Who Played Drums On Beatles Recordings?

Andrew Loog Oldham, as ever, choosing his words carefully...

[trusso]

Ringo played on every song. He played it live every time with thousands of girls screaming. He was amazing. This guy is out of his mind. He overdubbed one crappy song before Ringo even joined the group. This guy has dementia.

[misterknightowlandco]

In music, studio musicians played on all the records. The people you saw would sing over prerecorded tracks. There were exceptions back in the day, but all those exceptions were when bands would be formed by studio musicians. Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and a lot of those 60’s/70’s hard rock bands that got popular all started out as studio musicians or at least multiple members were studio musicians. Idk how many of you play instruments but I can tell you that there is a HUGE difference between being good enough to play live in front of a crowd and being good enough to play on a record. Live no one cares if the drummer speeds up and slows down a few bpm or if the guitarist hits a bad note and tries to bend it up to the right note. Most wouldn’t even notice. On record though, that drummer has to be as precise as the damn metronome, guitarists have to hit the right notes and so on and you only get a couple of takes cuz time = $$$. It’s funny cuz the generation of pop music before rock n roll, Sinatra and those types, would hype up all the pros they worked with and it was a selling point for the record. You think those guys lost their jobs cuz of rock n roll? 😂 i don’t think so. They’re jobs just got easier cuz the music was a lot simpler so they could crank out more of it quicker. Most of your favorite bands were no playing bar bands at best and real pros played on the records uncredited to sell you the myth of music for the common man and a day dream to kids that you could do it to.

[andrewhudson]

Bernard Purdie did play on some Beatles tracks, the ones they recorded with Tony Sheridan in Hamburg when Pete Best was their drummer.Some of the tracks has additional drums overdubbed for American release.

[JustAnotherBlader]

Makes no sense the more you think about it. We’ve all seen Get Back. You can’t fake that chemistry overnight. I have no doubt it was Ringo in that seat and on those records.

[trusso]

Any musician could understand that back in the 1960s, the music was played live and they were all on one track. Especially the first few years. There is no way in living hell anyone could remove the drums Ringo recorded so they could be replaced. They were embedded in the music and could never be removed, until now at least. Not remotely possible in the 1960s or 70s. If the drums were added, you would hear two separate drum tracks going on. Absurd

[robinfoster]

What a load of coblers! The UK albums are the definitive ones and they have Ringo playing.

[vegetariansuniteworldwide]

I saw this same video on Mike Williams channel (most of it). I believe Mr. Purdie. Recently I told a man who appeared to be in his seventies about Ringo not being the drummer and about Mr. Purdie. This man told me he was a drummer. He was genuinely shocked about this bit of news. His face went pale.

[oldboy]

I remember a video where Paul said he had learned to play the B7 chord whilst on tour in Germany… I find it hard to believe 4 boys who learned to play in their bedrooms to become as productive and prolific as they did

[boomerblacksheep]

With all the fixation about Bernard Purdie (triggered by Mike Williams) most have overlooked the fact that Jimmy Nicol, who was Ringo's replacement briefly on the Australian/New Zealand Tour was a session of performing a lot more than a 25 minute set of simple early Beatles tunes to screaming kids that could hardly hear them. Yep misterknighttowlandco is correct Britain had its own session musicians.

[toddkurzbard]

"Who Played Drums On Beatles Recordings?"

Ringo.

[LivngTehDream]

Went out with a bird that managed some bands, one day she told me as if it was the biggest secret ever that pretty much none of the music on modern records were actually recorded instruments and that even the best guitarists that could be proven to be capable of playing their own stuff live had their parts programmed in for mixing.
Not hard to believe they were getting up to tricks like this back in the four track days.

[lmtliam]

When he first me them, Quincy Jones was shocked at how badly the Beatles played their instruments.

[GraveFireflys]

Am I the only person who has watched Ringo play Come Together, and Ticket to ride. There's also live video of the Beatles Playing together. Bernard is a fabulous drummer he really doesn't have do this, watch him play the purdie shuffle, pure class.

[shavedfish]

I find this Bernard Purdie stuff super interesting, the thing that I have never been able to get my head around regarding this “fixing” the drumming stuff is that ringo’s style is ver recognisable and if you watch live performances from 1963-6 and the roof top gig he plays the songs the same as on the albums. So why would they need to replace his playing?

[garyhillman]

Ringo only played with the Beatles when they did Giggs as Bernard Perdie, Andy White and two other drummers were used for all their recordings. Ringo wasn’t good enough to record similar to Pete Best

[waukivorycopse]

What is Hitchens Razor again.... Any assertion made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Purdie says " 98% of the groups of the sixties aren't on their records." 98% ! Really? So Roger McGuinn had someone else dub in his Ric 12? The Turtles needed someone to replace Johnny Barbata? The Springfield needed someone to overdub Neil's riffs? Sir Doug needed someone to replace Augie's keyboard? Who filled in for Link Wray? Dave Davies? George Young? Harry Vanda? Keith Richards? Brian Jones! Jeff Beck?

[vegetariansuniteworldwide]

Hi! Your newest video about “who wrote the songs” is blocked in the USA due to copyright. Is there anyway you can post again without the songs? Thank you sir! I am a big fan!🇺🇸

[johnnyrosenberg]

So if they sent those tapes over to the US, original tapes, why is it that the sound quality of the US albums is so crappy compared to the British ones?
As far as I understand they only sent copies over, and sometimes copies of copies.
I don't know, of course, but I think he played drums on the earliest Beatles recordings, those with Tony Sheridan. There are two versions of those recordings available today. One with very little drums, just a snare and a hi-hat I think, played by Pete Best, and one with a more complete setup, probably played by some session drummer, maybe him?

[SPINNINGMYWHEELS]

It's clear Ringo has time issues. Check out his modern appearances going back 30 years perhaps all the way back to the Ringo albums.. ALWAYS has a professional drummer next to him on stage keeping time.

[Riffwoodhz]

some people speak from a script some people speak from the heart . Bernard speaks from the heart .