“There’s nothing wrong with the Beatles,” Starr was supposedly still assuring people in March 1970. In I Wanna Be Sedated: Pop Music in the Seventies, Phil Dellio and Scott Woods called "It Don't Come Easy" and "Photograph" "probably the two best post-Beatles singles of all." Not bad for a casually ornate three-minute brass-and-cymbal-hooked semi-Phil Spector homage featuring gospel-ish choral backup by two guys in Badfinger. Greil Marcus included it in his "Treasure Island" discography appendix of Stranded, where Ringo's one-single entry tied him with solo John Lennon ("God") and beat solo George Harrison (zilch - Paul McCartney got all of Band on the Run). ![]() Partly a foretelling of the laid-back ease of Seventies soft rock ("you don't have to shout or leap about"), 1971's "It Don't Come Easy" is nonetheless deservedly Starr's most acclaimed hit. The presence of Presley looms over this recording: Elvis's first guitarist, Scotty Moore, was the engineer at Music City Recorders, a studio he partly owned, and the King's backup boys, the Jordanaires, harmonize smartly behind Ringo. This had been a back-burner idea of his for a while, and he selected the songs with input from his parents, particularly his mother.Ĭountry music has always suited Starr's wry warble best, and with the encouragement of legendary pedal-steel session man Pete Drake, he recorded his second solo album, Beaucoups of Blues, in Nashville, a city he'd somehow never visited before. Right after the Beatles' traumatic dissolution, Starr briefly swerved away from rock entirely, recording a batch of pre-rock standards like "Night and Day," "Stardust" and his debut solo album's title track, "Sentimental Journey." Hardly the best fit for his modest vocal gifts, true, but charming regardless - plus, the recriminations and lawsuits that followed the band's split would make anyone long for a simpler time. Catch up with the career of our cover star with these 20 songs. In the latter role, he’s released 20 studio albums - including, Postcards From Paradise in 2015 and What’s My Name in 2019 - and several books. Starr’s 2015 Award for Musical Excellence at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony gave the drummer some well-deserved, and long-overdue, props as both a sideman and a solo artist. ![]() ![]() Since the Beatles called it quits in 1970, the three men who stood in front of the stage have had no problem building their legacies - John Lennon wrote the iconic “Imagine” and “Give Peace a Chance,” George Harrison released All Things Must Pass and spent time as a Traveling Wilbury, Paul McCartney headlines Super Bowl halftime shows and Olympic opening ceremonies.ĭrummer Ringo Starr, alas, has not been afforded the same luxury: After a string of hit singles in the early Seventies, he’s mostly been out of the musical spotlight, reappearing as a consummate session man (he’s drummed for Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Ben Harper among others) or as a voice actor.
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