Happy birthday to Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) who turns a year older today. Ringo is one of the two surviving members of what we used to call “The Fab Four“.
Ringo will probably go down in history as one of the luckiest men ever born. Talk about “being in the right place at the right time” or winning the biggest lottery of all time.
In the fall of 1962, The Beatles, and new producer George Martin, walked into a studio to record their first single. Martin settled on “Love me do,” a Lennon-McCartney tune, and it did reach the top 20 in the UK. It did not chart in the US. The B-side was “P.S. I love you”, one of their most underrated songs!
The rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say, is that Martin replaced drummer Pete Best, an original member of the band and lifelong friend from Liverpool. Martin replaced Pete with Ringo.
Pete Best was out. Ringo Starr was in. Pete ended up with 9 to 5 job and sadly no one remembers his birthday. Ringo has a big mansion and everyone remembers his birthday.
Within a year of the roster change, the Beatles had two # 1 songs in the UK: “Please please me” and “She loves you”. Eighteen months later, Ringo and his pals were on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and their songs dominated the U.S. charts.
In a few months, Ringo went from being a Liverpool drummer to playing behind John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
He had a great sense of humor and the media loved him. Ringo had critical roles in the Beatles’ movies, such as his “ring” in “Help” and that funny walk to “This Boy: Ringo’s theme,” in “A Hard Day’s Night”.
Ringo did a couple of “lead vocals”, such as the # 1 song: “Yellow Submarine”. However, his greatest contribution was being a professional drummer, exactly what George Martin had in mind back then.
We remember Ringo’s birthday and I hope that he is doing well.
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