FEATURE:
Second Spin
Ringo Starr - Ringo
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AS the truly legendary Ringo Starr…
is eighty-two on 7th July, rather than put together a playlist with some of his best drumming, I thought I would use the occasion to highlight an album of his that is underrated and deserves new appreciation. To be fair, Starr’s solo work does not get the same celebration as his former Beatles bandmates, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. Ringo is Starr’s third studio album. Released in 1973 through Apple, it was a big success story. Reaching seven in the U.K. and two on the Billboard 200, it contains two Starr classics in the form of Photograph and I’m the Greatest. The former was written with George Harrison, whilst the latter is a Lennon song that Starr gives life and exposure. I love the fact that, three years after The Beatles split, they were on an album together. Rather than steal focus, this is very much a Ringo Starr work. Despite a few tracks that are not great – one or two have truly terrible lyrics -, it is one of his strongest solo efforts. I want to bring in a few articles about the amazing Ringo – ending with a positive review for the album. The Beatles Bible wrote about Ringo. I have selected a few parts that caught my eye:
“The bulk of the Ringo album was recorded from 5 March to 30 April 1973, with overdubbing continuing up to the end of July.
From 5 to 27 March sessions took place at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. On 13 March the song ‘I’m The Greatest’ was recorded in 10 takes, with Starr, Lennon and Harrison all present. On bass guitar was Klaus Voormann. The session prompted global news reports that The Beatles had reunited with Voormann replacing McCartney.
On 16 April, at Apple Studios in Savile Row, London, Paul and Linda McCartney joined Starr to record 15 takes of the song ‘Six O’Clock’. During the same session Starr recorded a tap dancing sequence for ‘Step Lightly’, credited on the album to Richard Starkey, MBE.
The release
Ringo was released on 2 November 1973 in the United States, and 21 days later in the United Kingdom.
In America the single ‘Photograph’ was released ahead of the album, on 24 September. The b-side was ‘Down And Out’. The single was released in the UK on 19 October, several weeks after the album. A promotional clip was made at Starr’s Tittenhurst Park home, although it was shown just once on the BBC television show Top Of The Pops.
The album topped the charts in Canada, Spain and Sweden, and was a top 10 hit in Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Japan, the US and UK. It was kept off the top spot on the US Billboard 200 by Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, although it topped the Cashbox and Record World charts”.
Although Ringo did not mark a real Beatles reunion – as they appeared on different songs and were not really a band coming together -, one of its great strengths is that the three former Beatles all joined their friend for a really great album. Udiscovermusic.com explored the making of and success of Ringo last year:
“A Beatles reunion… sort of
In its review of the album, Rolling Stone magazine said, “This Ringo Starr album is the first to actually invoke The Beatles’ aura.” That was down to the fact that John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney each contributed as songwriters, singers, and instrumentalists on the album, across recording sessions that began in March 1973 and wrapped later that summer.
Consequently, Ringo is the only solo Beatle album to feature all four of the Liverpudlians playing on one record. However, on no single track did all four appear together. Harrison played the guitars on the Lennon composition “I’m The Greatest,” with Lennon playing piano and singing harmony on a song he re-wrote for Starr and which was used as the album’s opening track. Harrison also joined in on “Sunshine Life For Me,” “Photograph” and “You And Me (Babe).” He wrote “Sunshine” himself, and co-wrote the latter two.
In June 1973, Starr flew to London, where Paul McCartney and his then-wife, Linda, joined in on the McCartney tune “Six O’clock,” which had been written specifically for the album. With a tight structure and lyrical grace, it is a standout composition on the record. McCartney also appeared on Starr’s cover of the 1960 Johnny Burnette No. 1 hit “You’re Sixteen” (written by the Sherman Brothers), which provided the biggest single hit of the album. Nicky Hopkins, a session musician who appeared regularly with The Rolling Stones, provides some lively piano backing, and there is even a kazoo impression from McCartney. Starr had been able to persuade the latter to be involved in the project by telling him, “You don’t want to be left out, do you?”
But it wasn’t only the guests that made Ringo such a success: Starr advanced his own cause by co-writing two of the album’s Top 10 singles, the No. 1 “Photograph” and “Oh My My,” which had backing vocals from Motown star Martha Reeves. Starr and Vini Poncia’s “Devil Woman” were just as good as the hits. Though Starr’s vocal range is not particularly wide, he sings with gusto throughout and his voice carries a certain pathos.
One of the highlights of Ringo is a version of master songwriter Randy Newman’s composition “Have You Seen My Baby.” Starr’s version has real verve, helped by compelling boogie guitar from T.Rex main man Marc Bolan and fine honky-tonk piano from New Orleans legend James Booker. Though the album was recorded at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles, Bolan’s guitar was added as an overdub at A&M Studios.
Starr’s best and most consistent new studio album, Ringo represented both the drummer/singer’s dramatic comeback and his commercial peak; it was only beaten to the top of the Billboard charts in November 1973 by Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The original 10-track 1973 album was reissued in 1991 as a 13-track CD, the bonus tracks including “Early 1970,” Starr’s interesting perspective on The Beatles’ break-up.
Ringo was produced by Richard Perry, who had worked with Lennon’s friend Harry Nilsson. Starr said: “We met at a session for one of Harry’s albums. I went down and played and Richard and I got to egging each other on about doing something together. We ended up at a club, and when we were leaving we promised we’d get together.” Perry was a good choice as producer, and Nilsson returned the favor by singing backing vocals on “You’re Sixteen.”
Among the other leading guest musicians are Jimmy Calvert (guitar on five tracks), Steve Cropper (guitar), Billy Preston (piano), Jim Keltner (drums), Milt Holland (percussion), and The Band’s Garth Hudson (accordion), Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm (mandolin)”.
I will end with a review from LOUDER. Whereas some of the reviews for Ringo were mixed or more on the negative side, they had a lot of positives. One thing about Ringo is that it is very likeable and easy to appreciate. Its amiability also sits alongside some excellent songwriting and some of Starr’s best post-Beatles vocals:
“There was a time when everybody liked Ringo. The record-buying public gladly guzzled on his dour vocal flatness. In ‘73, the year of Ringo, America granted him a brace of No.1 singles while John Lennon’s Mind Games stalled at No.18.
His musical peers queued to appear on his records (all four Beatles are on Ringo, as are The Band, Marc Bolan, Harry Nilsson, Martha Reeves… how long have you got?). All involved seemed equally delighted to donate perfectly servicable compositions: Lennon’s autobiographical I’m The Greatest (a song its composer recognised he probably wouldn’t get away with personally, but that Ringo’s perceived humility would render palatable), McCartney’s Six O’Clock, a saccharine ballad that might have served Macca well, given enough Wings, and Harrison’s Band-enhanced country-folk belter Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)
Elsewhere, T.Rextasy-peaking Bolan puts a little extra spring into the swagger of Randy Newman’s Have You Seen My Baby. And then there’s the two US chart-toppers: Photograph (Ringo’s creditable co-write with Harrison) and an apparently irresistible take on Johnny Burnette’s You’re Sixteen which, while catnip to the airwaves in its day, with its weapons-grade hooks courtesy of Mary Poppins tunesmiths the Sherman brothers and contemporaneously en vogue 50s nostalgia, now only raises eyebrows for the suspect nature of its lyric.
That said, if you can shake the image of today’s no-autographs, V-flicking Ringo to remember when he was a national treasure, a game-for-anything John Noakes of the drums, maybe you’ll suspend your postmillennial sophistication just enough for Ringo’s unpretentious time capsule to rework its peculiar magic”.
Maybe a lot of people do not know about Ringo Starr’s solo work. There are some of his albums that are not essential. I think albums such as Ringo are important to listen to. With some truly remarkable songs – where Starr sounds committed to the material throughout -, go and spend some time with this album. I was keen to give it some love…
AHEAD of Ringo Starr’s eighty-second birthday.