Ringo Starr celebrates 56th anniversary of joining the Beatles
It was 56 years ago today ...
Ringo Starr on Wednesday celebrated the anniversary of the fateful day he joined the Beatles — replacing their original drummer and giving the world the Fab Four.
"56 years ago today John, Paul and George invited me to become part of the Beatles. It was a great day for me! peace and love," Starr, 78, wrote on his Facebook and Twitter pages, followed by a string of emojis.
56 years ago Wednesday, 15 August John Paul and George invited me to become part of the Beatles it was a great day for me peace and love. 😎✌️🌟💖🤓😏🤨
— #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) August 15, 2018
His post came one day after a Beatles reunion, of sorts, went viral: A side-by-side selfie of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's sons, who share a striking resemblance to their famous fathers.
Starr — whose real name Richard Starkey — was the last core member to join the Beatles. Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison started playing in 1960 with fellow Liverpool boy Pete Best behind the drums. But after two years with Best, the Beatles' new manager Brian Epstein sacked him without explanation. (Epstein and Beatles members would later blame Best's abilities on the drums, and a sullen persona that clashed with the group.)
Starr, who had been toiling in menial jobs and modestly successful bands, played his first gig with the Beatles just two days after Best got fired. Beatlemania would take over the world just a year later. Starr stuck to singing covers at first, but he later took the lead on some of the Beatles' most beloved original hits — like "Yellow Submarine" — and he penned two songs of his own before the band broke up.
Starr launched a solo career after the breakup and later formed his All-Starr Band. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle in 1988, and as a solo artist in 2015.
In March, he was knighted for his services to music, thus becoming Sir Richard Starkey. It's an honor he now shares with McCartney, the only other surviving Beatle. At the ceremony in Buckingham Palace, Starr said he'd recently had dinner with McCartney and they were still amazed at how far they'd come from their Liverpool days.
"We were both actually laughing about where we came from, and we've ended up in the palace and it's now Sir Paul and Sir Richard," Starr said.