Did Bernard Purdie play on Beatles records?

I always discounted the myth that funk and shuffle session drummer Bernard Purdie played on Beatles tracks just an urban myth.

Well reading wiki Purdue claims to have overdubbed on the Tony Sheridan sessions to add punch. If you listen to Aint She Sweet I think that's plausible. He also claims to have overdubbed on the Decca audition. But I don't think that is plausible. Crappy drumming on Decca audition.

Wait there is more on the Sgt Pepper movie soundtrack in 78 holy smokes Bernard Purdie is credited on the Frampton Bee fees movie soundtrack what ? Why did George Martin hire him must have known him ?

Wait there's more Purdie worked closely and did albums with Hugh McCracken. The same Hugh McCracken that contributed to Ram and Imagine.

I never ever believed this as anything but urban myth. But now I have doubt about My Bonnie and Aint She Sweet

What say you Beatle experts ?

 

In the 80s, Purdie claimed to have been hired by Brian Epstein to overdub drums onto on 22 Beatles songs, including She Loves You. He said the recording was done at Capitol studios in New York.

We know that someone was hired to overdub drums onto several of the Beatles' recordings with Tony Sheridan for release in the US in 1964 on the Atco label. A popular theory is that Purdie was that drummer. However, it has never been proven definitively. As best I can determine, wiki's assertion that Purdie was quoted as claiming this in 1978 is incorrect.

 

Well you seem to know your stuff. But I agree it's plausible Purdie overdubbed on Aint She Sweet My Bonnie. It's too good to be Pete Best just listening to it.

How do we know factually someone was hired on drums ?

I had heard wild ridiculous stories Purdie had played on the White album. Probably a rumor because they did Dear Prudence and Back in USSR when Ringo split for a bit.

Ken Scott who engineered said those were composite drums from Paul George and John.

The 22 tracks claim seems false but that doesn't: sound like Best on Aint She Sweet it's too good

It's almost a smoking gun to me that Purdie had such a close association with Hugh McCracken and he ends up on both Ram and Imagine? Or Mind Games. Then Purdie is hired in 78 for the Sgt Pepper movie by George Martin. So I don't know a lotta smoke there.Martin would have hired Jim Gordon or Alan White why Bernard Purdie ? Martin was a funk fan ?

 

"Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence," the first two tracks of the album, were recorded without Starr, with McCartney primarily responsible for the drum parts.

 

Some of the Tony Sheridan tracks are available in two versions: the original versions with Pete on drums. And some "overdubbed later in the sixties" versions with new drum track added, presumably by Purdie. The version of "My Bonnie" which figures on Anthology one is not the original version. It's the overdubbed one.

 

I never knew that.

 

I suspect that he's on the Hamburg recordings. Comparison of the early releases with the later ones reveals the presence of much more energetic, and sophisticated drum work. Reasonable to think that he was approached by Atlantic to bolster the tracks to let it cash in on the early days of Beatlemania. (Hell, I bought the Ain't She Sweet album to find the majority to be unlistenable, non-Beatle filler.) As to Purdie's claim of participation in the Ringo-era studio work, I like to think that he's just confused or, at worst, puffing a bit. Or urban myth.

 

I agree with you. If I live long enough maybe Lewisohn will tell us.

 

Well if it wasn't Purdie who does it sound like ? Jim Gordon nah Blaine ?

 

The thing that strikes me is that Purdie states in one interview , "Ringo played on nothing" (May/June 1985 issue of "Drum!" magazine)
then he says in another , "I would listen to what Ringo had played and then overdub on top of it" (February 1978 issue of "Gig" magazine).

 

I think Pretty was having a little fun with us, and we're still talking about it, nearly 40 years later. It worked, and somewhere, he's laughing his snare off. Great drummer.

 

At very worst, it's "interesting" but ultimately inconsequential that Purdie re-did the drums on the Pete best tracks. The big "concern" was whether or not he actually played over Ringo's parts. As far as other Beatle tracks that weren't Ringo (the album version of Love me Do, USSR, Prudence, Martha, Ballad of John And Yoko), these are old, well known stories. But hopefully, Lewisohn will dig a bit deeper into the Purdie claims when part two of his book comes out in 2054 and we can all get a good night's sleep.

 

Actually, it's the version of 'Ain't She Sweet' on A1 that has the extra drums, the other two on A1 are the original recordings.

 

It is the original version of My Bonnie on Anthology, although they did reverse the stereo on the slow introduction for some reason. The version of Ain't She Sweet they used was the overdubbed version, not the original however. Either that was what Polydor supplied them, or they just lifted it off the available CD version at the time. I hoped they would have sourced the stereo original for Anthology, bu sadly not.
Edit - Oh Snap!

 

Yes, the mono/overdubbed version of 'Ain't She Sweet' is far more common on CD than the stereo/undubbed original.

 

Yeah, I was really disappointed when I bought my first Beatles CD (The Beatles - First, original Polydor issue with withdrawn Ringo cover and no mention of Tony Sheridan, apart from the notes inside) and found that Ain't She Sweet was mono and overdubbed. Only some years later I found out why and where it came from.

 

My bad.
I swapped Ain't she sweet and My Bonnie in my memory. Should have checked before posting.
Thank you Slane & Gothik.

 

He never actually claimed to play drums on "She Loves You" - he claimed to play drums on a song called "Yeah Yeah Yeah", which was Tony Sheridan's "Ya Ya", I'm told.

 

I actually don't see what he said as funny at all; it is actually incredible rude to The Beatles, especially Ringo, and I feel that he should apologise for what he said. He may very well have drummed on the Tony Sheridan tracks, but there is no way that he drummed on any of the Beatles albums. Just listen to the many alternative takes on the internet and the Anthology albums where you can hear Ringo talking.

 

Bernard Purdie also wrote the Beatles hit "She Loves You, Man." XD

 

Here's a deconstruction of his claims:

http://www.jimvallance.com/03-projects-folder/purdie-project-folder/pg-purdie.html

 

Never said it was funny; I said he was having fun embellishing his limited role touching up the Hamburg tracks with his grossly implausible shaggy dog story of dealing with Brian Epstein. Your demand that Purdie's apologise to the world for besmirching Ringo's legacy? I suspect Mr. Starkey sees the joke.

 

It seems pretty clear that he means She Loves You when he references "Yeah Yeah Yeah." The idea that he was confused and meant Ya Ya seems quite unlikely, since "ya" doesn't sound much like "yeah." More importantly, the detail in his story makes it clear he was not just confused but was outright lying. Anyway, does the Atco release of Ya Ya even have overdubs? It's not even the Beatles playing on that track.

And of course, there is no proof Purdie even played on the Sheridan overdubs. It's equally likely he just made up the whole story, rather than that he was embellishing a small grain of truth. As I noted, he also claimed to have played on several Monkees hits, when he actually never played on a single Monkees session. So he was not above outright lying.

 

I never said that you found that his words were funny, I was merely saying that I don't find what you call the 'joke' at all funny, and I don't think that Ringo would either, because Purdie continuously tries to take credit for work that Ringo is very proud of. Purdie is a liar, and he should either apologise or admit that he was 'joking' over several decades of accusatory interviews, interviews where he basically infers that Ringo is a fraud.

 

I wonder what makes such a respected musician lie like he has? Does he have any mental health issues? After all, it is an outrageous and easily disproven claim to make.