The Fab Four Member Who Was Responsible for Introducing the Beatles to Country Music
Years after the first three members of the Beatles bonded over their love of rock ‘n’ roll, the addition of the final Fab Four member would introduce the Liverpudlians to a new type of music they had previously overlooked: country. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison spent their earliest years together trying to emulate the sounds of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry.
But when Sir Richard Starkey, known professionally as Ringo Starr, entered the picture in 1962, the band began diving into a different style of popular American music with a little less electric guitar and a lot more twang. Paul McCartney famously played American rock ‘n’ roller Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” during his impromptu “audition” for John Lennon. George Harrison played “Raunchy,” an instrumental by another rock icon from the States, Bill Justis. Together, all three Liverpudlian musicians pored over records by Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry. They might have gotten their start playing skiffle, but their hearts belonged to rock ‘n’ roll.
When Ringo Starr first joined the Beatles in 1962, he brought along a different musical background. Like the rest of his new bandmates, Starr learned most of his musical technique through trial and error. He wasn’t formally trained, which likely helped the experimental nature of the band’s early collaborations. And while he was undoubtedly aware of the same rock music the three guitarists were listening to, he was a bigger fan of country music.
“Ringo was the first guy in the Beatles to really turn us on to country music,” McCartney recalled in the 2025 concert film, Ringo & Friends at the Ryman. “We were kind of very much into rock ‘n’ roll, and he was heavy into country. He had a lot of records we didn’t have, and he was a big admirer of some of the country stars at the time. Some of them, we hadn’t ever heard of, I must admit. He’s got a long love, going way back, of country music.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
