Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Who Was the 5th Beatle?

Episode Date: April 17, 2021

In 1964, New York City disc jockey “Murry the K” humorously dubbed himself the fifth Beatle due to his early promotion of the Beatles on his radio program. Since then, almost two dozen other people have been dubbed the 5th Beatle due to their contributions to the band. Some people dubbed the 5th Beatle was even given the moniker by members of the band themselves. Learn more about the people who have been dubbed the 5th Beatle, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1964, New York City disc jockey, Murray the K, humorously dubbed himself the fifth beetle due to his early promotion of the Beatles on his radio program. Since then, almost two dozen other people have been dubbed the fifth beetle due to their contributions to the band. Some people dubbed the fifth beetle were even given the moniker by members of the band themselves. Learn more about the people who've been dubbed the fifth beetle on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR.

This episode is sponsored by the Travel Photography Academy. In 2007, I sold my home to travel around the world. I bought an expensive camera that I didn't know how to use and took. a bunch of terrible photos. Several years, 100 countries, and tens of thousands of photos later, I'd improved my photography to the point where I was winning national awards, being named Travel Photographer of the Year three times in North America. I created the Travel Photography Academy, so you don't have to spend the many years that I did to improve your photography. Even though we can't easily travel right now, you can still work on improving your photography

at home and in your own community. Just go to Travel Photographyacademy.com or click on the link in the show notes to start improving your photography today. In case you've just discovered civilization after being in the wilderness for the last half century, the Beatles were a four-person band out of Liverpool, England. The band members were George Harrison on lead guitar, John Lennon on rhythm guitar, Paul McCartney on bass guitar, and Richard Starkley, aka Ringo Starr, on drums. After Lennon, McCartney and Harrison played together for a few years, they formed the Beatles in 1960, and in 1963, they took the world by storm in what became next.

known as Beatlemania. As I noted in the introduction, in 1964, a New York DJ jokingly called himself the fifth beetle due to his work in promoting the band on his radio show. After that, the phrase, The Fifth Beetle, began being used to describe other people who were associated with the band, or who had a part to play in their success. So, who were the people who were described as the fifth beetle? The first person on the list would have to be the person who was actually a member of the band and was in the Beatles. Pete Best. Pete Best was the original drummer for the Beatles before Ringo Starr. He joined the band in 1960 as they were about to set off for their Hamburg tour where they would do shows and nightclubs.

He was with the band for about two years until they got a producer, more on him later, and began doing studio work. Best wasn't really considered the best at drumming, and they felt they would need to bring in a drummer with more experience to do studio work. While Best was good on stage and was well liked by their small group of fans, ultimately, the other band members decided that recording was more important to take the band to the next level. Best was dismissed by the Beatles manager Brian Epstein on the 16th of August 1962. He was supposed to play his last gig in the evening of the 16th, but he never showed up. Another local drummer, Johnny Hutchinson, was called up to play that night. He was actually offered the job of the Beatles drummer, but turned it down because he was

best friends with Pete Best. They hired another local drummer, Ringo Starr, and the rest is history. Pete Best once said, quote, lots of people have laid claim to being the fifth beetle. I was the fourth, unquote. Believe it or not, just on the basis of live recordings in Hamburg that he took part in, he became a millionaire just off those royalties. Another candidate for the fifth beetle would be the person who was, quite literally the fifth person in the band, Stuart Sutcliffe. The Beatles, when originally formed, had five members, not four.

The original bass player was Stuart. Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe was primarily an artist who had purchased his bass guitar after selling a painting. He got into the band because he was friends with John Lennon. He played at the group in Hamburg, but was unquestionably the worst musician of the bunch. When the band returned to Liverpool in 1961, Stuttcliffe stayed behind and died at the age of 21, soon after, from a brain aneurysm. Sutcliffe was the first in the group to wear a mop-top haircut, which became the group's signature during Beatlemania, and he was probably the person who came up with the name of the band. His image can be seen in the background on the cover of the Sergeant Pepper's Only Hearts Club band album.

He's on the far left. Best and Sutcliffe were the only two other people who could lay claim to being formal members of the band. However, there were other musicians who played with the Beatles who have also had the moniker of Fifth Beetle applied to them. After Sutcliffe left the band to return to art school in Hamburg, they needed someone to fill in on bass while they finished their Hamburg gigs. They recruited a local German named Klaus Vorman. Vorman was a beatnik and had influenced the band in their style. He moved to Liverpool and actually lived with Harrison and Star for a while. He remained friends with the band and designed the cover art for the album Revolver,

for which he won a Grammy. After the breakup of the band, he appeared on solo albums for John, George, and Ringo. Jimmy Nickel was the drummer for the Beatles for the first eight shows of the Beatles' 1964 World Tour because Ringo got sick. It was decided to hire a replacement rather than canceled. the tour completely. When the Beatles got back from Germany, after Sutcliffe left the group, they got a part-time bass player named Chaz Newby, because no one else wanted to play bass. Eventually, Paul agreed to play bass, which ended the rotating bass player issues.

Tony Sheridan was the drummer for the first Beatles recording of My Bonnie. When the single was released in Germany, it wasn't issued under the name The Beatles, but rather under Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. Andy White played drums on the recording of Love, Love, Me Do, because George Martin had hired him to play drums before they had settled on Ringo as a drummer. Ringo played tambourine on the track. Billy Preston played keyboard with the group during their 1969 get-back sessions, which resulted in the Let It Be album. He is the only person who received joint credit on a Beatles single.

John actually suggested he formally joined the band, but the idea was nixed by Paul. Eric Clapton played lead guitar at the invitation of George Harrison on the song, While My Guitar, gently weeps. He later played guitar on solo albums for all four members of the band. These were the notable musicians who played with the Beatles at one time or another. There were many other session musicians who played with the group on various instruments which the band didn't play. They regularly played with strings and horns, which gave the Beatles their unique sound. And this is where we now have to talk about the non-musicians who were considered Fifth Beatles. The foremost among this group was the producer, George Martin.

Martin produced every Beatles album other than Let It Be. He had a background in classical music and became attached to the group before they hit it big. Much of the sound that the Beatles developed was due to Martin. He was responsible for arranging strings on songs like Eleanor Rigby and the horns on Penny Lane. Outside of the four band members themselves, no one else had as much of an impact on the actual recording in music other than George Martin. When he passed away in 2016, Paul McCartney said, quote, If anyone earned the title of the fifth beetle, it was George. From the day that he gave the Beatles our first recording contract,

to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent, and musical person I ever had the pleasure to know. Unquote. Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son, said that Martin was, quote, the fifth beetle without question. The other non-musician who had an enormous impact on the success of the Beatles was their manager, Brian Epstein. Epstein was the person who discovered the Beatles.

He negotiated their first record. contract and was responsible for their public relations and left the band totally alone when it came to creative matters. His death in 1967 at the age of 32 marked the beginning of the end for the Beatles. It was Epstein who held the band together and without him it started to dissolve. Paul McCartney said of Epstein, quote, if anyone was the fifth beetle, it was Brian. When the Beatles were knighted and given MBEs in 1965, George Harrison said that a fifth medal should be given because, quote, MBEs really stands from Mr. Bryant Epstein. Other behind-the-scenes people

have called Fifth Beatles include their first road manager, Neil Aspinall, Derek Taylor, who was their press agent, Dick James, who was the publisher of the Beatles' music, and to Alan Williams, the Beatles' first manager. There were also people associated with the group who really had nothing to do with the creation of music or even the management of the band who have been called Fifth Beatles.

This includes the likes of Yoko Ono and Ravi Shankar, who were simply affiliated with the band. There is one last claimant for the time, title, and there's a pretty good argument for it. On the cover of the Abbey Road album, it shows the four Beatles crossing the street. Behind them are several parked cars. The car which is closest to them and most prominent is a Volkswagen Beetle, aka the Fifth Beetle. One person who was never on board with the idea of a fifth beetle was John Lennon. In a 1970 interview regarding the idea of a fifth beetle, he said, quote, I'm not the Beatles,

I'm me. Paul isn't the Beatles. Brian Eppel Christine wasn't The Beatles, neither is Dick James. The Beatles are the Beatles. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com. There is content only available to supporters, merchandise, and even opportunities for a show producer credit. If you know someone you think would enjoy the show, please share it with them. Also remember, if you leave a five-stop review, I'll read your review on the show.