And why?
Stuart Sutcliffe is the only person with a legitimate claim to the tile, having played with the other four Beatles.
There wasn’t any single person who got called this. There are about a dozen who have or might have been called this. Nobody ever actually chose an “official” one.
But Annie, there’s no tradition or anything of the title actually referring to a fifth band member. Brian Epstein and George Martin have been called it at times. Billy Preston, for god’s sake, has been called this because of his work collaborating on some of the later records. There’s really no official “5th Beatle”.
I was looking at that link just before I posted this. This thread is more IMHO than factual.
Personally, I’d go with George Martin.
Murray the K
The first person who comes to mind for me is soccer player George Best, just because he was called that in the press due to his popularity in the late '60s-early '70s.
But if I were really trying to name someone who I considered to be a band member closest in proximity to the Fab Four, I’d say Stu Sutcliffe.
Okay…I was misreading the OP, then.
Personally, I’d say Brian Epstein or George Martin. Both of them were with the band throughout their most famous and active period, and worked more closely and for a longer time with them than any former member who bailed (or got kicked) prior to “the big break” did. And both of them were, in many ways, as responsible for “the Beatles” being who and what they were as the actual Fab Four were.
My vote goes to George Martin. Brian Epstein was certainly of incredible importance / influence on developing the group as performers and personalities. But as far as I know – and I could definitely be wrong about this, so please correct me if I am – he didn’t have as big an impact on the actual music as Martin, whose role as producer / arranger was inestimable. Many of the songs and albums we love wouldn’t sound the same without George Martin, such as Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday, Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields Forever, all of Abbey Road, and too many more to mention.
So while cases can be made for others, for me, considering how unimaginably different the recordings would sound without him, George Martin gets the nod.
Billy Preston.
The unconfirmed Beatle on the grassy knoll.
Not sure about The Beatles, but I do know that Bill Murray was the fifth Rutle.
The joker in me whats to say Yoko Ono since she has had a lot of influence over the band.
But George Martin is the bet here.
Scottie Pippen.
Dunno if you’d call him the Fifth Beatle, but Peter Serafinowicz could sure substitute for one of them, if necessary:
Ringo writes for James Bond
Ringo plays on Paul’s 1979 Christmas record
Ringo witnesses the first version of ‘Imagine’
Ringo remembers 1969 (may be slightly NSFW)
Paul at Christmas (NSFW – naughty language)
Stu Sutcliffe did play with four other Beatles, but the version that was John, Paul, George, and Pete.
What about Pete Best, the original drummer?
I think it’s cute and chutzpahrific that he actually went around trying to call himself that.
Well, he was the one who coined the phrase. Might as well give him a shout-out.
Seriously, though, I’d have to say George Martin. Listen to any Beatles album (other than Let It Be): What five guys were mostly responsible for what you hear?
Last I checked, the Beatles were a four-man band, although I cannot entirely dismiss the possibility that there was a spirit from a parallel dimension re-animating Paul’s corpse.
That’s the only one I’ve heard referred to as this.