1962 was a big year for The Beatles.
A former band member died, another was fired, and the keystone member of the band was hired, thus completing the "Fab Four" as history remembers.
In the summer of 1961, after a long stretch of playing in Hamburg clubs, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and drummer Pete Best returned to Liverpool. Bass player Stuart Sutcliffe stayed behind in Germany—he left the band to study painting.
Sutcliffe was perhaps a better painter than bassist. His art also earned him the opportunity for a postgraduate scholarship, studying at a Hamburg university. Another factor playing into Sutcliffe’s decision was that his fiancée was a German fräulein.
After complaining of headaches and sensitivity to light for several weeks, while he was at school in February of 1962, Sutcliffe crumpled to the floor during an art class. He was seen by both German and British physicians. No doctor could find much wrong with the young Scotsman.
There was something wrong, however. Gravely wrong.
On April 10, the erstwhile Beatle suffered a brain aneurysm. It soon ruptured. Sutcliffe died from the resulting brain hemorrhage. He was 21 years old.
The Beatles all arrived back in Hamburg on April 13, but none of the bandmates were aware that their friend had died only a few days prior. They got the sad news about Sutcliffe soon after arrival.
The band was back in Germany to play nightly for the rest of April and most of May. Then they returned to London on June 6th for their first recording session at Abbey Road.
Yet, those sessions wouldn’t be their first credit on vinyl. On a German release called My Bonnie, in June of that year, Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers would make history by having the first album in the world to feature music from The Beatles. The lads were credited on the album as “Accompanied by The Beatles.”
After cutting songs of their own in the Abbey Road studios, The Beatles held down regular summertime gigs at The Cavern Club and played out at other hip joints in Liverpool and elsewhere.
Yet changes were in store around mid-August, Mark Lewisohn reports:
"In Skegness, Lincolnshire, 161 miles from Liverpool across the breadth of Britain, one of the most incredible strokes of good fortune in show-business history was about to touch a small-built, sad-eyed, 22-year-old Liverpudlian earning a meagre summer wage playing drums with a group called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes at the resort's Butlin's holiday camp. His name was Richard Starkey, known as Ritchie to his friends and Ringo Starr on stage, and on 14 August 1962 he was plucked from almost certain obscurity to the bosom of the Beatles and lifelong fame in one fell swoop.”
Additional details around Ringo’s admittance to the band are murky. Accounts differ as to whether John and Paul drove to Skegness at all, and if they did, whether it was on August 14th or 15th, or if John simply telephoned Ringo in Skegness.
The record shows that The Beatles played the Cavern Club for a lunchtime set and for another set in the evening on the 15th. If The Beatles indeed played these shows, as reported by Barry Miles, they would have likely been the last two shows that original drummer Pete Best ever played with the band.
August 15 is the day many Beatles fans consider the anniversary of John and Paul taking a car trip across the island to Skegness for the purpose of hiring on Ringo. It is a day of legend, but, again, it is unclear if the voyage really took place, or if it did when exactly it was.
There is a chance that it could have been early in the morning on the 15th, because The Beatles didn’t have a show on the 14th but did play on both the 13th and 15th. Did they leave on the 14th, stay the night, hire Ringo, and then drive back?
Trying to get a rough idea on the travel John and Paul were dealing with, your correspondent plugged in “Cavern Club, Liverpool to Skegness” on Google Maps, and the trip—on the map of 2024—is between 179 and 183 miles depending on the route. It takes between 3 hours, 37 minutes and 3 hours, 57 minutes on today’s roads, with minimal traffic.
The vehicles and the roads were likely in rougher condition 62 years ago. One can only speculate on the condition of the alleged drivers—two youngsters in the prime of their early adulthood.
For the sake of argument, let’s call the round-trip six hours and 320 miles—minimum—of driving. But one would likely want to figure about eight hours with the driving and interviewing of this Starkey fellow.
Nevertheless, John and Paul were reportedly at the Cavern Club to play their lunchtime set on the 15th and again for the evening gig that night. If indeed the trip to Skegness and back was made on the 15th, this was certainly not a case of youth wasted on the young. Perhaps this is why this remains stuff of legend.
Either way, when one parses through the records, it was likely Ringo to The Beatles—and Pete Best being put on waivers for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release—had been in the works for some time. Weeks, or perhaps months.
Ringo already knew the fellows. Thanks to a Pete Best illness, Ringo already sat in on drums once before—on February 5 during a lunchtime show at the Cavern Club and then again for an evening gig at The Kingsway Club.
Beatles manager Brian Epstein eventually cottoned to the idea that Ringo would be a better fit with the band than Best. Furthermore, John, Paul, and George were also reportedly growing jealous of Best's good looks.
Beatles producer George Martin believed that, despite Best's appeal to the throngs of young girls, he was not up to the musical standard needed to be The Beatles drummer.
Adding to the growing storm, Best had an introverted personality and was often “too moody,” whereas the rest of the lads were extroverts. Hairstyles were also important in the calculation. Best refused to go with the mop style that the Beatles eventually made famous, and he thus stood out from the other three. Ringo, on the other hand, agreed to wear his hair in what was eventually dubbed the “fringe style” the Fab Four popularized.
What history does show is that Pete Best, sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle," was fired from the band by manager Brian Epstein on the morning of August 16, 1962. Johnny "Hutch" Hutchinson filled in on drums at the Riverpark Ballroom show that evening and for two shows the next day, then it was Ringo’s job.
The reconstituted Beatles never approached “scandal.” Both sides saved face at the time.
The Beatles’ official comment was: “Pete left the group by mutual agreement. There were no arguments or difficulties, and this has been an entirely amicable decision.”
In 1963, Pete Best described it:
“On our third trip to Hamburg we became the first group to play at a new venue, The Star-Club. Whilst over there we received a telegram saying we’d got a Parlophone contract. Just before the first release I was told that I would have to leave the group. The news came as a complete surprise to me as I had no hint that it would happen and didn’t even have the opportunity of discussing it with the rest of the group.”
On August 18th, Ringo debuted in his official role as The Beatles drummer in a 10pm gig for the Horticulture Society Dance. The lads first managed to fit in a two-hour rehearsal prior to taking the stage with fellow act, The Four Jays.
And here we are, over 60 years later, with some still arguing about whether The Beatles deserve credit as the preeminent rock stars of a generation or if the Rolling Stones were better.
The Stones are still playing live shows. Your humble correspondent took in one in 2019. The Beatles played their last concert in 1969, on the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row, London.
Rumor has it that there is a 50 percent chance that the Fab Four reunites.
As always,
Brian
P.S. — If you are into Beatles history, these are some of the books I drew from today:
P.P.S. — Some of the links may be a part of Amazon’s affiliate program, and I am required to disclose: “As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”
P.P.P.S. — If you’re wondering why in the Sam Hill I care so much about whether or not John and Paul made the trip, it is because it doesn’t make a lot of sense the way I was told it. A few years ago, I read—either in a trivia email or a blog—that August 15th was the day Ringo joined, and that John and Paul drove across England to seal the deal. All of those “facts” together didn’t make much sense. My guess is that, on the 15th, John just phoned Ringo and told him to be at the Horticultural Society on the 18th. I doubt John and Paul cannonballed across England twice in one morning.
But you never know…
