On paper, that ranking makes sense. Bonham was a madman, a force of nature\u2014thunderous, improvisational, playing like he was teetering on the edge of a cliff. Dave Grohl spent years in his bedroom trying to emulate Bonham\u2019s swing and behind-the-beat swagger. \u201cNo one has come close to that since,\u201d Grohl wrote, \u201cand I don\u2019t think anybody ever will.\u201d<\/p>
Keith Moon was chaos personified\u2014explosive, unpredictable, theatrical. He treated the drum kit like an instrument of controlled destruction, abandoning the traditional timekeeper role to become a lead voice in The Who\u2019s sound.<\/p>
And Ringo? Ringo was neither of those things. He wasn\u2019t trying to be.<\/p>
This is where the debate gets interesting. For sixty years, a question has followed Ringo Starr like a shadow: Is he actually any good? The question seems absurd\u2014here is a man who drummed on some of the most important recordings in popular music history, whose fills are instantly recognizable across generations, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. <\/p>
Here\u2019s the full list of the Top 13 Drummers who Rolling Stone ranked ahead of Ringo: <\/p>
John Bonham<\/strong> (Led Zeppelin)<\/p><\/li>
Keith Moon<\/strong> (The Who)<\/p><\/li>
Ginger Baker<\/strong> (Cream)<\/p><\/li>
Neil Peart<\/strong> (Rush)<\/p><\/li>
Hal Blaine<\/strong> (session drummer\u2014appeared on ~35,000 recordings)<\/p><\/li>
Clyde Stubblefield and John \u201cJabo\u201d Starks<\/strong> (James Brown)<\/p><\/li>
Gene Krupa<\/strong> (jazz legend)<\/p><\/li>
Steve Jordan<\/strong> (session drummer, The Rolling Stones)<\/p><\/li>
Mitch Mitchell<\/strong> (Jimi Hendrix Experience)<\/p><\/li>
Al Jackson Jr.<\/strong> (Booker T. & the M.G.\u2019s, Stax Records)<\/p><\/li>
Benny Benjamin<\/strong> (Motown\u2019s Funk Brothers)<\/p><\/li>
Charlie Watts<\/strong> (The Rolling Stones)<\/p><\/li>
D.J. Fontana<\/strong> (Elvis Presley)<\/p><\/li><\/ul>
The Buddy Rich Test<\/h3>
If you want to understand how professional drummers view Ringo, start with Buddy Rich.<\/p>
Rich was a jazz legend, a technical virtuoso, and famously one of the most brutally honest critics in music. He pulled no punches about anyone. When asked about Ringo\u2019s playing, Rich offered what sounds like faint praise: \u201cRingo was adequate, no more than that.\u201d<\/p>
Coming from Buddy Rich, that\u2019s actually a compliment.<\/p>
What Rich understood\u2014what many critics miss\u2014is that \u201cadequate\u201d for the music Ringo was playing meant something very specific. The Beatles weren\u2019t a jazz combo requiring improvisation and technical fireworks. They were a pop-rock band creating songs that needed to breathe, to groove, to serve the melody. Ringo\u2019s job wasn\u2019t to show off. His job was to make the songs better.<\/p>
And at that, he was a genius.<\/p>
Grohl, Keltner, and the Gospel of Feel<\/h3>
Dave Grohl knows something about drumming. The Nirvana and Foo Fighters founder is widely considered one of the finest rock drummers of his generation, often compared to his own heroes: Bonham, Moon, Neil Peart.<\/p>
When asked to define the \u201cbest drummer in the world\u201d for Ringo\u2019s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute, Grohl cut right to the heart of the debate: \u201cIs it someone that\u2019s technically proficient? Or is it someone that sits in the song with their own feel? Ringo was the king of feel.\u201d<\/p>
This distinction matters enormously. Technical proficiency is measurable\u2014speed, precision, complexity. Feel is something else entirely. It\u2019s knowing what a song needs and providing exactly that, nothing more. It\u2019s the difference between a drummer who plays a song and a drummer who makes a song work.<\/p>
Jim Keltner, one of the most revered session drummers in history\u2014he\u2019s played on everything from John Lennon\u2019s Imagine<\/em> to Tom Petty\u2019s Full Moon Fever<\/em>\u2014put it this way: \u201cEverything Ringo played had such great, deep natural feel. He\u2019s a song drummer. Guys that sit down and they hear the song and they play appropriately for that song.\u201d<\/p>
Lupe Flores, who drums for Wild Powwers, made the same point more bluntly: \u201cYour job as a drummer, or any musician, is to serve the song\u2014not yourself. Ringo epitomizes exactly that. Try and replace him with any other drummer, and the Beatles wouldn\u2019t have sounded like the Beatles.\u201d<\/p>
Paul McCartney put it this way: \u201cNot technically the best by a long shot, but for feel and emotion and economy, they\u2019re always there, particularly Ringo.\u201d<\/p>
Bonham vs. Moon vs. Ringo: Three Philosophies<\/h3>
To understand Ringo\u2019s place in drumming history, you have to understand what separates him from the drummers typically ranked above him.<\/p>
John Bonham<\/strong> played like a man possessed. His kick drum was a weapon, his fills were avalanches, and his sense of swing\u2014that infinitesimal delay behind the beat\u2014gave Led Zeppelin\u2019s music its enormous, lumbering power. Listen to \u201cWhen the Levee Breaks\u201d and you hear a drummer who dominates the song, who is<\/em> the song in many ways. Bonham\u2019s playing demands attention. You can\u2019t ignore it any more than you could ignore a thunderstorm.<\/p>
Keith Moon<\/strong> took a different approach to domination. He abandoned the traditional role of timekeeper entirely, treating his kit as a lead instrument. Moon filled every space, crashed through every quiet moment, and created a wall of percussion that competed with Pete Townshend\u2019s guitar for sonic real estate. His playing was technically messy but emotionally overwhelming. You couldn\u2019t take your ears off him.<\/p>
![\"Buy](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/c2724687-b197-4a8a-9246-dc627db1409c_500x500.jpeg?w=640&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>