10 Greatest Drummers In Rock Music History

For the more cynical viewers of the rock scene, we now arrive at the least important member of the Beatles. Unless you really hate the songwriting of John Lennon or Paul McCartney, the straight ahead rhythm that you'd find in most Beatles songs would peg Ringo Starr as the unnecessary piece of the puzzle. And you'd be right in the songwriting department....if you didn't count his hooks as songwriting.

Outside of the normal guitar riffs and melodies, a lot of Ringo's drum parts serve as rhythmic hooks unto themselves, being a blast to play for anyone aspiring to pick up a pair of sticks. There's no way your average drummer would have thought of the weird accent shifts on Ticket to Ride, or have the endurance to hit all of those looped drum patterns dead on time on songs like Tomorrow Never Knows.

Aside from the technical chops, Ringo is always known as the ultimate server of the song. Whereas most drummers would take the opportunity to grandstand, Ringo's art is always listening to what the song needs and playing appropriately for the song, even if it means just slapping his knees or being demoted to bongos on the Beatles' more laid back material. Granted, anyone who makes a drum part as groovy as Come Together has done more than enough to earn a spot on here.