Why Did Pete Best Get Fired From the Beatles?

Rebecca · October 24, 2026

Pete Best was fired from the Beatles on 16 August 1962 because their new producer, George Martin, didn't want him drumming on their records, and John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison took that as their moment to replace him with Ringo Starr, a drummer they already knew and liked. Their manager, Brian Epstein, delivered the news. Nobody gave Best a full explanation at the time, which is a big part of why people are still asking more than sixty years later.

That's the short answer. The long one is messier, and a lot more interesting.

What actually happened on the day?

Best had been the Beatles' drummer since 12 August 1960, brought in at short notice because the band needed one for their first residency in Hamburg. Almost exactly two years later, on 15 August 1962, Epstein phoned and asked him to come to his office above the NEMS record shop in Liverpool the next morning. That wasn't unusual. Best had handled some of the group's bookings, and Epstein often asked him about venues.

In Best's own telling, Epstein made small talk for a while and then got to it: the others wanted him out and Ringo in, and neither they nor George Martin thought he was a good enough drummer. Ringo would join that Saturday. Epstein then asked whether Best would still play the couple of shows left before the switch. He said yes, but he never played with the Beatles again. His last show with them had been at the Cavern the night before.

The detail that still stings for Best's fans is who wasn't in the room. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison left the job to Epstein. Harrison admitted years later, "We weren't very good at telling Pete he had to go."

Was it really about his drumming?

That's the reason with the most evidence behind it. The Beatles' first session at EMI's Abbey Road studios was on 6 June 1962. Martin liked the band but not the drummer, and planned to use a session musician on their records, which was normal studio practice then.

McCartney later explained it in the band's Anthology: Martin was used to big-band session players, and Liverpool drummers had energy but not "a deadly sense of time". Martin himself insisted he never asked for a sacking: "I never suggested that Pete Best must go." All he wanted, he said, was a session drummer for the first record, and he was surprised when he heard they'd dropped Best altogether.

You can hear it for yourself. Anthology 1 (1995) includes the June 1962 "Love Me Do" with Best on drums. Put it next to the single and the difference in timekeeping is hard to miss. Ultimate Classic Rock's verdict was that Best was the weaker drummer on both timekeeping and inventiveness, and after listening to the two back to back, it's hard not to side with Martin.

Here's the part that's often left out: Martin's caution wasn't about Pete personally. When Ringo turned up at Abbey Road that September, Martin brought in a session drummer anyway. Andy White played on the 11 September version of "Love Me Do" while Ringo was handed a tambourine. The early pressings of the single used Ringo's take from a week earlier, and the album version uses White's.

Or was it because he didn't fit in?

That mattered too. The other three had become a tight unit in Hamburg's clubs, sharp-tongued and always together. Best was quieter and more of a loner, and he never adopted the combed-forward cut that became the Beatle haircut. Lennon called the idea that McCartney was jealous of Pete a myth, though he admitted the two didn't get on that well. McCartney called it "strictly a professional decision".

And they had someone ready. Ringo was already a friend from Hamburg, where his band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, played the same scene. He was a drummer they wanted to hang out with, not just play with.

What about the jealousy theory?

Best has long said the others were jealous of his looks. He was hugely popular with the band's female fans, and Cavern DJ Bob Wooler warned Epstein that dropping him would be unpopular. Even Martin later said Best seemed the most saleable of the four on looks alone.

The trouble with the jealousy theory is that it can't explain Martin. He had no stake in Liverpool friendships, and he didn't want Best on the records. Our read: the drumming gave the band a reason, Ringo gave them a replacement, and a record deal finally in hand made them move fast rather than kindly.

How did fans react?

Badly. The Liverpool paper Mersey Beat broke the news on 23 August. Fans signed petitions, some kept a vigil outside the Best family home, and Cavern crowds chanted for Pete. Harrison came off worst: a fan in the Cavern's tunnel gave him a black eye. Ringo had already played his first official show as a Beatle on 18 August 1962, at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight, across the Mersey.

What happened to Pete Best after the Beatles?

Epstein offered to build a new group around him, and Best turned it down. He joined Lee Curtis and the All Stars, which became Pete Best and the All Stars and signed to Decca, but there was no hit. He left the music business in 1968 and spent about 20 years as a civil servant, before forming the Pete Best Band in 1988.

The happier twist came in 1995. Anthology 1 included ten early tracks with Best on drums, and with them came the first Beatles royalties he'd ever been paid. Estimates run into the millions of pounds; the Beatles Bible puts it as high as £4 million. Carlsberg even put him in an advert during the Anthology broadcasts with the tagline "Probably the Pete Best lager in the world."

In Musicle's collaboration data, Pete Best is still exactly one step from the Beatles, linked as a band member, and two from Ringo.

Quick answers

When was Pete Best fired? On 16 August 1962, two years after he joined.

Who fired him? Brian Epstein, on behalf of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.

Did Pete Best play on any Beatles recordings? Yes. He's on the 1961 Hamburg sessions backing Tony Sheridan ("My Bonnie"), the Beatles' Decca audition, and their first EMI session in June 1962. Several of those are on Anthology 1.

Who replaced Pete Best? Ringo Starr, who played his first show with the band two days after Best was dropped.

Sources

Play today’s Musicle puzzle