Joining The Beatles changed Ringo Starr’s life in ways he could never have imagined. Even in his wildest dreams, what they achieved as an active band seemed improbable because it had never been done before. Ringo was the missing part of the jigsaw for the Fab Four, and once he joined, everything fell into place.
Ringo was an established name when he accepted the invitation to play with The Beatles, albeit only in the Merseyside music scene. Eight months before formally becoming a band member, he spent considerable time with the group in Hamburg as his band Rory Storm and The Hurricanes had been booked to share a bill with The Beatles.
The Hamburg residencies were notoriously difficult and demanded intense physicality, testing bands to their limit. While the pay was bad and the working hours were unreasonable, it allowed The Beatles to gain a priceless amount of stage time which meant they blew their competition out of the water when they returned to Blighty.
Watching Starr perform with The Hurricanes on a nightly basis left a strong impression on The Beatles, who remembered his incredible showings behind a drum kit. When their relationship with drummer Pete Best became fractured beyond repair, Brian Epstein asked Starr to perform with The Beatles at The Cavern in Liverpool, and due to their prior relationship, it was a straightforward decision.
After his position became official, Ringo entered the studio with the band shortly afterwards to record his first song, ‘Love Me Do’. The release put The Beatles on the map and became their first hit. Although it didn’t top the charts in the United Kingdom, it was the first brick in the wall and set the foundations for their cultural takeover.
As it was his first recording with The Beatles and changed his life, Starr described ‘Love Me Do’ as his most “career-defining” song. He said: “Because it was the first song, my answer is ‘Love Me Do.’ We were on vinyl. We made a record. Even though when I got to the studio, George Martin had a session guy for the drums, Andy White, but I played on it anyway. He played it, I played it — he’s on the album, I think, and I’m on the single, so go figure”.
He continued: “We were just blessed that George Martin took a chance on us because many record labels sent us down. But the fun was the fact that we were still touring. And only the BBC was playing the song. It would say, “Oh, at 3:14 p.m., this song will be on the BBC.” So we’d all pull over and think, Wow, we’re on the radio. I mean, it was a really big moment. It was magic because we were on this piece of vinyl all to ourselves.”
Starr concluded: “A lot of tracks we did after that I loved, of course. The ‘Love Me Do’ arrangement just came out of our heads. We didn’t read music. We were buskers. There’s nothing quite like the first. George Martin apologized every time I met him after we recorded that song. He would say, “I’m sorry, Ringo,” because he didn’t know that we changed drummers.”
Listen to ‘Love Me Do’ below.
