Peter Best Syndrome — The Beatle that Missed Out
Just two months before The Beatles released ‘Love Me Do’, their first single, the line-up changed to make way for a new drummer.
Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best, and the rest is well… you know the rest….
Pete Best is now synonymous with those people that are set aside before the wave of fame, glory and riches really take hold and there are multiple examples of the ‘nearly men’ that (for one reason or another) just missed out on being a part of history.
So, how would you cope with being a Pete Best?
Pete Best could easily be labelled as the unluckiest man of all time. Not only did he miss out on the fame and glory of being one of the most successful musicians ever by a matter of inches but he also (according to him anyway) was a better drummer than Ringo in the first place. There are claims that Pete Best was the best drummer in Liverpool at that time. Making the sacking deeply personal.
Pete Best sat in on Lennon and McCartney writing their first hit and played the nightclubs of Hamburg with the boys for a number of crazy years. But despite being almost a founding member of The (Silver) Beatles, he was fired just as they were gearing up to release their first hit — a hit that would make them millionaires immediately.