Beatles Session Drummer Andy White Dies

Session drummer Andy White, best known for joining the Beatles on their 1962 single "Love Me Do," has died at age 85. His wife Thea, a voice actress, confirmed that White suffered a "massive stroke" on Monday in New Jersey.

Ringo Starr was relegated to tambourine on that early single as he continued to find his footing as the Beatles' newly installed drummer. (Pete Best, the group's founding drummer, appeared on the first take of "Love Me Do.") White admitted he knew little about the fledgling group, though he was impressed that they were recording original material.

"I was working in London and doing a lot of TV," White once told the the Daily Record. "One Friday, I got a call asking if I could do a three-hour job at EMI on the Monday. That's all I knew about it. I had heard of the Beatles by then because my first wife Lyn was from Liverpool and had mentioned the name, but I didn't know much about them. But those guys were great, and I worked closely with John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney] while we tried to get the routines all worked out. They hadn't written anything down as music, so we just worked through it together."

A Glasgow native, White also worked with Rod Stewart, Chuck Berry, Herman's Hermits, the Smithereens and many others throughout his lengthy career. He moved to the U.S. in the '80s, and later worked as a music instructor.

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