Off The Beatle Track

How many Beatles were there?

I don’t mean to trick you; if you answered “Duh, four,” you’ve passed the test. But is that the most accurate answer?

Yes. Yes it is. So if you’d like to share your thoughts about the four Beatles, email me–

Kidding! There were definitely more than four Beatles. But how many more? I’m not interested in anyone who played with them as a one-off, or session musicians who recorded with them, or Clapton playing on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but anyone who can claim he was a true Beatle, if only for a short time.

Stu and Pete

Let’s start with the obvious additional Beatles: Both Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best were Beatles. In fact, as I write this in early 2026, Pete has a chance to be the last surviving Beatle. I won’t speculate on his health, or that of Paul and Ringo, but Pete is about 16 months younger than Ringo and 7 months older than Paul.¹

Tommy, Norman, and Chas

Before Pete drummed for The Beatles, Tommy Moore toured with them in Scotland in May 1960.

After Tommy left, and before turning to Pete, they hired one more drummer in 1960, Norman Chapman. Norman played a few shows before being called up for national service.

Stu left The Beatles after their first trip to Hamburg, so the band needed a bassist. They enlisted Chas Newby, who played a few Liverpool gigs in December 1960. Rather than make the next trip to Germany with the band, Chas returned to college.

Jimmie

Were Tommy, Norman, and Chas Beatles? Let me suggest two questions to help clarify the answer:

1. Was the group known as The Beatles when the musician in question played with them? Take the case of John’s childhood friend Pete Shotton. Pete played washboard with The Quarrymen until John smashed it over his head.² Because Pete S. left long before The Quarrymen became The Beatles, it seems clear to me that he wasn’t a Beatle.
2. Did the other members of the band consider the new inductee to be a long-term addition (even if he didn’t turn out to be)? I might as well introduce Jimmie Nicol into the discussion here.³ Jimmie replaced the hospitalized Ringo for two weeks in June 1964, playing shows in the Netherlands and Australia. Since he was never intended to be a permanent member of the group, I don’t consider Jimmie to be a Beatle.

Back to the three gentlemen under discussion:

1. When Tommy Moore toured Scotland with the band, the group was known as The Silver Beetles (or The Silver Beatles).⁴ Tommy wouldn’t stay with the band for long, but he was considered their permanent a drummer.
2. When Norman Chapman was asked to “sit in” (his words) with the band, they were known as The Beatles. But Norman, born in 1937, was, as Lewisohn describes him, “among the penultimate batch of young men called up for National Service.” Whether The Beatles knew of Norman’s pending departure is unclear (though one assumes that Norman did not conceal the information), but Norman clearly didn’t consider himself a permanent Beatle.
3. In December 1960, after the group returned from their first trip to Hamburg, Lewisohn writes that “the Beatles took on Chas Newby as a short-term fix,” since Stu had remained in Germany. “Short-term fix” being the antithesis of permanence, Chas shouldn’t be considered as Beatle.

Billy

That brings us to Billy Preston. In Peter Jackson’s epic Get Back, Billy’s joyous arrival lifts the mood of the often somber sessions. John and George suggest adding Billy to the band,⁵ but Paul says that the four of them have enough trouble agreeing on anything.⁶ The 1969 Get Back single was credited to The Beatles with Billy Preston. Billy was a valuable adjunct, but not a Beatle.

The final tally

I count seven Beatles: John, Paul, George, Ringo, Stu, Pete, and Tommy. What’s your count? Whom have I forgotten? Email me at beatletrack@gmail.com.

1. Needless to say, I hope all three live long into their 100s. ↩︎
2. Thereby rendering it unplayable. I guess that they couldn’t afford a new one? ↩︎
3. In fact, this whole pointless exercise began as a mediation on whether Jimmie Nicol was, in fact, a Beatle. I knew he wasn’t, but I didn’t know why, so I ended up writing 800 words to convince myself that I was right. ↩︎
4. Much of what follows is based on the “Extended Special Edition” of Mark Lewisohn’s All These Years Volume 1: Tune In. ↩︎
5. And George mentions adding Bob Dylan to “The Beatles and Co.”! ↩︎
6. If I may be permitted an editorial aside: I believe that more good than bad would have resulted had Billy joined The Beatles in 1969. Obviously, he was a great player, and they enjoyed having him around. I doubt that he would’ve challenged John and Paul for band primacy, and he might even have elevated George and Ringo a notch by entering as the new low man in the organization. Once Billy became a Beatle, they might have been more willing to induct others as the need arose, as John did with Plastic Ono Band and Paul did with Wings, thereby keeping the band fresh as they headed into the ’70s. ↩︎