It is widely believed that the letter was intended for Pete Best, the drummer who Ringo would later replace.  However, it is likely that the Beatles were still looking for an alternate drummer to Best, and whereby the letter was not written to Best.  According to 1995 interview, Pete Best states that Paul McCartney had called him on the phone and invited him to join the Beatles.  As I recall, he was a neighborhood kid whose mother owned a sort of club in the basement of her house, which made practicing convenient for the rest of the Beatles.  Pete’s mother, Mona Best, ran The Casbah Club, where they lived in Hayman’s Green.  In fact, it was Mona who was responsible for getting the Beatles their first gig at the Cavern Club.

Here’s an audio clip of Pete Best recalling the phone call from Paul McCartney asking him to audition for the Beatles. According to Best,  about 10 minutes after his audition, he was officially part of the Beatles and 10 days later  off to Hamburg, Germany to tour.

Best Invited to Audition for the Beatles

Pete Best how he would have looked in the  Hamburg days.

Ringo Starr was introduced into the Beatles as a stand-in drummer for Best months before he joined.  It was the final efforts made by George Martin, the Beatles producer who was instrumental (pun in getting Pete replaced with Ringo.  Ringo was a well known drummer in Liverpool, already a local celeb in his own right when he was asked to officially join the Beatles during their recording sessions at Parlophone in 1962.

“Beatles Letter Found in Car Fetches $55K” wWas Written by Brenne Meirowitz, BA, MA, MS  ©2011 Beatles Rooftop Concert & Brenne Meirowitz. All Rights Reserved.

Ringo performing “It Don’t Come Easy” at the Concert for Bangladesh:

Another reason why I believe that it was Ringo’s is because there is no recording of George composing or playing this song on any of the Beatles Rooftop Concert – Get Back – Abbey Road recordings.  If it were George’s song, chances are that he would have tried to introduce it to John and Paul as he did with his other songs, since it was written and recorded by Ringo in 1970 – the same year that the Beatles officially broke-up.  April 10, 1970 marks the official break-up of the Beatles, which also seems to be the reason why the song wasn’t released until the following year, following Paul’s lawsuit.

According to the person who uploaded the video of George Harrison on Youtube singing “It Don’t Come Easy,” he claims that George wrote both ”It Don’t Come Easy”  and “Photograph” for Ringo, but this again is incorrect.  Ringo co-wrote it with George and released it in 1973.  Notably,  Ringo performed it at the Concert for George, with Dhani, Geoerge’s son, but this is not currently available on Youtube.

With no sound:

Here are the lyrics to Photograph:

Every time I see your face, It reminds me of the places we used to go.
But all I’ve got is a photograph,
And I realize you’re not coming back anymore.
I can’t get used to living here,
While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.
I want you here to have and hold,
As the years go by and we grow old and grey.

Excerpts of the “Concert for George” (Harrison) is available on Youtube as well in its entirety right here, at the Beatles Rooftop Concert.

George Harrison (February 25, 1943 – November 29, 2001)

The Beatles had a new single to promote but did not want to interrupt their Revolver recording sessions to visit television studios all over the world to perform it for everyone, so instead they enlisted the help of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who would also end up working on a few Beatles projects after this) to create promo films of both sides of the single (Paperback Writer & Rain). The clip seen here was filmed on May 19, 1966 and in the U.S. was aired exclusively on the Ed Sullivan show on June 5, 1966. Paul’s chipped front tooth from a recent moped accident is very visible in the Paperback Writer performance. A still from the intro clip was used for the back cover of the Revolver album.

ploaded by ackeyla on Feb 8, 2011

I FEEL FINE
I’M DOWN
ACT NATURALLY
TICKET TO RIDE

George singing lead to “Get Back”

Rehearsal of “Get Back” in the studio

Ringo

1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 0:00
2. With a Little Help from My Friends – 2:02
3. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – 4:46
4. Getting Better – 8:15
5. Fixing a Hole – 11:03
6. She’s Leaving Home – 13:39
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite – 17:14
8. Within You Without You – 19:53
9. When I’m Sixty-Four – 24:57
10. Lovely Rita – 27:35
11. Good Morning Good Morning – 30:17
12. Sgt Pepper’s (Reprise) – 33:00
13. A Day in the Life – 34:20

Side Two
“Tell Me Why”
“And I Love Her”
“I’m Happy Just to Dance with You”
“If I Fell”
“Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in German (Lennon/McCartney/Nicolas/Heller)

Side Two
“P.S. I Love You” (“Please Please Me” on version two)
2. “Baby It’s You” (Burt Bacharach, Mack David, Barney Williams)
3. “Do You Want to Know a Secret”
4. “A Taste of Honey” (Ric Marlow, Bobby Scott)
5. “There’s a Place”
6. “Twist and Shout” (Phil Medley, Bert Russell)
Introducing the Beatles was put out by Vee Jay Records.

Side Two
“Honey Don’t” (Carl Perkins) – 2:56
“I’ll Be Back” – 2:22
“She’s a Woman” – 2:57
“I Feel Fine” – 2:20
“Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” (Perkins) – 2:24

Side Two
“Don’t Bother Me” (George Harrison) – 2:28
“Little Child” – 1:46
“Till There Was You” (Meredith Willson) – 2:12
“Hold Me Tight” – 2:30
“I Wanna Be Your Man” – 1:59
“Not a Second Time” – 2:03

Side two

“Long Tall Sally” (Robert Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, Little Richard)
“I Call Your Name”
“Please Mister Postman” (Robert Bateman, Georgia Dobbins, Garrett, Fred Gorman, Brian Holland)
“I’ll Get You”
“She Loves You”