Who was the Fifth Beatle? There are a lot of candidates for this honorary title: some consider themselves the fifth Beatle, others could qualify through their merits for the Beatles. That's why we highlight a potential Fifth Beatle: Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Purdie has clearly put his name forward with his bold statements:

- "I overdubbed the drumming on 21 songs from the first three Beatle albums".
- "There are four drummers on the Beatles records, but Ringo is not one of them"

Purdie is known as a groove drummer with flawless timing and precision half notes, backbeats and grooves. His groove sometimes combines different influences, such as swing, blues and funk. He created the now well-known drum pattern the "Purdie Half-time Shuffle".

He is widely appreciated and admired for his drum performance, so why would he say this kind of strange stuff?

It seems possible that Purdie has drummed on the American version of some of Tony Sheridan's songs and the Beatles. But otherwise, Purdie seems to exaggerate when he talks about 21 songs on 3 LPs. But how many songs should you record with the Beatles to be called the Fifth Beatle?

Here we made a remix of the German (with Pete Best on drums) , and the American version (with Purdie on drums) of "Take out some insurance on me". There is additional guitar, drums and harmonica. The drums are clearly improved, a hi-hat error by Pete Best towards the end has been eliminated.......