Today is the birthday of one Stuart Sutcliffe, born on this day in 1940. Sutcliffe was a Scottish painter and musician best known as the original bass guitarist of the English rock band The Beatles. At the time, he was the fifth member of the band, thus he was the original Fifth Beatle. Sutcliffe and John Lennon are credited with inventing the name “Beetles” which was in reference to The Crickets which then became The Beatles because they liked the double meaning.

Sutcliffe would leave the Beatles in 1961 to pursue a career as a painter. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1962 while studying in Germany. He was posthumously included on the cover art for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. (Extreme left, in front of fellow artist Aubrey Beardsley). Some of the tracks on which Sutcliffe played can be heard on Anthology I

Here’s the Day Thread.