Ringo Starr's Signature Drum Fill Returns!

Many years ago, I wrote about what I call Ringo Starr’s signature drum fill, one that he utilized extensively in 1968 and 1969.  There are slight variations, but here’s the basic fill.

Listen to an example.

Pretty simple, but effective, and Ringo was all over this fill in the late Beatles’ period, as illustrated in the following medley taken from their final three albums plus the single “Hey Jude.” 

After I wrote about this, I started noticing this fill everywhere, and I’ve been logging each example in a Word file for years. What inspired me to address this subject again was a performance just a few weeks ago by Elton John and Brandi Carlile on Saturday Night Live. During their song, “Who Believes in Angels,” the drummer played the same lick, and my ears immediately pricked up. It’s just one of those go-tos that drummers utilize, and the fill works especially well after a dramatic pause, such as in “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots, “Too Much of Anything” by the Who, “Was I Out of My Head” by Fastball, and – my favorite employment of the Ringo lick, “Vampyre of Time and Memory” by Queens of the Stone Age. 

In all, I’ve logged twenty-four examples of the lick from artists other than Ringo Starr, and I’ve compiled them into a brief medley below. Two of them come from the same album – Marc Cohn’s brilliant Burning the Days – and they include some of the world’s greatest drummers, including Pete Thomas, Keith Moon, Charlie Watts and John Bonham. Drummers take note: sometimes simple is best. See if you can identify the tunes on your own, but if not, below is a list of each song. Enjoy!

Too Much of Anything – The Who
Made to Last – Semisonic
Wild Horses – The Rolling Stones
Was I Out of My Head – Fastball
Who Believes in Angels – Elton John and Brandi Carlile
There We Are – James Taylor
Someone Saved My Life Tonight – Elton John
Sign of Life – Sunshine Boys
Maybe I’m Amazed – Paul McCartney
Laura – Billy Joel
Vanishing Spies – Frank Black
I Got a Name – Jim Croce
Mission (A World Record) – Electric Light Orchestra
Can’t Stop the Music – Daryl Hall & John Oates
Providence – Marc Cohn
Too Many Knots to Untangle – Graham Parker
Daddy’s All Gone – James Taylor
Saints Preserve Us – Marc Cohn
Ready for Love – Mott the Hoople
Spyder – Imperial Drag
Thank You – Led Zeppelin
Victim of Love – The Eagles
Plush – Stone Temple Pilots
Vampyre of Time and Memory – Queens of the Stone Age