Ringo Starr ( b22 )

In 2011, readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted Starr as the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. Journalist Robyn Flans, writing for the Percussive Arts Society, stated: "I cannot count the number of drummers who have told me that Ringo inspired their passion for drums". Drummer Steve Smith commented on Starr's musical contribution:

Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity. Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm in how the public saw drummers. We started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for the Beatles' songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and still identify the song.

Starr said his favourite drummer is Jim Keltner, with whom he first played at the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971. The pair subsequently played together as a double-drumming team on some of Harrison's recordings during the 1970s, on Ringo and other albums by Starr, and on the early All-Starr Band tours. For Ringo's Rotogravure in 1976, Starr coined a term to describe their percussive combination, crediting himself as "Thunder" and Keltner as "Lightnin'".

Starr influenced Genesis drummer Phil Collins, who said: "I think he's vastly underrated, Ringo. The drum fills on 'A Day in the Life' are very, very complex things. You could take a great drummer from today and say, 'I want it like that', and they really wouldn't know what to do." Collins also acknowledged that the drumming style featured on the 1983 Genesis song "That's All" was an affectionate attempt at a "Ringo Starr drum part".

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