(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Tue 14 October 2025 16:28, UK
The class clown of The Beatles, Ringo Starr, was the glue that held the group together, not just with his effortless timekeeping as a percussion virtuoso but also in their bond of friendship.
As the chief songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney would steer most of the creative energy for The Beatles; but, while George Harrison became increasingly competent as a songwriter in the latter days of the band’s existence in the 1960s, tensions began to rise within the group. We lucky fans got to see this delicate period with our own eyes in the intensely revealing Peter Jackson documentary The Beatles: Get Back.
While the other three bickered about the artistic direction for the music that would eventually make up the Beatles’ final two albums, Starr was noticeably withdrawn from the conversations and remained somewhat neutral. Ringo temporarily left the group in 1968 after losing faith in his skill as a drummer and feeling a little left out. Despite this, he had been one of the main reasons the group lasted as long as they did. He played the part of the mediator between the other three when tensions rose.
Today thankfully, the drummer receives the respect he deserves as a true talent and an integral personality in the biggest rock group of all time. In 2020, Starr, the oldest Beatle, turned 80 – despite still not looking a day past 30. During the week of his 80th birthday, there were worldwide protests in the wake of the infamous George Floyd case. In a post at the time, Starr said of the cause, “As my brother Paul said, The Beatles always stood for equal rights&justice and I’ve never stopped working for peace&love ever since,” he wrote. #blacklivesmatter, #peaceispossible — I send my peace love & continuous support to everyone marching & speaking up for justice & a better world.”
In an interview with Billboard in 2012, Starr admitted that youngsters of today don’t often recognise him. “There’s always going to be some kid somewhere saying, ‘Who the hell is that guy?’” he said. “And there’s always going to be someone picking up on it. That’s just how it is. Nobody knows everybody. We’re still selling more records than most people, and we’re selling them to the kids.”
Starr was undoubtedly correct on his concluding point here. Forbes reported in 2019 that, of Spotify’s 1.7 billion streams of Beatles songs in the previous year, 18 to 24-year-olds accounted for over 30% of these listeners. It means that the band are still as beloved as they ever have been and that they, though some sections of the music industry would like to disagree, are still one of the most important groups to ever grace the airwaves.
The iconic drummer gave some advice for any young music lovers hoping to get into the Beatles in a recent interview. “They should listen to Revolver and Abbey Road, and if they really get to like us, they should listen to [the album known as] the White Album,” the drummer recommended.
Released in 1966, Revolver is often seen as one of the moments of crystal clear creativity for the Fab Four. The seventh album from the Fab Four sees the group take a huge leap into the unknown and push forward with their desire for musical experimentation. It saw George Harrison once again begin to establish his own songwriting career while Lennon and McCartney were arguably nearing their creative peak. It’s arguably one of the band’s greatest albums of all time, making it a perfect starting point for any young music maker.
The Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road has gone on to become a defining moment in the illustrious career of the group and, to this day, continues to be regarded as one of the finest records ever made. It is one of the band’s rockiest records, but across 17 individual tracks (yes, we’re counting ‘The Medley’ as their individual songs), we get to see a distillation of everything that made The Beatles great, so makes for another welcome addition to the educational list.
The latter suggestion from Starr, a record for if listeners really dig their work, is also perfectly described. “What we’re trying to do is rock ‘n roll, ‘with less of your philosorock,’ is what we’re saying to ourselves. And get on with rocking because rockers is what we really are,” said John Lennon in 1968 while recording The White Album, the mammoth double LP can certainly be seen as that. Across a myriad of tracks, the group had returned from the conceptual piece of Sgt Pepper, and they were now getting back to their roots.
Funnily enough, it would seem that one of the members of The Beatles knows what they’re talking about when it comes to the band. Three records to become a gateway to your love of the band is one way of putting it. Listen to these three albums and deny their greatness, as I might say it myself.
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