By all accounts, the members of the Beatles have enjoyed outrageous success, hallmark fame and revolutionary notoriety. All, that is, except Pete Best, the fifth Beatle.

Despite the lack of the glory and riches, Best journeys onward, frequently laughing during a phone interview a week prior to his August 9 concert with the Pete Best Band at Jammin’ Java ( 227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna).

“That was all water under the bridge long ago,” Best says. “There was too much of life left to cry about that spilled milk.”

That “spilled milk” is the topic of a new PBS documentary titled “Best of the Beatles” set to air Sept. 28 and also slated for DVD release later this year. The film, which Best calls “my life from A to Z,” depicts a lesser-known period from the Beatles’ history in the early ’60s, a period that John Lennon referred to by saying: “We were at our best when we were playing at the dance halls of Liverpool and Hamburg. The world never saw that.”

What, or rather who, the world saw were John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr post-Hamburg stint and post-EMI record deal. But before it was John, George, Paul and Ringo, it was John, George, Paul and Pete.

Best was the original drummer for the group, playing with the then-trio for their prolonged stay in Hamburg, Germany. That was the period when the now-legendary group refined their sound, making the leap from an average group of Liverpool rockers into one of the most prolific music acts of all time. The transformation that occurred while performing in the competitive Hamburg market for demanding club owner Bruno Koschmider, included the incorporation of one of Best’s inventions, dubbed the “atom beat.”

“Back then we weren’t miked up, so I utilized all the drums to project more sound,” Best says. “In those days rock and roll drummers played quite light, using mostly cymbals and snare drums. I used more of the bass drum and tom-toms, giving it a lot more power.”

When the group returned to Liverpool the “atom beat” was picked up by drummers across the city, including the drummer of Rory and Hurricanes, Ringo Starr.

Best stuck with the Beatles through the summer of 1962, before Starr replaced him in August of that year. Rumors swirl to this day about the motivation for the change, and even Best doesn’t know the real reason. Whether, in fact, McCartney was jealous of Best’s reputation as the group’s heartthrob, or simply that Best was not an adequate drummer, only McCartney and group manager Brian Epstein know for sure.

“All of the rumors I’ve heard have been pretty outlandish. It’s still a gray area to me,” Best says. “The craziest rumor was that I was missing gigs. I played over 1,000 gigs with the group and I think I missed four of them. So whoever came up with that is using some questionable math.”

After his eviction from the Beatles, Best floated around to a number of groups over the following few years, but eventually left the music scene all together in the late ’60s.

“I was interviewing and everywhere I went, they’d ask ‘So, what were doing before this?’ and I’d reply, ‘For the last eight years I was a rock and roll drummer.’ You could just imagine the look on their faces,” Best laughs. “They were all afraid that the second someone waved the entertainment flag under my nose again I’d be gone.”

In order to prove that he’d left the music game for good he took a job at a bakery, slicing bread and loading vans for about a year before beginning a 20-year stretch with the British Civil Service.

But in 1988, a promoter for a Beatles convention finally convinced Best to perform again.

“The lad had been begging me to do it for years and he finally got me cornered,” Best says.

He gathered up his brother, Roag, to join him on the drums (the Pete Best Band still features the two brothers) and played what he thought would be a one-show stint. Now, 17-years later, he finds himself on the summer leg of yet another U.S. tour sponsored by Icelandair, pounding out the same big sound he created in the music halls of Hamburg.

“I hold my head high and keep moving on,” Best says. “I’ve got a great band and we tour the world.”

And from the sound of satisfaction in his voice, for Best, that’s success, fame and notoriety enough.