The "So Who Are These Five Guys?" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  I was showing my wife a photograph I had just found of her favorite musical group of all time, The Beatles.  The photograph featured five musicians instead of four, but also happened to be missing Ringo Starr.  So, who were these musicians pictured in the photograph I had found.  

The colorized photo I had found.  Read on to see whom the musicians may be. 

Her love affair with The Beatles began when she saw them appear on the Ed Sullivan Show.  It was on February 7, 1964 that the Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow landed at New York's Kennedy Airport and instantly "Beatlemania" had arrived.  The British rock-and-roll quartet had just had their first No. 1 hit in The USA with "I Want to Hold Your Hand."  The "Fab Four," as they were called, were dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark bowl haircuts.  More than 3,000 screaming fans greeted them as they departed from the plane onto American soil.  Then, two days later they made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.  If I remember it correctly, it was really hard to hear what they were singing due to the constant screaming of the teenage girls who were in attendance at the television studio where the show was broadcast from that day.  Ed Sullivan was so impressed the he quickly booked them for two more appearances that month.  The "Fab Four" made their first public concert appearance on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C. with another group of 20,000 screaming fans.  The following day they gave two performances at New York's Carnegie Hall.  

The Beatles when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.

The surrounding streets had to be closed due to the large amount of people who surrounded the Hall.  On February 22 the Beatles returned to England.  So, now for the photograph I was showing my wife.  It featured five instead of four musicians and one of those musicians wasn't Ringo Starr.  So...what gives?  Well, the colorized photograph looks really creepy.  Almost like a photograph taken at Madame Tussaud Wax Museum.  The photograph has what many called the "fifth Beatle."  Two of those in the photo were Pete Best on drums and Stu Sutcliffe on guitar.  Eventually Ringo Starr replaced Pete and Stu left the group to pursue a career in art.  He died shortly after leaving the group of a brain hemorrhage.  Actually, Stu's girlfriend was responsible for giving The Beatles their iconic mop top haircuts.  For those of you who are fans of the Beatles, the photograph was taken in Hamburg, Germany in 1960.  The musicians in the photo are from left-right: John Lennon, George Harrison, Pete Best, Paul McCartney and Stuart Sutcliffe.  I wonder what Pete and Stuart must have thought a year after this photo was taken.  They missed out on being perhaps the best quartet in Rock & Roll that ever was.  Eventually the Beatles returned to the United States in 1964 for a second tour and at one point that year they had the top five best-selling singles in the U.S..  And, if you are wondering when the Beatles disbanded, it was 1970.  They left a legacy of 18 albums and 30 Top 10 U.S. singles.  Quite a hard act to follow.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.