Pete Best
Randolph Peter Best (born November 24, 1941 in Madras, India) was the original drummer for The Beatles.
Role in The Beatles
The son of Mona Best, the owner of Liverpool's Casbah Club, where the Beatles played occasionally, 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 August 16 of that year, to be eventually replaced by Ringo Starr, then of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
Best was told of the firing 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 (which was solid, but lacking in flair or "chops", as evidenced by surviving tapes) and intended to replace him on their recordings. (Indeed, Martin did use a studio drummer, Andy White, on their first single session, having no chance to audition Starr beforehand.) The decision appears to have been a last straw with the group, who felt Best had never completely fitted in as a member. While Lennon, McCartney and Harrison usually spent their offstage time together, practicing their music or socialising, Best mostly went off alone. He therefore wasn't privy to many of the group's experiences, references, in-jokes and developing sense of style; when the band adopted the Beatle haircut, Best hadn't followed suit.
Starr, on the other hand, had an appealing, unique playing style (which impressed George Harrison in particular), was already quite popular in the 'Mersey scene', and readily joined in all the Beatles' doings. It's been speculated that another reason for firing Best (and hiring Ringo) was to draw fans from one of their primary local rivals (the Hurricanes). It has also been reported that Beatles manager Brian Epstein first offered the job not to Starr, but to Johnny Hutchinson of The Big Three, who turned it down. (Interestingly, Ringo's old band is said to have invited Best to make the switch reciprocal by becoming the Hurricanes' drummer, but he refused.)
When word of Best's replacement broke in Liverpool (through outlets like Mersey Beat), many Beatles fans were upset; George Harrison actually got a black eye from one. Quite a few female fans considered him to be the band's best-looking member – at many early shows, Best had had his own group of female fans present in the audience.
In an appearance on an American game show roughly two years later, Best seemed to deny that he was fired. Asked why "he left the band", the still-ducktailed Best replied that he "...didn't think they would go as far as they did."
After The Beatles
After his split with the Beatles, Best joined Lee Curtis & The All Stars, which then broke off from Curtis and renamed itself in September 1963 as Pete Best and the All Stars. They signed to Beatles-rejector Decca Records and released the single "I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door", which failed to gain an audience.
Best then relocated to the U.S. 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 U.S. with their combination of 1950s songs and originals but had little success, hurt by having no track record of hits in England as well as no major label promotion in the U.S. Finally they released an album on Cameo Records questionably titled Best of the Beatles and disbanded. (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 1965 because Starr implied in an interview with Playboy magazine that the band had fired Best because he was a drug user. A subsequent libel suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Best decided to leave show business, and in Hunter Davies' 1968 authorized Beatles biography Best was portrayed as both somewhat bitter but also unwilling to further talk about or otherwise cash in on his Beatles association. (He did, however, serve as a technical advisor for the television movie Birth of the Beatles, in the late 1970s.)
After a series of jobs outside music (including work as a baker, and a civil servant), Best had begun giving interviews to the media, writing about his time with the Beatles, and eventually found a modicum of independent fame, touring as leader of The Pete Best Band. In this role, Best is uniquely positioned to gratify the many fans who are fascinated with the Beatles' early days.
When the surviving Beatles released Anthology in 1995, which featured a number of tracks with Best as drummer, Best received a substantial windfall from the sales. He also appeared later in a television special, also titled Best of the Beatles, telling his life story.
