10 Unlucky Musicians Who Narrowly Missed Out On Making It Big

The Beatles need no introduction, they are the best selling band of all time with over 600 million singles and albums sold worldwide, and spent the 1960s being an unstoppable hit machine. But before The Fab Four settled on Ringo Starr, another drummer sat in his place who was with the industry titans right up until their first recording session with legendary producer George Martin.

The drummer in question was Pete Best, who joined The Beatles in 1960 and was with them through all their most famous early shows in Hamburg and Liverpool. Upon their 1962 audition for EMI and producer George Martin, Martin was initially impressed by the group but deemed Pete Best's drumming inadequate. Best was then dismissed by manager Brian Epstein just ten weeks after the group's EMI audition.

After his replacement with Ringo Starr, Best narrowly missed out on being the most famous drummer in history. Pete then spent the rest of his professional career as a civil servant before retiring in 1989.

In 1995, Pete Best received a substantial payout thanks to the release of the Beatles' One anthology album, on which Pete played drums on ten tracks, receiving somewhere between £1 and 4 million in royalties.