Andy White (drummer)

• 1. Introduction

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  Andy White was a Scottish session drummer who spent a single afternoon in EMI Studios on the 11th of September 1962 and ended up on one of the most recognisable records in pop history. He was paid £5 for the session and 10 shillings for bringing his own drum kit. He earned no royalties. The questions that afternoon raises are worth sitting with: why was he called in at all, what happened to the man who was already behind the kit, and what did White do with the rest of a career that stretched across four decades?

• 2. From Stranraer to Session Work

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  Andrew McLuckie White was born in Stranraer on the 27th of July 1930, the son of a baker. He picked up sticks at the age of 12, joining a pipe band, and turned professional at 17. Through the 1950s and into the early 1960s he worked across swing and traditional jazz groups.

  In 1958, White formed a big band jazz outfit and took it to the American Northeast, where he backed Chuck Berry, the Platters, and Bill Haley and His Comets. The experience reshaped his ear. He described the approach directly: "We used some big band arrangements and put a back beat to it to fit in with the rock 'n' roll thing. I got the chance to hear rock 'n' roll in the flesh. That was where I got a good idea about what it was supposed to happen, drumwise."

  In 1960, back in London, White recorded with Billy Fury on Fury's debut album, The Sound of Fury, a record widely regarded as Britain's first rock and roll album. That session placed him at the front edge of British rock before the Beatles had made a single.

• 3. Three Takes on Love Me Do

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  "Love Me Do" had already been recorded twice before White ever heard it. The first take was cut on the 6th of June 1962 at EMI Studios with Pete Best on drums, when Best was still a member of the group. The second was recorded on the 4th of September 1962, this time with Ringo Starr, who had replaced Best the month before.

  George Martin had disapproved of Best's drumming and remained unhappy with Starr's playing as well. On the 11th of September, producer Ron Richards, who was Martin's assistant and had worked with White previously, called White in to record the song a third time. Starr was moved to tambourine. White also played on "P.S. I Love You" during the same session, keeping a lightweight cha-cha-cha beat on bongos while Starr played maracas.

  White later claimed in a 2012 BBC interview that he also played on a recording of "Please Please Me" that day, pointing to the drum sound as evidence. Whether or not that claim holds, he did not participate in the final recording of that song on the 26th of November. The 11th of September was his one and only session with the Beatles.

• 4. Which Version Went Where

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  The 1962 British pressings of the single used the version with Starr on drums. White's version, the third take, went onto the first American pressings of the single in 1964, onto all later re-releases, and onto the Beatles' debut British album, Please Please Me, in 1963.

  Starr's version has been reissued periodically; it appeared on the North American Rarities compilation in 1980 and received a worldwide release on Past Masters in 1988. A 1992 single included both versions on the same release. The simplest way to tell them apart: White's version has tambourine audible throughout, because Starr was the one playing it. Starr's own version has no tambourine at all.

  The Pete Best version, recorded on the 6th of June 1962, was assumed lost for years. It finally surfaced on Anthology 1 in 1995, completing the picture of all three versions that exist.

• 5. A Crowded Career Beyond Abbey Road

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  AllMusic described White as "one of the busier drummers in England from the late 1950s through the mid-1970s," and the record bears that out. He played on hit records by Herman's Hermits, on Tom Jones's "It's Not Unusual," and on "Shout" by Lulu.

  In the mid-1960s he toured the United States with Marlene Dietrich, performing in her cabaret shows under the musical direction of Burt Bacharach, who was not yet widely known. From 1965 until he retired in 1975, White worked with the British pianist and composer William Blezard. His roster also included Rod Stewart, Anthony Newley, and Bert Weedon, and he played with the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra in Glasgow.

  White's wife during his early career years was Lyn Cornell, a British Decca recording artist who later joined the Vernons Girls and the Pearls. Cornell was also a member of the Carefrees, whose Beatles novelty single "We Love You Beatles" peaked at No. 39 on the U.S. charts and stayed on the Billboard listings for five weeks.

• 6. New Jersey Years

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  In the late 1980s, White moved to Caldwell, New Jersey, where he taught Scottish pipe band drumming and served as a judge for the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association. He was also a drum instructor for the New York City Department of Corrections Emerald Pipe Band.

  In 2007, New Jersey rock band the Smithereens recorded Meet the Smithereens!, a full cover of the Beatles' Meet the Beatles! album. Beatles expert Tom Frangione then introduced White to the band. They invited him to play on their next Beatles tribute project, recorded at The Grip Weeds' House of Vibes studio in Highland Park. White played "P.S. I Love You" again in 2008, this time on the Smithereens' version, released late that year on B-Sides The Beatles. A Smithereens take on "Love Me Do" featuring White was also cut during that session but stayed unreleased until a 2020 single.

  White died after a stroke at his Caldwell home on the 9th of November 2015, at the age of 85. He had a bumper sticker on his car that read "5THBEATLE," a gift from one of his pipe band students.