no 2 años despues.
0:01 Pet Best
2:31 Ringo Starr
4:55 Andy White
Thank you
I lOoOoOoove you !
Pet 🐱 best
pet sounds@@catsupempire3920
White's recording is with Ringo on tambourine
Andy White - showing why he was a busy session drummer.
Ringo Starr - showing why he was picked as the Beatles drummer.
Pete Best - showing up when they had no one else to fill the position.
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.
Yes, very few people acknowledge how fantastic those drums & tambourine sounded together. It defined "Love Me Do"
That, and the overdubbed bass note right at the start.
For fun, I used a tempo app to compare how each drummer fared at keeping the time. Ringo and White only varied by about 5 bpm (I'm sure some of the variance also just lies in the app detection etc.). That's tight! Best's timing varied by more than 15 bpm! Of the three - I find White's playing is technically close to perfect, but Ringo's is definitely the most musically interesting. This is a great comparison! Thanks for posting this.
Great comments, very interesting.
Did you do it with their respective versions of Love Me Do?
Good job!
"Every metronome needs a Ringo"!
5 bpm is not a great shift...should be within 2 and that's gradually, and I'm being generous.
(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.
That is an excellent point as to why Ringo is the King. Support the song is what he was always about.
His personality stands out even with this simple drum pattern. The "pro" sounds sterile.
That's the answer to the question why the Beatles as a band were so extremely good. Every member of the band always (except for the time when John deliberately messed up the bass on The Long And Winding Road) did their best to serve the song and nothing but the song.
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.
It can still happen today when people get hired for drums. Some people love the laid back sound, some want the drums right on top of the beat. And some people prefer different sounds depending on what song/style it is.
Definitely agree that Ringo sounds more laid back and gets a better groove.
He didn't rush: he kept it from dragging like the previous versions.
@@geoffgjofin a way you could say Ringo played in a gentler more responsive and sensitive way, with far more energy but controlling it all the way. He had more to bring.
Ringo just has that special sauce.
A.k.a “Talent”
Ringo had a much better swing than the others
"SWING, Baby! You're Platinum!" :o)
Yes. Ringo does swing.
I have to comment. Ringos lilt was so magical.The way he could ride the ride symbol for example.
Without his drumming it’s not the Beatle sound.
As good as, in particular , Paul’s bass playing was, the magic was in Ringos drumming.
yes i was surprised how stiff andy whites version is ....does not sound right at all
@@M5guitar1
Ringo by far was the ugliest Beatle. Good looks means better success in the money game of entertainment. Handsomest Pete could have made the Beatles richer quicker. But no. The Beatles without Pete were complete idiots at making money. They don't even own publishing rights to their own music. SONY does.
I'm a drummer and found Pete's snare work was OK but you couldn't hear his bass drum most of the time, and Andy White was OK, but I have to agree that Ringo's work was by far the best of all.
"Andy White was OK?" He was right on the beat and the tempo. Ringo's tambourine work with him was fantastic, and I do mean that. Those two working together defined "Love Me Do"
Pete played with the wrong feel and had bad timing. Andy was a pro, Ringo sublime.
Bass drum volume not relevant.
The drumming is somewhat annoying but Ringo's is best. It's more subtle than White's clunky sound. Wish there was another in common song comparison for Pete and Ringo cause now I hate Love Me Do more than ever.
@@oppothumbs1 Ned from Spain, a Beatle / Ringo fan and life long drummer. For 60 years I have hated this track, so thank you for your camaraderie. There are Beatle tracks out there that both played on and Ringo wins every single time.
Pete's snare work OK ? Are you kidding ? And you pretend to be a drummer ? Seriously ?
Ringo has the 60s beat. Andy White sounds the way he's dressed.
Yes!!!
@hedgefundshyster..3241have a day off trigger
@hedgefundshyster..3241 Any pro musician with ears would tell you the exact opposite, and the swinging feel of Ringo's beat is very likely freeing Paul to play it the way he's hearing it. White's stiff and at times sluggish right foot is probably making Paul dig in a little more, but the magic of the groove in this song comes from its swing, cool restraint, and space. Ringo always nailed that- a truly great musician.
Great description.
@@MarkPear-k6v That's what I heard too, and I'm no pro.
Ringo has the swagger, you can hear it. White's drumming is very good, but sounds more like a military march
Wow. Good way to put it. I've been going back and forth trying to figure out precisely what the special sauce is that makes Richy sound better than a seasoned session pro like, White. i see this comment and think, hmm you know that is an apt description of the drumming and the man. That chin up, slightly smug thing he does when he's being cheeky.
@@kcampbell3045 ty, applicate it. Sometimes, it's not the perfect beat that makes you bob your head. Ringo just had that touch
Sorry Pete, but...sorry. Andy White is clean and clear. Ringo has swing, the only one of the three to swing. In fact Ringo seems to have a built in swing in his playing. You can hear it on many songs, and it does make a difference. He also had an innate ability to kind of hear where the song was going, and drum accordingly. I admit I wasn't much of a Ringo fan, but over the years I have grown to respect him for what he did. It was more than just good drumming. He fit his style to the song, and brought out the best in the song. Time and again. Would the Beatles have been as good without him. Maybe, maybe not, but he brought something to the Beatles, and they would have been quite different without him.
Ringo evolved with the rest of them. No other drummer could have done that.
He was one of the composers. Nobody wrote his part.
@@leonardoiglesias2394 yep.
@@leonardoiglesias2394 Quite right. It's interesting that the bass and drums to a song are very important to it, but for the most part are not copyrightable.In any case, what Ringo did was very important to the sound of the Beatles.
I liked Pete's idea for the middle 8. If he could have refined it and stayed in tempo, it would have been an interesting addition to an otherwise boring song for drums.
Pete's version was like watching paint dry. Ringo brought the song to life.
I've heard a Pete Best interview in which he stated his belief that he was fired due to jealousy from other band members because he had a strong fan following.
Now, given how close he came to being amidst the adulation of Beatlemania, I can't blame him for trying to apply a salve to his hurt feelings and wounded pride.
But the reality, as shown by this recording of a "drum competition", was that Pete was a crappy drummer. Even on a simple song like "Love Me Do", Ringo's drumming showed style, and his ability to craft a perfect part for that song was evident. As the songs grew in complexity, Pete would have been left in the dust. If he hadn't been fired early on, he would surely have been canned then.
In fact, had he not been fired early on, The Beatles would likely not achieved superstar status.
Try to imagine the sound of "She Loves You" or "I Want To Hold Your Hand" without Ringo's propulsive drumming, and it's impossible to imagine.
Or Rain.
Why did they remove Pete Best from the band? Because he was bad.
It was that simple , everything else that is said is nonsense .
Did decca records think he was bad??
He wasn’t a very intuitive drummer nor a good one. But he was a very egotistical guy about his looks. So basically he really wasn’t good for the band and had no business being in it anymore.
@@LindaLaurenPsychicMedium Well this doesn't make sense, as he went straight into the group Lee Curtis and the all stars, who did have a deal with Decca records!
It's also a well-known opinion that Pete was the best looking Beatle at the time and got all the girls !!!
I can't find anything wrong with Pete Best, at least no reason to fire him. He was on beat and on tempo. This was a pop band, not Count Baise, not the LSO. Andy White is exaclty the guy you'd call to sub in with Count Base or the LSO.
Pete became drummer for Beatles cos he had a drum kit. Expensive in those days
His mom was well known enterpreneur and Pete didn't need much money and he was free to come.
And, they couldn’t go to Hamburg without a drummer, an average one would do but it was always the plan to get rid of him though
@@frankieRandle8779 Have you HEARD their DECCA AUDITION? Pete NOT SO BEST SUCKED. Course they all were kinda ROUGH round the edges......AND THOSE THUG LEATHER JACKETS HAD TO GO!They looked like they'd mug you in an alley.
@@Joe-bx4wn Brian Epstein is credited with moulding their image, smart suits and ties because he knew what would sell
And his mom Mona turned her basement into the Casbah Club where the Fabs had a long and well paid residency.
I am a layman but one thing I noticed is that Ringo's play is the only one where I did not fall asleep and I could listen through without starting to think about sg else. I have no idea why is that, but I realized now why he was the drummer in Beatles.
Ringo by a mile
The rest is just kinda chopping wood.
The name "Beat Brothers" was used by producer Bert Kaempfert for the backing bands he used to record the fabulous Tony Sheridan.
The early Beatles, as the Beat Brothers, backed Tony on My Bonnie and a few other songs that Tony arranged for that first album.
Not all of their contributions to the recordings actually made the final cut-- they were still quite raw. Someone on the scene in Hamburg at the time has said that Ringo never played on any charted recording. I've encountered the same statement in other comment sections.
Different musicians, accomplished ones, made up later versions of Beat Brothers to back Tony.
And, as I understand it, the Beatles were (mostly) young clunky kids at the time, very unpolished musically. They kept audiences amused with lots of onstage goofiness.
Pete was the exception. While he was also a newbie on drums, Pete didn't "do goofy." He was well-mannered and also extremely handsome, and all the girls fixated on him. This would be viewed as a tremendous asset to any promoter, of course. But there were a couple of guys quite unhappy about it....
Did Pete play drums on My Bonnie ??
@@carlosvelasquez9922
Hi Carlos!
I'm not sure who was finally on the recording, but I think so! As stories say, Pete gave it a try.
I have read that many Beatles tracks were ultimately done by Alan White.
@konstantia1607 My bonie is a great track . In the Decca audition, the 4 of them were equally horrible , Pete didn't have the chance in the Abbey Road studios , Ringo was just lucky he had the opportunity
@@carlosvelasquez9922
Yes, there was a lot of room for improvement! 😁
Ringo was a lefty playing on a righty kit ! This is why he was hard to play and understand sometimes . His rolls were from the left !
I never understood why he couldn't just switch snare and tom and ride cymbla ith hi hat?
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.
They are called the beat brother
@@michaelsorrells6426No they are not. That's the band name used on Tony Sheridan's album.
@@Galahad1967 yes they were because you can look it up online and find it
@@michaelsorrells6426The Beatles were credited as The Beat Brothers only when backing Tony Sheridan on his German single, My Bonnie, because Beatles sounded like a German word the record company didn’t want printed on the label. They were never officially known The Beat Brothers, and certainly did not go into the EMI audition under that name.
I look up online if you look at the album
There you go again Ol Ringo, with all yer fills and rolls and somethings.
I love Ringo, but I gotta say, Andy White was a respected session musician for a reason. His groove is hella tight.
Tight, but dull. Ringo's has groove.
You're right. And who's playing that tambourine on Andy's take?...@@marks.3303
@@marks.3303exactly, Ringo is the only one out of the three that makes your head instantly start to bob
Remember that what you're hearing as "Andy" is actually Andy with Ringo on a tambourine at the same time.
This video has no historical accuracy since both Andy White and Ringo played on the latter version of the song.
Andy White on drums, and Ringo on the tambourine.
This comparison is extremely instructive. Best has trouble with time (to my ear), White sounds very precise and professional... but Ringo has an undeniable groove, a swing baby! Starr's time is also impeccable, with the allowance that his style includes a slightly rushed downbeat and a slightly dragged upbeat.
It's not "instructive" at all. Ringo had weeks to practice it, whereas Pete was ambushed with a new arrangement at his session. Ringo's version was edited from multiple takes and published, and Pete's is an unedited raw demo. Good grief, get a clue. smh
@@Cosmo-Kramer Insofar as information of any kind is by definition instructive, I stand by my statement. Furthermore, Lennon among others asserted that Best was a "lousy drummer" (his words), who could play straight 4/4 time all the way through, but was not inventive or skilled. You can take it up with John when you reach Paradise, I guess.
@@Cosmo-Kramer calm down
@@jtsotherone Gfy
@@Cosmo-Kramer proving my point!
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.
Ringo showing he was a Beatle from the first bar.
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.
I really like the Andy take since there is that tambourine by Ringo which makes it more full.
Sounds too robotic. Like a drum machine.
Listen to the easy, jaunty swing in Ringo's kick pickups...even with no other instruments audible, he makes me want to dance. He has good time, but even more than that, he has *feel* for days. He groks what the song should sound like, the kind of energy it should project, and he gets his drums to do that.
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.
Context: Pete Best, song being “written” first run through and heavy bass drum aka the Atomic Drum Beat volume lowered by Abbey Road engineers, Ringo had Three months with the band to work on LMD…and George Martin went with Andy White’s version…only for the EP (45) first release in the UK…Andy White comes in and Nails it, and all releases including the 20th Anniversary.. Ringo’s version found for Anthology plus earlier Rarities releases. P S I Love You Andy White solid. Ringo sweats blood that he was going to get the Pete Best Treatment. First tour Ringo’s sick and George thinks that Ringo is going to get the sack threatens not to go…fearing Ringo might be permanently replaced….
Context, Ringo was my favorite Beatles during Beatlemania,
Brian Epstein offered the job to Three other drummers before Ringo was selected and offered to Pete to build a band around him. Another band fired their drummer to get Pete, the band was the 2nd most popular in Liverpool.
Pete if he had a good lawyer could have demanded payment on Beatles as he had a signed contract with EMI. If not so distraught, and taken Epstein’s offer he would have been on tours all over the UK.
Best’s Curly hair wouldn’t take a Beatle hair cut, didn’t help that he alone of the Beatles he had a fan club. What happened is history, however Best had a better singing voice than Ringo and having Paul take over yet he drums and the other band members told to sit down when he had his solos.
Ringo, the left handed drummer on a right handed kit had intuitive feel for what the band’s song needed, Lennon and McCartney, and in time Harrison’s creativity, and experimental harmony plus great stage presence and humor is what made the band unique, plus their energy popular.
While it's true that Pete has zero time to practice Martin's new arrangement for LMD, Ringo did not have "three months" to practice it, he had 3 weeks (maybe two). That is, before his September 4th recording. If he was allowed to re-record it after White did his, as Ringo claims to be the case, then yes, Ringo had longer to practice it. But still, nowhere close to 3 months. More like 5 to 6 weeks, tops.
You're also mistaken about Pete joining the second most popular band after getting the sack from The Beatles. He joined, Lee Curtis & The All-Stars, and they were a mid-level band. They only surged to become the 2nd most popular band (behind The Beatles) AFTER Pete joined them.
As for Pete's hair being too wavy and thick for the moptop, that had nothing to do with him getting sacked. Ringo's not even wearing it on The Beatles' first album cover. The haircut was not a thing 'til the band arrived in America. Millions of kids in Europe had it, it was no big deal, and JP&G certainly didn't care about every member of the band having it, or they would've insisted Ringo wear on their first album cover. And once the cut did become an international rage, with everyone getting it, Pete did get it with his post-Beatles band. It was a bit clumpy given how thick his hair was, but he made it work. JP&G never asked Pete to get it because they knew he wasn't going to be around long-term anyway.
There was only one reason why they sacked Pete, and that was because they were insanely jealous of his status as the far and away most popular Beatle. Okay, two reasons. George had his own motive, and that was to get his buddy Ringo into the band, so he'd have a voting partner on band matters, including which songs go on the albums. Pete was good mates with John, and would be loyal to John on such matters, so George had to conspire to replace Pete with Ringo.
@@Cosmo-Kramerwere George and Ringo friends?
@@nicolafiorillo4048 Yes, George and Ringo were mates. But not at first, really, they did not hang out together alone. Nor did John or Paul hang out with Ringo alone. Ringo would hang out with all the Beatles in the clubs after shows, as did Ringo's front man, Rory Storm, and many other rockers on the scene. No, the only Beatle Ringo hung out with one-on-one outside the clubs was Pete, when Ringo first arrived in Hamburg. The two Liverpudlian drummers who were so far away from home naturally gravitated towards each other, and went sightseeing together, taking in movies, and propping up pubs 'til dawn. So Pete was actually the closest Beatle to Ringo. But that all changed, unbeknownst to Pete, well over a year later in December of '61. Pete was ill and couldn't perform one night, so he called his mate, Ringo, and asked him to fill in for him. Ringo, who had always coveted Pete's job (again, unbeknownst to Pete), jumped at the chance. Well, George Harrison saw this as his big opportunity to get Pete, the most popular Beatle, out of the band, thereby elevating himself to the position of "3rd Beatle", the spot on the totem pole he felt he deserved (at a minimum) based on tenure and being the group's lead guitarist.
So at the show George privately asked Ringo if he'd like to permanently join the band, and Ringo replied, *"I'd love to, but you've already got a drummer."* Which was music (pardon the pun) to George's ears! Ringo's coded response was loud and clear: *_You get rid of Pete, and I'm in._* What an absolute snake in the grass! Both Ringo and George. And Paul and John, too, for eventually joining the conspiracy -- something they would have done sooner had they been signed sooner. You see, ever the pragmatist, Paul knew they needed a recording contract to survive sacking their most popular bandmember. George wanted it done yesterday, but Paul kept kicking the can down the road, knowing full well that such a colossal betrayal before that contract was secured, could very well have been an existential mistake on their part, the wrath of the the fans likely would have been impossible to overcome.
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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?"
Give me Ringo’s version for swing and feel.
The Beatles drummer comparison on their iconic first hit Love Me Do.
Brought to you by Remington Typewriters.
Andy White is technically the best.
Ringo Starr is musically the best.
Pete Best is also in this video.
Pete Best is Best himself.
Not much more to say here. There are some really great, on the mark observations. Initially, I'm thinking Pete Best's timing sounded really good but when it got to Ringo, I'm sorry folks (actually, I'm not), Ringo's swing and feel is undeniable. He's not just keeping a beat. I was even thinking, going into this, well this is a really simple song, how much can this comparison prove? It actually makes the case for Ringo even more. I was almost shocked (not completely) at how stiff Andy White sounded. Based on this example: 1# Ringo #2 Pete Best #3 Andy White More than anything, this comparison shows you how what you may think are simple variations in a "simple" beat can make a gigantic difference!
The "skip" beat was removed by the time Ringo was hired; George Martin commented Ringo could not execute the "skip" beat either. Take that Pete Best naysayers!
wasnt andy white's the single version and ringo on the album?
Andy White's version is on the album. Ringo's version was erroneously released as the single in the UK which caused George Martin to have the master tapes destroyed. That's why we've never had a remix of the Ringo version until technology allowed them to copy one of the old 45s and digitally separate the instruments like they did with Johns voice on the "Now And Then" demo.
@@TuberOnTheLoose but i remember ringo saying in the anthology something like "white didnt do anything great that i couldnt do when we make the album" or something like that.
@@noseloquedigo92514 He did say something like that years later, but the fact remains George Martin rejected the September 4, 1962 take of "Love Me Do" because of Ringo's drumming and brought in Andy White for the September 11, 1962 recording session.
@@TuberOnTheLoose An explanation for Ringo's comment, *"Andy didn't do anything that special that I couldn't copy it for my version",* is that the version we have for Ringo is NOT the one from September 4th which Martin rejected, but a second recording he was permitted to do AFTER White's September 11th recording.
@@Cosmo-KramerWhat a load of bollocks!😂😂😂
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!
But could they KEEP the beat?
Pete sounds like he's kicking a litter can. No doubts about why he was fired.
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.
Andy White here sounds like what I've heard on the recording. I may not have ever heard the album version though.
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.
Andy White should've played the tambourine to Ringo's playing.
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.
For me the difference is 'feel'. Pete didn't have it, nor indeed much else apart from a basic beat. Andy is more the technical session guy, doing an efficient and professional job. Ringo just has it. Feel, swing, just a natural who could bring something to the song other than simple timekeeping.
Pete Best sonds like a 5 year old kid playing the brums on a biscuit tin
Ringo knows how to end a sentence
Crazy. Ringo is the man.
Pete's tempo drifts and has no style whatsoever. Ringo is rock solid with a very definite stylized play method.
1:50 WOAH! the drummers getting away, we'd better run to keep up.
1:57 shot right past the drummer who really slowed down.
WHAT A MESS!
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 ?
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.
There are pre-teen kids who play better guitar than John, Paul and George.
Anyone picking up some sticks for the first time can do as well as Pete...
How can you isolate a drum track from a recording made in late 1962?
There are so many software programs out now than can digitally isolate any instrument with excellent results.
@TigerRogers0660 I don't think it would be possible because back then, every recording was mono. Personally, I think someone recorded themselves playing drums and scammed people who listened. I call this a fake video.
@@gsmith1213 no it's not fake, you can isolate certain parts of songs with software these days.
How do you think they were able to make 'Now And Then' recently, isolating Lennon's vocal? It's technically possible now through newly advanced software.
@jokermaan1 I do not think the person who uploaded this video has the same type of software the engineers had while making the song Now and Then.
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.
WHich, we can safely say, is a lot fucking further than you .
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.
Andy White is the better session drummer but Ringo's sound matches the rest of the song better. Bands are about formula. Ringo suited the Beatles sound. Andy is way more crisp and it's a tight professional sound but it also has an emotionally detached quality. He's there to play a gig.
Andy White, is solid and stiff, but straight. Ringo's groove almost sings the song.
White sounds like a military drummer.
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 wish there were available recordings of Stu Sutcliffe playing bass. I always heard how bad he was, and I'm curious to hear for myself.
Damn, Pete Best doesn't even keep solid time.
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
The Andy White one is professional, sounding exactly what you get from a session musician. Ringo has more feel and groove.
Ringo s version is dead thatsxwhy andy version is fuller remember george martin never liked ringos version thatsxwhy andy is who we hear for this song george Martin didn't want ringo in studio when recording but John said differently
I mean, andy white's version isn't bad at all but it just doesn't have that ringo magic
I do agree but I think the tambos add something to the song as well.
@@Drewzer154 That's because ringo played the tambourine on the andy white version c:
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.
Pete is doing an off beat on purpose for effect. It's kinda ahead of it's time.
Pete's attempt is weak when compared to the other 2. Ringo has a stronger, more professional sound. It just sounds so much stronger and better.
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.
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.
Ringo was not the best drummer in the world. But he was easily the best drummer in the world for the Beatles.
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…😂
A melhor versão é a de Andy White, nem se compara!
Eu concordo totalmente com você.
Very much agree
Eu gosto da virada do Pete Best
I think I like Andy's version but that's probably because Ringo plays tambourine which makes it sound a bit snappier.
Andy White plays just a studio musician would: a strong time keeper. Ringo always is strong steady and inventive!
So the version without the tambourine is Ringo Playing
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.
Pete was asked to mix it up during the recording, theres live recorded evidence prior to this recording that he kept it simple like the other two.
I've heard about it. And if that's true, he had no chance at all to show the quality of his drumming when he had to make a last-minute change that might confuse him or make him nervous, in a tense studio situation!
But: That doesn't excuse his tempo fluctuations in the normal verse part.
There's a plausible theory that this is related to another Beatles drum mystery - that Bernard Purdie claimed that he overdubbed drums on some Beatles tracks. The theory starts in Germany where the Beatles recorded My Bonnie and a bunch of other stuff for Bert Kaempfert. They took Pete's kick drum away and made him play with just snare and hihat in order to improve his timing. Much later, after Beatlemania was in full swing, there were attempts to reissue those tracks to cash in on the Beatles popularity, and that, so the theory goes, is when they added the kick in a US studio. And that, so the theory goes, is when Purdie was brought in. The tracks from that session that wound up on Anthology would be from the master tapes so definitely NOT with the rumored Purdie overdubs. If you make a drum stem of Ain't She Sweet from Anthology, there's a ton of snare playing the typical double-single part that was so popular in 1960, but I don't hear any kick - do you? Cry for a Shadow has what sounds to me like very soft kick in a few places and a ton of floor tom in the middle. On My Bonnie, I don't hear kick either. Hunting around TH-cam I've yet to find a version of My Bonnie with a clearly audible kick, so that's the missing piece in proving the theory. If anybody can find one of those old vinyl cutouts with a clear kick drum, that would almost certainly be Purdie - I'd love to hear that! Of course it wouldn't be the same as it would have been had Purdie been at the original session because everyone could have played with his groove instead of him just overdubbing. It might have been any of the other tracks as well. I've just been looking for My Bonnie since it's the best known from that session and the one that played a role in Epstein's involvement with the Beatles.
@@kevinmoore4237 Bert Kaempfert did not "take away" Pete's bass drum and toms, good grief. Lol He simply told him not to play them. And his reason had nothing to do with Pete's timing, it had everything to do with Pete's power, volume. Kaempfert was a 40-year old fuddy-duddy easy listening producer, best known for his polka. He had no palate for rock n' roll, he was only working with Sheridan as a crooner, and the thunderous drum sound of Pete's signature "Atom Beat", and The Beatles heavy brand of rock n' roll, turned him off completely. Bert's engineer at the session said, *"We were completely unprepared for The Beatles' sound. They were loud, Loud, LOUD! We'd never heard anything like them before."*
@@arniezanzibar5309 Just to be clear, you don't mean "live recorded evidence" of *Love Me Do,* right? You just mean other songs wherein Pete keeps it simple and plays solid, correct? Because I'm not aware of any live recordings of Pete playing, "Love Me Do".
Many folks have commented on the quality of Pete Best Aaa drummer, but probably the sleaziest thing he was involved with (second perhaps to his repeated claims over the years that the only reason he was kicked out of the Beatles was because of the jealousy about his looks):
Those who were around at the time will recall that, immediately after it became clear that the Beatles were going to be huge, the album-market was flooded with (sometimes very vaguely-related) knock-off albums: For example “Alvin and the Chipmunks Sing the Beatles”, VeeJay Records re-release of their “Introducing The Beatles” album, etc[*].
But, in the context of the current discussion, the most notable example was the album put out by The Pete Best Combo with the title…
…wait for it…
“Best of the Beatles”!
…which, by the way, contained exactly zero songs by the Beatles.
[* There was even a rumor going around at the time that the band The Beau Brummells (with their 1964 hit “Laugh, Laugh”) chose their name so that their albums would appear alphabetically immediately following the Beatles in the record bins in the stores.)
Pete may have had no say in the title of that album, you're just wildly speculating.
@@Cosmo-Kramer : Maybe.
It’s possible that he didn’t have anything to do with selecting this album’s title, but given his actions and his ridiculous claims in all other aspects concerning this whole unfortunate fraud, I think we can all agree that suggesting that he would do something like this is “wildly speculating” is hardly accurate
@@NichaelCramer What fraud? What ridiculous claims? I've heard scores of interviews by Pete Best and never once heard him claim something that was untrue.
@@Cosmo-Kramer : Well, the most obvious issue is his often-repeated claim that “the only reason” he was asked to leave the Beatles was because of the jealousy about his good looks, that “he was always the one who got all the girls”.
Or more generally, simply that, other than that that there was “no difference” between him and RS.
@@NichaelCramer Pete's correct, that was the only reason he was sacked. And he's also right, he did get all the girls. I don't think you have any concept of how much more popular Pete was than John, Paul or George.
As for your last sentence, Pete never said that "other than that there was no difference" between him and Ringo, in fact Pete has said he was a better drummer than Ringo. And in some more diplomatic moments, he's said that he and Ringo had different styles and he'll leave it up to others to judge whose drumming they preferred.
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.
I wish I could hear these with the music.
They’re all out there
Ringo is more in the pocket than Andy. Ironically Best is the worst.
Andy White's drumming sounds way more crisp and energetic. No wonder they hired this guy to play for the studio recordings. Hell, they should have sent home Ringo as well, and kept White as the official 4th Beatle.
Ringo was not just battery he was better by miles. Out of the three he's the only one that sounds like a Beatle.
You e also got Ringo on tambourine on that Andy White cut - Ringo makes it even there
I find the way Pete changes the beat in the middle 8 really jarring. It's just horrible. Andy and Ringo are both really good
Pete (is not the) Best, he's a child
Ringo (is a) Starr, he's a Beatle
Andy (is) White, he's a military
It’s Ringo, for the win!
Why are y’all hating on Andy so much bro he’s good
Ringo was the most musical and pleasing. Pete Best was not the best.
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.
Ummm, no. Ringo was NOT a "seasoned session musician". He had less studio experience than Pete had. And George Martin rejected Ringo's version of the song, citing poor timing, an assessment agreed with by Paul McCartney. Paul tried to persuade Martin into giving Ringo a second chance but Martin wasn't having it and hired Andy for the official recording session the following week. Additionally, this is an apples to oranges comparison, as Ringo had many takes on an arrangement he'd been practicing for weeks, and according to EMI engineer, they had to do some heavy editing between his takes to get the finished product. Pete, on the other hand, was ambushed out of the blue by Martin changing the arrangement at their audition, telling Pete to ditch the skip-beat he'd been playing the song with in the clubs and rehearsals. The recording we have is nothing more than a raw demo of Pete and the band trying to learn Martin's impromptu new arrangement...it was NOT a finished product like the Ringo and Andy versions y'all are attempting to compare it with. Do your research before spouting off nonsense. smh
I want to read opinions from drummers who are not Ringo fan-boys or have an agenda such as "I like the feel imparted by playing behind the beat" or "This guy plays too uptight and mechanical". Just tell us how each rates in unbiased terms!
No such animal. Every drummer has their own idea of how a drum part should sound, and they base their opinion of other drummers on that. The only objective measure is the metronome, which shows that Ringo and White play a much steadier tempo, while Best's tempo wavers a lot. Apart from that, it's pretty much subjective.
@@davidhalsted3075 Thank you! That's what I want to hear.
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.
Starr 🌟 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟
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.
listening this I can´t understand why George Martin replaced Ringo with White at the begining
Another chance for all the TH-cam 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 .
no, pete sucks
Pete was a terrible drummer, plain and simple.
Ringo definitely...no contest.
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.
A very simplistic beat, a five year old could play this and be as good as all three!
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 ??
Creo que Pete no era tan mal baterista , se nota en Cry for a Shadow, solo que no era el baterista para The Beatles , si no , ellos mismos lo hubieran despedido al mes de estar en Hamburgo , y no 2 años despues.
Ringo had the back beat for sure.