In the few dates between Best's
departure and Ringo's joining, Hutchinson played drums with the band.
It has also been suggested that Epstein,
aware that Hutchinson was regarded as Liverpool's best drummer,
offered him the Beatles seat, but he turned it down.
Hutchinson was to comment, "Brian
asked me to join the Beatles and I said, 'I wouldn't join the Beatles
for a gold clock. There's only one group as far as I'm concerned and
that's the Big Three. The Beatles can't make a better sound than that,
and Pete is a very good friend of mine. I couldn't do the dirty on
him.'"
When Best's mother Mo heard that Pete
had been sacked, she was furious and spent an afternoon trying to
contact Epstein by phone - in vain.
She then managed to talk to George
Martin on the phone and he denied that he had ever suggested sacking
Pete. All he would say was that he would prefer having a session
drummer that he was familiar with in a recording studio. In fact, this
was confirmed when he used a session drummer even after Ringo had
joined the group.
Martin actually told Mo: "I never
suggested that Pete Best must go. All I said was that for the purposes
of the Beatles' first record I would rather use a session man. I never
thought that Brian Epstein would let him go. He seemed to be the most
saleable commodity as far as looks went. It was a surprise when I
learned that they had dropped Pete. The drums were important to me for
a record, but they didn't matter much otherwise. Fans don't pay
particular attention to the quality of the drumming."
The group returned to Abbey Road Studios
with their new member Ringo on Tuesday, September 4 1962. Ron Richards
rehearsed the group in the afternoon and they then began recording
with George Martin in the evening, initially recording 'How Do You Do
It?' a number by songwriter Mitch Murray that Martin insisted they
record.
They next recorded 'Love Me Do,' a
number Paul had written one day when he was playing truant from
school. John wrote the middle eight.
Paul has said, "You can't have
anything simpler, yet more meaningful than 'love, love me do.' I think
I first sagged off school to write that one. It was our greatest
philosophical song."
It took fifteen takes. However, Martin
wasn't happy with the drum sound and decided to re-arrange the session
for Tuesday September 11.
Engineer Norman Smith, present at the
session, remarked: "I've a feeling that Paul wasn't too happy
with Ringo's drumming, and felt it could be better." Apparently,
this was also the feeling of Richards and Martin.
The next session, on Tuesday 11
September, was produced solely by Richards, who said: "We weren't
happy with the drum sound on the original 'Love Me Do' so I booked
Andy White for the remake. I used him a lot at that time - he was very
good."
The sequence of events seems to disprove
the allegations about Pete Best and his drumming. White was booked
because of disenchantment with Starr, not Best.
While the session took place, Ringo was
initially asked to join Richards in the control box, then Richards
possibly taking pity on him asked him to play maracas on 'P.S. I Love
You.' He then asked him to play tambourine on 'Love Me Do.'
Martin told Beatles' biographer, Hunter
Davies: "He (Ringo) couldn't do a roll - and still can't - though
he's improved a lot since. Andy was the kind of drummer I needed.
Ringo was only used to ballrooms. It was obviously best to use someone
with experience."
Ringo himself was to tell Davies how
shocked he was to arrive at the session and find another drummer
there: "I thought, 'that's the end', they're doing a Pete Best on
me."
Andy White, now 73, is a music teacher
in America and was paid £11 for the session. He says, "That was
about the rate they paid for a session back then, and it was actually
pretty good money
"Ringo tapped a tambourine and I
did the drumming. I was paid a session fee and that was it. I was told
later that when Ringo saw me setting up my kit he thought he was
getting the bullet."
However, the number took 18 takes to
record.
Ringo recalled, "I'd just joined
the group and although they did not tell me so, I was really on trial.
We had recorded 'Love Me Do' at our first session, but George Martin
said we were going to do it again and when I entered the studio I was
horrified to see a set of drums that were not mine and a man who
definitely wasn't me sitting waiting for us. The session started, and
I was only allowed to play the tambourine.
"Fortunately, George Martin decided
afterwards to issue the first version as the single, though the one on
which I didn't play my drums was included on the first LP."
So Ringo's drumming appeared on the
version of the single that was released in Britain, although the Andy
White version was the single that topped the charts in America and was
included on the recent Beatles '1' album.
Next page in this article
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
5
