People love to crack jokes about Ringo Starr’s drumming, but that’s really all they are — jokes. In truth, Ringo Starr is a crucial figure in rock history, and his style helped shape the genre in countless ways via The Ultimate Guitar.
However, if you go back to “Love Me Do,” the band’s debut single, you won’t actually hear him behind the kit. Producer George Martin brought in a session drummer for that recording, partly due to lingering concerns after Pete Best’s exit from the group.
In an interview with The Sessions Panel, Starr was asked what his proudest moment was. Revealing it to be the recording of the first Beatles album, “Please Please Me,” the drummer took the opportunity to explain how he felt when he found out he wouldn’t be recording the first single. Martin apologized by giving Starr some incredible praise in an interview. The drummer recalled:
“Well, one of the most exciting was – we made a record. And I went through hell personally, because George Martin had this Andy White session drummer. Anyway, he didn’t know they changed drummers, and I was coming, and I made him apologize every day.”
“Yeah, and I’ve got a lot of footage on George. He had that great line, he said, ‘You know, and the Beatles did this,’ and somebody said to him, ‘Did you have a click track?’ He said, ‘Yes, we did. Ringo, his name was.'”
Ringo genuinely valued the compliment about his natural sense of timing, and he carried it with him into later collaborations. When Jeff Lynne invited him to play on a track and reached for a metronome click, Ringo joked, with that familiar mix of confidence and charm, “Jeff, I am the click,” highlighting how deeply he trusted his own internal rhythm.
He said, “God gave me just great time. Jeff Lynne, they did a documentary on him. Jeff would call me over, ‘Could you play on this track?’ because we live close, and I’d go over, and he’d say, ‘Oh, just let me get the click.’ I said, ‘Jeff, I am the damn click.”
