Best of the Beatles

by Spencer Leigh

  Just before the session, Brian Epstein told George Martin that the Beatles had dismissed Pete Best and he had been replaced by Ringo Starr. Epstein told him that he was a better drummer than Pete Best and that the band would prefer to record without a session drummer. George Martin agreed.

  So, 3 months after their Parlophone audition, the Beatles returned to Abbey Road on 4 September to record their first single. They arrived around half-past two to run-through their material with Martin’s assistant, Ron Richards. ‘How Do You Do It’ was a certainty and two of their own songs were chosen, ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘PS I Love You’. They went for a quick meal with George Martin and the session itself was from 7 till 10pm. They recorded several takes of ‘How Do You Do It’ and ‘Love Me Do’ but because of union restrictions, they couldn’t work past 10pm and cut the third song.

  Mitch Murray: “The Beatles recorded ‘How Do You Do It’ and I hated it. I felt that something had been screwed up, perhaps deliberately, although it is now very evocative of the early Beatles. I can’t blame them because they were songwriters themselves and didn’t want to do it, but it was a waste of a good song. I thought it was terrible, and fortunately, Dick James agreed with me. He told George Martin that the Beatles had made a very good demo record. George took it very well and said that he was planning to re-do it with the Beatles later on.”

  Paul McCartney told Martin: “We can’t go back to Liverpool singing ‘How Do You Do It’. We can’t be seen with that song.” It was recognised as a commercial song but it was nursery-rhyme pop as far as the Beatles were concerned. As Paul says in Many Years From Now, “We knew that peer pressure back in Liverpool would not allow us to do ‘How Do You Do It’. We knew we couldn’t hold our heads up with that sort of rock-a-pop-ballad. We would be spurned and cast into the wilderness.”

  So George Martin gave up on ‘How Do You Do It’ and realised ‘Love Me Do’ would be a more suitable single, but there was a problem – Ringo’s drumming.

  The recording engineer, Norman ‘Hurricane’ Smith, told Mark Lewisohn (The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, 1988), “I’ve a feeling that Paul wasn’t too happy with Ringo’s drumming and felt that it could be better. He didn’t make too good a job of it. I remember too that there was a fair bit of editing to be done.”

  George Martin, Ron Richards and Norman Smith thought the same as Paul and it was agreed that ‘Love Me Do’ would be re-recorded a week later with a session drummer. The drummer was 32-year-old Andy White who was married to Lyn Cornell, formerly of the Liverpool group the Vernons Girls.

  Andy White told the US Drumming magazine (1986), “George called me because I had the reputation for being a rock drummer. I happened to be working on the rock ’n’ roll shows Drumbeat and Oh Boy! I got the reputation of being a rock drummer even though I wasn’t really a rock drummer. I played with Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.”

  Despite the slight to his drumming abilities, Ringo stayed around at the session and played the tambourine on the new version of ‘Love Me Do’ and maracas on ‘PS I Love You’. They also attempted ‘Please Please Me’, but George Martin felt the song could be improved if they upped the tempo and added some harmonies. All five musicians received a session fee of £5.15s (£5.75) – John Lennon’s was sent to 251 Mew Love Avenue (sic).

  Ringo Starr told Drumming (1981): “I’m not sure about this, but one of the reasons they also asked Pete to leave was George Martin didn’t like Pete’s drumming. When I went down to play, he didn’t like me either, so he called on Andy White, a professional session man, to play the session. There were two versions but you can’t spot the difference in the drumming because all I did was what he did because that’s what they wanted for the song.”

  The Beatles may not have cared for ‘How Do You Do It’ but it had a life of its own. The song’s writer, Mitch Murray, says, “It makes me cringe to think that George Martin told the Beatles to come up with a song as good as mine, but he knew that I was a professional songwriter and he liked the song. Brian Epstein then suggested that Gerry and the Pacemakers should do the song instead and I was told he was like a Liverpool Bobby Darin. George Martin asked me to hear Gerry at the Cavern but I said, “I don’t care what he sounds like live, it’s the record that counts.” Arrogant little sod, wasn’t I? They made the record, I loved it and it delighted me that it got to Number 1.”

  Gerry Marsden: “I thought at the time that the Beatles had just made a demo for us, which was sent to us in Germany. We were very surprised when we recorded it because we had never heard our voices played back, apart from on crummy old tape recorders. We couldn’t believe it was us. It sounded really good but, blooming heck, we never thought it would be a hit.” (Again, this is misleading as some tapes of Gerry and the Pacemakers, professionally recorded at Lambda Records in Crosby in 1961, have come to light.)

  Gerry’s drumming brother Fred: “At that stage, we were going to do ‘Hello Little Girl’ but Brian Epstein suggested that we did ‘How Do You Do It’ instead and he would give ‘Hello Little Girl’ to the Fourmost. We heard the Beatles’ demo and we decided to put a heavier beat on it than the Beatles. We had been playing together for several years and we really wanted to make a hit record. It didn’t matter to us if a song was poppy because having a hit was more important. The Beatles should have stuck with ‘How Do You Do It’ as they might have had their first three records at Number 1. Instead, we’re the group who did that.”

  Mitch Murray: “When you have a Number 1, you think, ‘Phew, at last.’ It’s not bottles of champagne but relief. Then you think ‘Maybe it’s a fluke’ and you spend your whole career trying to prove yourself. I wrote ‘I Like It’ for Gerry’s follow-up but John Lennon had given him ‘Hello Little Girl’. John threatened to thump me if I got the follow-up and I thought it was worth a thump. “I Like It” had the same cheekiness and innuendo and it also went to Number 1. I didn’t get a thump.”

  On Friday 5 October 1962, the Beatles’ first Parlophone single was released – ‘Love Me Do’/‘PS I Love You.’ Much to Ringo’s delight, George Martin had chosen the first recording with him on drums.

  Many people believe that Brian Epstein bought thousands of copies to hype it into the charts. Firstly, this wouldn’t work as the sales charts are compiled from the Top 10 statistics of many different shops across the UK. Secondly, NEMS was the largest record retailer in Liverpool and was always going to sell thousands of copies. Brian Epstein might order 1,000 copies of a potentially big single, and my guess is that he ordered 5,000 ‘Love Me Do’s and secured them on very favourable terms.

  According to The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, ‘Love Me Do’ made Number 17 on the UK charts, which is following the trade charts in Record Retailer. Most music fans went by the chart in New Musical Express and there the single made Number 27 for 1 week on 27 October 1962. Strangely enough, the difference in positions was the other way round for the second single, ‘Please Please Me’ – the single was Number 2 in Record Retailer and Number 1 in the NME – which means that the perennial quiz question, “What was the Beatles’ first Number 1?” does not have a definitive answer. NEMS was such a big record retailer that it released its own Top 10 each week for its shop windows and for publication in the Liverpool Echo. According to the chart, proudly displayed on a cardboard rectangle in their windows, ‘Love Me Do’ went straight to Number 1.

  ‘Telstar’ by the Tornadoes was Number 1 on both charts, and several other classics were doing well – ‘The Locomotion’ (Little Eva), ‘It Might As Well Rain Until September’ (Carole King), ‘Let’s Dance’ (Chris Montez), ‘Sherry’ (Four Seasons), ‘I Remember You” (Frank Ifield) and ‘The James Bond Theme’ (John Barry). Entering at Number 26 was another Liverpool performer, Billy Fury, who was bravely covering an Elvis Presley album track, ‘Because of Love’. The only other Parlophone single on the chart was the country-styled ‘Don’t That Beat All” by Adam Faith.

  An interesting fact which may or may not be of signi
ficance: Record Retailer published a list of the shops participating in their survey but the NME didn’t. Did Eppy put any pressure on the named shops to push ‘Love Me Do’? If he were a less principled businessman, I’d have said yes, but being Brian Epstein, I doubt it. In all, ‘Love Me Do’ sold a respectable 100,000 copies, but it deserved to do better. In 1964 it was a US Number 1 and in 1982, a UK Number 4.

  Nowadays so many different versions of hit songs are released that it is difficult to determine which the definitive version is. That didn’t happen in 1962 as there was usually only one version of a hit song. It is odd, therefore, that George Martin decided to go with the Andy White version on later pressings of the single and on the Please Please Me LP, released in March 1963. To distinguish between them – listen for the tambourine.

  On 12 October 1962, Little Richard came to the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton with a supporting bill that featured so many of the people caught up in this extraordinary drama. It included three people who had drummed with the Beatles that year – Ringo Starr, Pete Best (with Lee Curtis) and Johnny Hutch (with the Big Three). Then were was Ringo’s old group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and the Merseybeats, whose drummer, John Banks, could have lost his job to Pete Best. The promoter, Bob Wooler, must have had fun in putting that show together.

  He was also running a book. Rock ’n’ roll vocalist Karl Terry: “Bob Wooler was offering bets that the Beatles would be bigger than the Shadows within 6 months and nobody believed it.” I wonder what the odds were, how the success of the two bands would be measured and, most of all, whether Pete Best had a flutter.

  Disk Jockey Alan Freeman recalls: “The Beatles were well known on Merseyside, and we were all waiting for a new musical explosion. The world was ready for a new sound even though it was quite an old sound. It was fresh and invigorating.”

  Brian Epstein had been concerned that the fact that John Lennon was a husband and a father might have gone against the group’s popularity with young, female fans were it known. Cynthia Lennon: “It was someone from the Daily Mirror who finally found out John and I was married. One afternoon I was taking Julian for a walk and this group of photographers had been hanging around for a few days. They followed me around and snatched some photographs. I was trying desperately to keep them away, saying it was my twin sister’s baby, but by the end of the day it came out.”

  Joe Flannery managed his brother Peter, who became Lee Curtis, by reversing the name of the American singer produced by Phil Spector, Curtis Lee. Ironically, Lee Curtis and the All Stars were signed by Decca and Pete Best was featured on their storming single, ‘Let’s Stomp’. Lee Curtis: “‘Let’s Stomp’ was diabolical. The original by Bobby Comstock was absolutely brilliant, and as the Stomp was popular on Merseyside, we’d ask Decca if we could do it. They wanted us to rave madly at the end by doing a repeat of the words, ‘Let’s Stomp’. We were a bit green and I think we repeated the words ‘Let’s Stomp’ thirty-six times. I got sick of counting. The record was released and it died.”

  Nothing went right for the All Stars’ recording career. Lee Curtis intones this litany, “We asked Decca if we could do ‘Twist and Shout’. They said no, and then a few weeks later it was a hit on Decca for Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. We asked if we could do ‘Money.’ They said no, and it was hit on Decca for Bern Elliott and the Fenmen. Next, we asked if we could do ‘Shout’ and it was a hit on Decca for Lulu and the Luvvers. We asked if we could do ‘It’s Only Make Believe.’ They said no, and it was a hit on Decca for Billy Fury. We wasted our opportunities with ‘Let’s Stomp’ and that monotonous ending.”

  Jimmy Tushingham, Ringo Starr’s replacement in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes: “Ringo was the only one of the Beatles who kept in touch. When he made it with the Beatles, he had to declare everything to the Revenue. We got hit for an income tax bill which stemmed from Ringo having to disclose what he had been doing. He sent a cheque to Rory, saying he was sorry about what happened but to put this towards the bill.”

  By taking Pete Best’s drum seat, Ringo Starr became the luckiest man in the world. He became a star in his own right and he even took lead vocals on the Beatles’ records, proving everything sounds good on LSD. Tony Barrow: “The interest in each individual Beatle seemed to move of its own accord, in natural cycles as it were. From time-to-time there was a conscious effort on our part to decide, ‘Well, George hasn’t done much in the way of interviews – let’s get a couple of George solo interviews.’ But by and large that worked itself out in the end because the kids themselves would have an ‘I love Paul’ week, or month, or ‘I love John’ week or month, and this was reflected in the fan mail. It did shift around and at one stage the kids did feel that Ringo was being left out of things and sitting at the back as it were. There was a ‘Let’s all love Ringo’ campaign, which was slightly before the record ‘Ringo for President’ and all that hysteria.”

  After Lee Curtis and the All Stars, Pete Best formed his own band with Mona doing her best to help him get established. They cut ‘I’m Gonna Knock on Your Door’ for Decca in June 1964, but most of the records were made for small companies in America. The band recorded ‘Boys’, ‘Rock And Roll Music’ and ‘Kansas City’ and, rather cheekily, Savage Records called an album Best of The Beatles. Some good, original material was written by band members Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington, who went on to have success writing and producing the Rubettes. The Pete Best Band’s most significant UK gig was playing at the re-opening of the Cavern in July 1966.

  Wayne Bickerton: “Having an ex-Beatle in the band worked against us. We didn’t have the opportunity to develop. It was always, ‘Why did you leave the Beatles?” instead of ‘What’s the future of the band?’ The fact that Pete was an ex-Beatle overshadowed everything else, and the talent in the band was a secondary situation. Calling an album Best of The Beatles was ridiculous to say the least.”

  Every newspaper that Pete Best opened told him how the Beatles were becoming more and more successful and, indeed, reaching a level of international fame that had never been experienced before. “I couldn’t get away from it. I was aware of it all the time.”

  The Beatles never gave him credit in interviews, culminating in the Playboy feature in which Ringo inferred he was a drug addict. Pete didn’t have the finances to take full legal action and had to agree to an out-of-court settlement. The damage had been done as references to Pete as a drug addict appeared in other American magazines. All this contributed to his general malaise.

  Pete married his girlfriend Kathy and lived in a first floor flat in the family home at Hayman’s Green. In 1965 when Kathy was away visiting her mother, Pete decided to kill himself. He blocked all the gaps in the bedroom, put a pillow in front of the gas fire, turned on the jets and waited for the end. As it happened, Pete hadn’t blocked the gaps thoroughly and the gas seeped on to the landing outside. Pete’s brother, Rory, smelt it as he was passing, tried the door and broke it down. Mo and Rory coaxed him back to life. “That was the worst period of my life,” says Pete, “nothing like that ever happened again.” Maybe not, but he did have the ignominy of being described as dead in a Trivial Pursuit question.

  In nearly every band that makes it, there is a Pete Best – someone who just missed out on the glories. There is a Pete Best Spice, a Pete Best Rolling Stone, a Pete Best Who, a Pete Best Nirvana and a Pete Best member, or rather non-member, of Oasis. How they adjust to the situation is worthy of a book in itself. Also, I have thought from time-to-time about writing a book about those on the periphery of the Beatle’s scene – Pete Best, Alf Bicknell, Joe Flannery, Sam Leach, Uncle Charlie Lennon, Mike McCartney, Father Tom McKenzie and Allan Williams. In many ways their struggles are as absorbing as the tales of the Beatles themselves.

  While the music world was celebrating the Summer of Love and Timothy Leary was proclaiming ‘Tune in, turn on and drop out’, Pete Best was dropping out. He was looking for regular employment to provide for his wife and two daughters. “I though
t it would be dead easy to get a job, but people would see on the applications forms that I had been a rock drummer for 8 years and they had their doubts. I had to take a job, any job, to prove I could do it, so I worked the first 12 months as a bakehouse labourer. Then in 1968, I went to the unemployment office in Old Swan and they asked me if I was interested in working for the Civil Service. I was taken upstairs to see the manager and she told me to start in 2 weeks’ time. I was with them for over 20 years.”

  Pete Best worked for the government employment scheme, Restart, or its equivalent. When a person who had lost his job came to the Restart offices, he or she would be told, “Pete Best will see you now.” “I think it helped them”, said Pete, “whatever they’d been through, they knew I’d been through it as well. I’d lost the biggest job in show business, millions of pounds and everything that went with it, and here I was giving advice on how to secure employment.”

  Pete Best confided to Peter Trollope in, ‘May The Best Man Win This Time’, in the Liverpool Echo on 26 August 1988: “Life’s strange – leaving the Beatles set me on a new life. I now have a wonderful wife, great children and I can walk into my local for a pint whenever I want to. I’m happy – I wonder if they can honestly say that.”