Pete Best just announced his retirement. We offer a nod to his career with this review from the past summer…

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To say the Pete Best Band exceeded expectations is to say the Beatles wrote some decent songs. 

Landing July 28 at Columbus, Ohio’s, Valley Dale Ballroom for the third of four shows on a brief U.S. swing, the black-clad Best briefly emerged from behind his white Gretsch drum kit to declare his show is designed to transport audiences “back to the days I played with four guys named John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe.”

Supported by four additional lads from Liverpool, including brother Roag on an adjacent drum set, Best, 82, did exactly that, though the ballroom’s crystal chandeliers likely didn’t remind Best of the dingy U.K. and European clubs in which he put the backbeat in the Beatles from 1960-’62. 

Playing on a bandstand bookended by screens that showed images of the Best-era Beatles together on- and off-stage, the quintet ran through 23 songs across 90 minutes of music that reignited the 60-plus-year-old jumble of energy that was the pre-Fab Beatles. The playlist included numbers mostly forgotten (the Lennon-Harrison instrumental “Cry for a Shadow,” Lennon-McCartney’s “Hello Little Girl” and the traditional “My Bonnie”); still-beloved originals like “One after 909,” “P.S. I Love You” and “I Saw Her Standing There;” and such covers as “Rock and Roll Music,” “Chains” and “Lucille.” 

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Best. But it wasn’t a brilliantly executed, wholly authentic night of songs from before the Beatles ever heard the name George Martin. Yet, that’s what the 500 or so lucky attendees got. 

Best’s brilliance lay in his decision to stick to his era and avoid songs with which he wasn’t involved. Rhythm guitarist Tony Flynn was particularly adept on throat-shredding numbers such as “Please Mr. Postman” and “Mr. Moonlight,” yet softer fare, including “Besame Mucho,” “Till There was You” and “Like Dreamers Do” fared just as well, sounding right at home in America in 2024. 

And by the time the Pete Best Band said cheerio with the pairing of “Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey,” fans could only be grateful Best returned to music in the 1980s and continues to share the fruits of his truncated career with Beatlemaniacs who are better off for his musical generosity. 

Setlist: “Rock and Roll Music;” “What I’d Say;” “One after 909;” “Chains;” “Please Mr. Postman;” “Hello Little Girl;” “Mr. Moonlight;” “P.S. I Love You;” “Roll over Beethoven;” “Besame Mucho;” “Cry for a Shadow;” “Till there Was You;” “Slow Down;” “Money (That’s What I Want);” “Like Dreamers Do;” “Ain’t She Sweet;” “My Bonnie;” “Lucille;” “Memphis, Tennessee;” “Some other Guy;” “I Saw Her Standing There;” “Twist and Shout;” “Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey”