Toshiba-EMI EAP-9037X
This third solo LP from Ringo Starr is my hands-down favorite of his solo efforts. I had been debating about whether to do this LP because the DCC gold disc, remastered by Steve Hoffman, has been widely regarded as the go-to best source for this LP and it probably still is, depending on your musical preferences. Since the DCC disc is a "remastered" version of the LP I decided it would be worthwhile to hear once again what this LP sounds like sourced from vinyl.
I compared vintage US and Japanese pressings. (I was unable to locate a UK pressing.) While they were quite close sonically, I preferred the lower noise floor of the Japanese vinyl so the audio from the LP presented here is from the Japanese pressing.
First off, I wanted to include the single "It Don't Come Easy" b/w "Early 1970". I found a nice early
UK pressing of this single and that’s what you have presented here.
Other bonus tracks included here are "Down & Out", which was the "B" side of the "Photograph" single,
and then I have three US promotional 45-rpm singles containing mono versions of “Photograph",
"You're Sixteen", and "Oh My My". Also included is the stereo single edit of “Oh My My”. You'll find
more details about these bonus tracks below.
Misc notes from the ‘net about “Ringo”:
After fulfilling his dream of doing a collection of standards as well as a country album, Ringo was at last
ready to turn his attention to the pop/rock genre and to what Ringo considers his first real album -- Ringo.
Richard Perry was selected to be the producer for the project. Ringo remembers, “We first met when they called me down to do a session for one of Harry (Nilsson’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.”
At first Ringo envisioned making a global album, “At the time I had this great plan of doing a world album,
you know: two tracks in Nashville, a couple in London , some in Peru or wherever.” However, producer Richard Perry’s suggestion to keep the project in Los Angeles prevailed. Recording began in early April of 1973 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles. Ringo was delighted with the way the album progressed. “You know, in a week we had eight tracks and they were all great.” Among these tracks were several Starkey compositions. One, “Step Lightly,” was written solely by Ringo while “Photograph” shared authorship with George Harrison and “Oh My My” and “Devil Woman” were co-written with Vini Poncia.
In its review of the album, Rolling Stone Magazine noted that, “A Ringo Starr album is the first to actually invoke the Beatles aura. This is not surprising since John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney each contributed his time and talents to the album. Ringo is, therefore, the first and only solo Beatle album to feature all four of the former Fabs playing on one record.”
John Lennon rewrote parts of his song “I’m the Greatest” especially for Ringo and also contributed piano and backing vocals. George Harrison also performed on the song, and as observed in Rolling Stone, “A stunning alchemy occurs. The small matter of John’s pungent sardonic backup vocal and a Harrison guitar part that burns ... energizes this song beyond all explanation.” Richard Perry was totally impressed with having three Beatles in the studio at one time. When George joined Ringo and John to help sort out the middle eight, Perry recalls, “You could really tell that they were excited! There was such a fantastic energy coming out of the room! It was really sensational.”
While John’s participation was limited to the one song, George was much more involved. In addition to playing on “I’m the Greatest,” George provided guitar work on three other Ringo tracks. These included the Harrison composition “Sunshine Life for Me (Sail Away Raymond)”, as well as “Photograph” which George co-wrote with Ringo, and “You and Me, (Babe)” which was co-written with Mal Evans.
Having already accepted a little help from friends John and George, Ringo decided, “I couldn’t leave Paul out of this.” As a result, the recording sessions moved to England in mid April. It was at this point that Paul provided Ringo with the song “Six O’clock” on which Paul played piano and he and Linda sang backing vocals. Paul also added the kazoo (mouth sax) solo to “You’re Sixteen” as well as arranging the strings and flute accompaniment.
Although at no time were all four former Beatles present in the same studio at the same time, the spirit of
co-operation evidenced on the Ringo album did much to dissipate the disappointment felt by many fans after the hard feelings of the Beatles’ breakup. Bob Woffinden stated in The Beatles Apart, that, “buoyed by the achievement he felt in bringing them all together, Ringo proceeded to make a magnificent album. In a way, it was a tribute to his particular genius--his eternal good nature and equanimity. People must have felt so squalid quarreling in his presence.”
John, George, and Paul were not the only artists who lent their time and talents to the project. The cast of
heavy-weight players includes: Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins, Steve Crooper, Harry Nilsson, Jim Keltner, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Marc Bolan, Klaus Voorman, and Vini Poncia.
As Nicholas Shaffner noted in Beatles Forever, “The Starr of the show himself might have gotten lost in the mix, but the cast of thousands was apparently sympathetic enough to complement rather than eclipse, the happy-go-lucky personality that glows through the songs and gives the LP some cohesiveness. This aside from the other Beatles’s involvement, was the key to the record’s success.”
Ringo, released on November 2, 1973 in the United States and on November 9 in Great Britain, remained on the charts for thirty-seven weeks. It was in the top ten for eight weeks and peaked at Billboard at number two. It reached number one on Cashbox and Record World.
The album produced three hit singles for Ringo. “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen” both reached number one while “Oh My My” reached number five.
Many fans feel that Ringo is Ringo’s all time best album. It was certainly the most successful. Rolling Stone
described the album as “a document of a good time in the making.” When the CD was released, Q Magazine described Ringo as “A testament to having the right friends, but it’s also a damn near classic.” Vox Magazine opined that, “The album has all the hallmark charm of Ringo, the man.” The Beatlefan Magazine review stated, “Ringo is still a delightful, accessible, melodic, extremely well played collection of pop-rock tunes... hearing it in context is like getting reacquainted with an old friend.” The album and it’s singles were such a success that John Lennon was moved to send his former drummer a telegram stating, “Congratulations. How dare you! And can you write me a hit record.”
1) "I'm the Greatest" (John Lennon)
Featuring Starr, John Lennon on piano and harmony vocal, George Harrison on guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass and
Billy Preston on organ
2) "Have You Seen My Baby" (Randy Newman)
Featuring Marc Bolan on lead guitar and James Booker on piano
3) "Photograph" (George Harrison/Richard Starkey)
Features George Harrison on guitar and harmony vocal
4) "Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)" (George Harrison)
Features members of The Band: Robbie Robertson on guitar, Levon Helm on mandolin, Rick Danko on fiddle and
Garth Hudson on accordion, as well as George Harrison on guitar and backing vocals
5) "You're Sixteen" (Bob Sherman/Dick Sherman)
Features Paul McCartney on mouth sax solo and Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney and Harry Nilsson on backing vocals
6) "Oh My My" (Vini Poncia/Richard Starkey)
Featuring Jimmy Calvert on guitar, Tom Scott on sax, Martha Reeves and Merry Clayton on backing vocals, arranged
by Jim Horn
7) "Step Lightly" (Richard Starkey)
Features the tapdancing of 'Richard Starkey, M.B.E.'
8) "Six O'Clock" (Paul McCartney)
Features Paul McCartney on piano and synthesizer, as well as backing vocals with Linda McCartney and Klaus Voorman
on bass guitar
9) "Devil Woman" (Vini Poncia/Richard Starkey)
Featuring Richard Perry on backing vocals and Tom Hensley on piano
10) "You and Me (Babe)" (George Harrison/Mal Evans)
Features George Harrison on guitar, arranged by Jack Nitzche
BONUS TRACKS:
11) "It Don't Come Easy" (UK 45-rpm pressing)
12) "Early 1970" (UK 45-rpm pressing)
13) "Down and Out" (US 45-rpm pressing)
14) "Photograph" (mono) (US 45-rpm promo)
15) "You're Sixteen" (mono) (US 45-rpm promo test pressing)
16) "Oh My My" (mono) (US 45-rpm promo)
17) “Oh My My” (US stereo 45-rpm single edit)
About the singles/bonus tracks:
"It Don't Come Easy" was released in April 1971.It reached number 4 in the US & UK. Since it's release, there have been questions as to who composed this great song. Originally it was reported that Ringo wrote "It Don't Come Easy" but in later years it was said that he co-wrote the piece with George Harrison.
Produced by George Harrison, the song features George on guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass and Gary Wright on piano. Mal Evans (on tambourine) and Ron Cattermole (on saxophone, trumpet) were also involved. Contributing to the backing vocals were Badfinger members Pete Ham and Tom Evans.
The "B" side contained "Early 1970". This track, written by Ringo, also features George Harrison on guitar and backing vocals.
Both sides of this single, as presented here, are from an early UK 45-rpm pressing. For those keeping score, the matrix information is as follows:
“It Don’t Come Easy: 7YCE 21542 A-1U Pecko
“Early 1970”: 7YCE 21543 B-1U Porky
The "B" side of the "Photograph" single, "Down and Out", is an original composition by Ringo. "Down and Out" was not included on the vinyl release of the "Ringo" album but has been released on later CD issues. The audio for this track, as presented here, is from a 7" 45-rpm US pressing. For those interested, the matrix info is: S45-X48148-26 1865 3
"Photograph", the first single from the "Ringo" LP, was released in October 1973. This single, co-written with George Harrison, reached number 8 in the UK and number 4 in the US. The version presented here is from a 7" promo 45-rpm record that contained both mono and stereo versions of the track. Since the stereo version is the same as presented on the LP, I've only included the mono version here as a bonus track.
"You're Sixteen", the second single from the "Ringo" LP. was released in the US in December of 1973 and in February 1974 in the UK. Ringo's cover version of this song reached number 1 in the US and number 4 in the UK. The version presented here as a bonus track is from a 7" 45-rpm test pressing of a promo-only release that contained the "A"-side track in mono on one side and in stereo on the other. Again, since the stereo version is the same as presented on the LP, I've only included the mono version here as a bonus track. The "B" side of this single was "Devil Woman" and was included on the "Ringo" album.
"Oh My My" was released in February 1974 (US only). This track, composed by Ringo and Vini Poncia, features backing vocals by Merry Clayton and Martha Reeves. The single reached number 5 on the US Billboard charts. Presented here is a promo-only 45-rpm pressing that contained the "A"-side track in mono on one side and in stereo on the other. The mono version is presented is a shortened version from the stereo LP track.
The “B” side of this promo 45-rpm contained the standard single version of “Oh My My” in stereo. The stereo single version has been included here because it has been edited so that it runs about 30 seconds shorter than the LP version. The word is that there is yet a third stereo version, even shorter in duration, of “Oh My My” that was released in the UK. (The “No No Song” was on the flip-side of the UK single that was released to promote Ringo’s “Blast From Your Past” LP) The UK version is reported to run approx. 2 minutes, 20 seconds.