Plucked from certain obscurity to the bosom of lifelong fame

Sixty years ago today, Ringo joined the band

1962 was a big year for The Beatles.

One former band member died, another was fired, and a final piece to the band was hired, completing the Fab Four as we knew it.

Former bass player Stuart Sutcliffe, who left the band to study painting and stayed behind in Germany when the other Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best—returned to Liverpool in the summer of 1961 after a long stretch of playing Hamburg clubs. Sutcliffe’s propensity as a painter garnered him a postgraduate scholarship to study at university in Hamburg.

Remaining in Hamburg with his German fiancée, Sutcliffe complained of headaches and sensitivity to light. In February 1962, he crumpled to the floor during an art class, was seen by both German and British doctors who couldn’t find much wrong with the young Scotsman.

There was a lot wrong, however.

The one-time Beatle suddenly passed away from a brain hemorrhage due to a ruptured aneurysm on April 10, 1962. Stuart was 21 years old.

Sutcliffe’s demis…