Run along, boy! You’re free now! — Homer, “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet”
Poor, poor Pete Best. His foot at immortality’s door and the other tossers hid the key. Having joined The Beatles in 1960 and having endured hundreds of grim, glory-free Hamburg gigs, Best’s bandmates sent manager Brian Epstein to can him two years later.
Despite some early fan opposition to the dismissal of the band’s arguably most photogenic member (“Ringo never, Pete Best forever!”), JohnPaulGeorge+Ringo recovered quite nicely, and Beatlemania was in full swing just months later. With Best’s riches and fame going to this schmo:
