I never liked Pete Best.. | Page 5 | Fab forum

I've always felt sorry for Pete Best — I mean, imagine you were kicked out of the office lottery pool the day before the staff hit the jackpot.  Pete spent two years slogging through those marathon gigs in Hamburg and Liverpool, only to be told on the eve of their incredible success that he wasn't good enough.   I don't blame him at all for trying to get something out of it, nor do I blame his mother for putting it around that the only reason he was dumped was because the others were jealous of his popularity with the girls (she was his mother, after all!).   I think he was basically a nice guy, and his dismissal was not handled well at all. Lord knows how I would have handled the years of Beatlemania if I was in his position.

Having said all that, I think it's pretty clear John, Paul and George made the right decision in replacing him with Ringo.  All we can really go on is what's on record, and Pete's drumming on the Tony Sheridan sessions in Hamburg and the Decca audition in London was competent but unremarkable, and it sounded pretty clunky and obtrusive on the version of "Love Me Do" they performed for George Martin in June.  Based on that, Martin didn't want Best on drums for their first recordings… but I don't really think that was the only factor in Pete's termination, since Martin didn't want Ringo either when he heard him play in September and The Beatles didn't turn around and fire Ringo. 

I think it had as much to do with personality — and to watch Pete in interviews over the years, it seems clear to me he didn't fit in at all with the other three, whereas Ringo matched up perfectly.  In fact, during The Beatles' first triumphant visit to the US, Ringo was one of the darlings of the reporters, who loved his down-to-earth wit  – and of the girls, who loved his "poor mutt" look up there on the drums.  If Pete had been a permanent member of the band, George Harrison never would have been known as "the Quiet Beatle". 

And I honestly can't imagine Pete adapting his style to match some of the quirky and original rhythm patterns established as The Beatles progressed — especially on some of John's mid-period songs like "She Said She Said", "Rain" and the monumental "A Day in the Life".  

No, I think Ringo was the perfect drummer for The Beatles, and history was written the way it should have been.

Still, I'm glad Pete was at last able to rake in some money when his drumming was finally released officially by The Beatles on ANTHOLOGY 1.