Pete Best
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pete Best | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Randolph Peter Best | |
| Born | 24 November 1941 Madras, India |
|
| Origin | Liverpool, England | |
| Genre(s) | Rock and Roll, Rock | |
| Occupation(s) | drummer | |
| Instrument(s) | Drums | |
| Years active | 1959 – 1968, 1988 – present |
|
| Associated acts |
The Beatles, The Pete Best Band |
|
| Website | PeteBest.com | |
Randolph Peter Best (born 24 November 1941 in Madras, India) is a British musician, best known as the original drummer for the Beatles.
Contents |
[edit] Role in the Beatles
Pete Best is son of Mona Best, who was the owner of the Casbah Club,[1] which was in the basement of their home in Liverpool,[2] where the Beatles later played. Best was first invited to join the band in 1959, later rejoining for their 1960–1961 residency in Hamburg. He stayed until shortly after their first audition for EMI in 1962, but was fired on 16 August of that year, to be replaced by Ringo Starr, then of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
Best was told of the dismissal by the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein. The reason given was that George Martin, who was to become the Beatles' producer, had been dissatisfied with Best's drumming and intended to replace him on their recordings. (Indeed, Martin did use a studio drummer, Andy White, on their first single session for "Love Me Do", even though Starr had been auditioned beforehand.) The decision appears to have been a 'last straw' with the group, who felt Best had never completely fit in as a member. While John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison usually spent their offstage time together, practicing their music or socialising, Best generally went off alone. They would often spend time with Starr, who also filled in for Best on occasion onstage. Best therefore was not privy to many of the group's experiences, references, in-jokes and developing sense of style; when the band adopted the mop-top-style Beatle haircut, Best did not follow suit (suggesting the other Beatles recognized even then what they were becoming). A few days after Best was fired, Epstein tried to console Best by offering to build another group around him, but Best was not interested. Best became a baker, earning £8 a week and marrying a girl named Kathy who worked at the biscuit counter at Woolworth's.
Starr, on the other hand, had an appealing, unique playing style (which impressed Harrison, in particular), was already quite popular in the Merseybeat scene, and readily joined in all the Beatles' activities. Starr's affable personality fitted more naturally with the others', and indeed would continue to do so until the Beatles' final breakup and beyond. It has been speculated that another reason for dismissing Best (and hiring Starr) was to draw fans from one of their primary local rivals, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Aside from that, there has also always been the assumption that the other Beatles were jealous of Best's appeal with the female fans, since he was more conventionally handsome than the other members, a problem that would perhaps not exist with Starr in his place. It has also been reported that Epstein first offered the job not to Starr, but to Johnny Hutchinson of the Big Three, who turned it down. Ringo's old band is said to have invited Best to make the switch reciprocal by becoming the Hurricanes' drummer, but he refused. Starr had worn a beard since turning professional, but shaved it off (and changed his hairstyle) as a condition of becoming a Beatle.
When word of Best's replacement broke in Liverpool (through outlets like Mersey Beat), many Beatles fans were upset, and one gave Harrison a black eye. Many female fans considered Best to be the band's best-looking member – and at many early shows, Best had his own group of female fans present in the audience. Fans would cheer "Pete forever, Ringo never!"
Pop historian and BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Spencer Leigh devoted a whole book chronicling Best's sacking. One of the longest chapters explores the theories of why Best was replaced by Starr just two months after the initial trip to Abbey Road, suggesting that the "green-eyed monster" had spoken to the other members, McCartney in particular, that Best was "the fairest of them all". This was then exacerbated by Mersey Beat's report that during the Teenagers' Turn showcase: "John, Paul and George made their entrance on stage to cheers and applause, but when Pete walked on, the fans went wild. The girls screamed! In Manchester, his popularity was assured by his looks alone." Pete was almost "killed with kindness" at the stage door afterwards by attentive females from the 400 strong audience, while the other members were allowed to board a ticking over charabanc, after signing a few autographs. McCartney's father Jim was present at this incident and admonished Best: "Why did you have to attract all the attention? Why didn't you call the other lads back? I think that was very selfish of you." McCartney's father rubbed salt into the wounds of the dismissed Best in the Cavern Club when a Beatles gig was being recorded for the ITV series Know the North. "Great, isn't it! They're on TV!" Observers reported that Best bit his tongue, and quietly left.[3]
In an appearance on the American game show I've Got a Secret, roughly two years later, Best seemed to deny that he was dismissed. Asked why 'he left the band', the still-ducktailed Best replied that he 'didn't think they would go as far as they did.'
In later years, Best himself has admitted to being a Beatles fan and owning their records. [4]
Best's musicianship has been a source of debate among Beatles fans. The Beatles were considered a tight band prior to the start of their recording career at EMI, and Best's drumming was generally thought to be solid. His performance on a 1962 demo of the Beatles' "Love Me Do" (included on The Beatles Anthology) is virtually indistinguishable from the single version released later that year, and recordings from the German period (notably the recording of "My Bonnie" with Tony Sheridan) show him playing a harder style than Starr would in succeeding years. His main weakness was a lack of creativity. He keeps time in a standard manner on several Anthology recordings and uses conventional fills. Starr proved to be significantly more innovative with the instrument, pioneering a new drumming style (leading with his left hand) and composing drum parts particular to a song's needs.
[edit] After the Beatles
After his split from the Beatles, Best joined Lee Curtis & the All Stars, which then broke off from Curtis and became Pete Best & the All Stars. They signed to Decca Records — who had previously rejected the Beatles, and signed the Tremeloes instead — and released the single "I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door", which failed to gain an audience.
Best then relocated to the United States — along with two songwriting musicians from the Remo Four, Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington — as the Pete Best Four, and did some recording for small labels. Personnel changes in early 1965 increased the group's size to five, with the new name the Pete Best Combo. They toured the United States with their combination of 1950s songs and originals but had little success, hurt by having no hit records in England or major label promotion in the United States. Finally, they released an album on Cameo Records titled Best Of The Beatles (a dubious play on Peter's name, leading to disappointment for record buyers who expected a Beatles compilation), but disbanded not long after. (Bickerton and Waddington were to find much greater success as songwriters in the 1970s for a series of hits by the Rubettes.)
Best apparently tried to commit suicide in 1965 by locking himself in a room and inhaling fumes from a gas fire. Best filed a libel suit against The Beatles in October of that year, because Starr implied in an interview with Playboy magazine that Best had been fired because he was a drug user. The suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Best decided to leave show business, and in Hunter Davies' 1968 authorised Beatles biography, he was portrayed as both somewhat bitter but also unwilling to talk further about or otherwise cash in on his Beatles association.
After a series of jobs outside music, including work as a baker and a civil servant, Best began giving interviews to the media, writing about his time with the Beatles, and serving as a technical advisor for the television movie Birth of the Beatles in the late 1970s. Thus, Best eventually found a modicum of independent fame, and toured as leader of the Pete Best Band. In this public role, Best is uniquely positioned to gratify the many fans who are fascinated with the Beatles' early days.
When the surviving Beatles released their Anthology in 1995, which featured a number of tracks with Best as drummer, Best received a substantial windfall — apparently between £1 million and £4 million — from the sales.[citation needed] Some have speculated that Apple Records head Neil Aspinall, who reportedly remains friendly with Best, saw to it that Best would be compensated. (Aspinall had an affair with Best's mother, Mona, in the early 1960s, and Best's half-brother, Roag, is Aspinall's son.) Unfortunately, some aspects of the project also seemed to perpetuate the band's legacy of insult with regard to Best. He was not interviewed for the book or the television documentaries, and later disputed a statement by former bandmate Harrison in which Harrison claimed he remembered Best missing several live gigs, with his future replacement, Starr, sitting in for the night (this is documented to have occurred on at least one occasion). His image on an early group photo used on the cover was prominently and purposefully obscured by a cut-out of Starr, contrasting with the cover collage's inclusion of fellow former early Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe's portrait. (However, Best is visible in another, less prominent, photo also appearing on the cover.) Additionally, "Ain't She Sweet," one of the early tracks included on the compilation album to feature Best on drums, was presented in its 1964 U.S. mono single mix, which had been remixed (by Atlantic Records for release on its Atco label) with another studio drummer playing over Best's original drumming. But Best persevered, and recently has appeared in a television special built around him titled Best Of The Beatles, telling his life story.
[edit] References in popular culture
- An episode of The Armando Iannucci Shows featured Armando's barber telling him about the Bootleg Beatles, how the Bootleg Pete Best was annoyed at being left out of the band, and how the Bootleg John Lennon was shot by the Bootleg Mark David Chapman.
- In the Gilmore Girls episode "One's got class and the other one dyes", Lane's character is asked "not to be our Pete Best" when attempting to leave the band.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Miles. p57.
- ^ Photos of The Casbah Club
- ^ Clayson, Alan. Paul McCartney: Sanctuary Publishing Limited, 2003. ISBN 1-86074-482-6
- ^ Pete Best interview, from retrosellers.com
[edit] References
- Lennon, Cynthia (2006). John. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-89828-3.
- Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4.
- Leigh, Spencer (1998). Drummed Out: The Sacking of Pete Best. Northdown. ISBN 1-9007-1104-4.
