The Beatles are nicknamed “The Fab Four”, but they were in fact once a 5-piece band. This line up consisted of guitarists John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, and drummer Pete Best. Sutcliffe was a Beatle from January 1960, until he left the group in June 1961. With his departure, McCartney switched from guitar to bass to fill that vacancy. Best was a Beatle from August 12, 1960, until he was dismissed from the band on August 16, 1962, when he was replaced by drummer Ringo Starr.
Related posts: Who was the original bass player of The Beatles?
Who was the original drummer of The Beatles?
Ringo Starr is the only Beatle to appear on the song “Good Night”. Ringo is the lead vocalist on the song, with The Mike Sammes Singers providing backup. The music consists of an orchestra arranged and conducted by producer George Martin. Martin’s arrangement was intentionally very lush, as John Lennon is said to have wanted the song to sound “real cheesy”. Lennon originally wrote the song as a lullaby for his young son Julian.
“Good Night” is the last song on their 1968 album ‘The Beatles’ (much better known as ‘The White Album’).
From the way Paul McCartney holds his bass guitar, it’s pretty obvious that he’s left handed. Less obvious as a left hander is Ringo Starr. Although Ringo is left handed, he plays the drums as a right hander and his drum kit is set up as such. As a side note, this is the opposite of Micky Dolenz of The Monkees who is right handed but plays with the kit set up for a left hander.
Under the pseudonym of Bonnie Jo Mason, a teen-aged Cher recorded the novelty record “Ringo, I Love You”. The single was Cher’s first record and was released in 1964 on Annette Records, with “Beatle Blues” (instrumenal) on the flip side. Cher’s husband-to-be, Sonny Bono, worked as an assistant to record producer Phil Spector, and helped her get a job as a studio backup singer. This led to the record being produced by the famous (and later infamous) Spector.
The songwriting for “Ringo, I Love You” is credited to P. Spector – P. Case – V. Poncia – P. Andreoli.
Click the Play button to listen to the song:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Pete Best was the original drummer of The Beatles. He became a member of the band on August 12, 1960, just one day before they were to leave for Hamburg, Germany to play a series of shows there.
Two years later, on August 16, 1962, he was dismissed from the group but was never given a satisfactory explanation why. The only reason manager Brian Epstein gave was, “The lads don’t want you in the group anymore”. Although there were probably a few reasons why the lads were wanting to replace him, Pete’s fate was sealed when producer George Martin indicated that he wanted to use a session drummer instead of Best for their studio recordings. The other three Beatles asked Epstein to fire him and replace him with Ringo Starr, who had occasionally sat in with the band when Pete was unavailable.
Related post: Who was the original bass player of The Beatles?
Related article on BeatlesLane.com: Whatever happened to former Beatle Pete Best?
