Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey,
MBE (born
July 7,
1940), known by his
stage name Ringo Starr, is a popular
English actor, singer, and musician, best known as the
drummer for
The Beatles. Starr is known for his reliable, steady drumming and innovative
fills. He was the oldest member of the band, and the last one to join the now familiar "Fab Four" line-up.
Starr married
Maureen Cox in
1965, and they had three children,
Zak, Jason, and Lee. The couple divorced in
1975, and in
1981 Starr married actress
Barbara Bach, most famous for her role as Major
Anya Amasova (female lead and main '
Bond Girl') in
The Spy Who Loved Me.
Born in
Liverpool,
England, Starr's parents split up when he was young; his mother re-married (to Harry Graves). He was raised in the working class
Dingle area of
Liverpool. He went through two serious illnesses as a child and spent a total of three years in hospital, thereby falling considerably behind in school; after his last visit to the hospital, at the age of 15, he could barely read or write.
Like the other Beatles,
John Lennon,
Paul McCartney and
George Harrison, young Ritchie (as he was known in those days) also eventually became caught up in Liverpool's
Skiffle craze. In
1957, he started his own group with Eddie Miles called The Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. He then joined The Raving Texans in
1959, a quartet that played while
Rory Storm sang. During this time, he got the nickname Ringo, because of the
rings he wore, and because it sounded 'cowboyish' (probably a reference to
John Wayne's character in
Stagecoach, who is also named Ringo), and the last name Starr so that his solo spot, when he sang lead for two or three tunes, could be billed as 'Starr Time'. [
1]
Starr first met The Beatles in
Hamburg, in October
1960, while he was performing with Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. He also sat in for
Pete Best on several occasions. When The Beatles removed Best as their drummer on
August 16,
1962, Starr was their choice to replace him.
Although Storm was magnanimous about losing Starr, [
2] Best fans were upset, holding vigils outside Best's house and fighting at the Cavern Club, shouting "Ringo never! Pete Best forever!"
Starr's drumming style played a pivotal role in the music played and recorded by The Beatles. He filled the role he was hired for in 1962, then went on to establish a new approach to rhythm in popular music that continues to grow in its significance and influence with every decade since The Beatles recorded their music. [
3] Starr is
left-handed yet plays a right-handed kit; his tendency to lead with his left hand contributes to his distinctive drumming style.
'Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their
soloing ability and virtuosity,' says drummer
Steve Smith. 'Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm in how the public saw drummers. We started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for The Beatles songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music, and still identify the song.'[
4]
Many drummers list Starr as a
major influence including
Max Weinberg of
The E Street Band,
Liberty DeVitto of
Billy Joel's band,
Phil Collins, and others. According to Collins, :'Starr is vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song "
A Day in the Life" are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, "I want it like that." They wouldn't know what to do.'
In his extensive survey of The Beatles' recording sessions,
Mark Lewisohn confirmed that Starr was both proficient and remarkably reliable and consistent. According to Lewisohn, there were less than a dozen occasions in The Beatles' eight-year recording career where session 'breakdowns' were caused by Starr making a mistake, while the vast majority of takes were stopped due to mistakes by the other three members. [
5]
Starr is also notable for having advanced various modern drumming techniques (for playing and recording) such as the
matched grip, placing the drums on high risers for visibility as part of the band, tuning the drums lower, and using muffling devices on tonal rings, along with his general contributions to The Beatles as a whole. [
6]
John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison have all said that Starr was the best
rock and roll drummer in the world, although, when once asked in an interview "Is Ringo Starr the best drummer in the world?", Lennon quipped "He's not even the best drummer in The Beatles!" This was in reference to "
Back In The USSR" and "
Dear Prudence", the first two tracks on
White Album (1968) in which McCartney handled the drumming; Starr had walked out earlier, and did not return for two weeks until the other three Beatles urged him to come back. Harrison even went so far as to dress up his drum kit in flowers when he returned.
McCartney also played the drums on "
The Ballad of John and Yoko" in early
1969 since only Lennon and McCartney were immediately available to record the song. Starr commented that he was lucky in being 'surrounded by three frustrated drummers' who could only drum in one style. [
7] Starr also did not play drums on some of the recordings of the Beatles' first-ever single, "
Love Me Do", as session drummer
Andy White was brought in by The Beatles' producer
George Martin at short notice.
Starr generally sang at least one song on each studio album, as part of establishing the vocal personality of all four members. In some cases, Lennon or McCartney would write the lyrics and melody especially for him, as Lennon did with "
Good Night" from the
White Album, and as McCartney did for "
Yellow Submarine" from
Revolver (1966). Often these melodies would be deliberately limited to take Starr's vocal range into account—most of "With A Little Help From My Friends" (from
Sgt. Pepper) is sung within the space of five notes. However, he sang extremely few backing vocals.
Of the four Beatles, Starr did the least songwriting. As Starr shared in
The Beatles Anthology project, when he would present a song as a contender for an album cut, the song would (to the other three Beatles) sound like a knockoff of another popular song, but Starr did not recognize the similarities until they pointed it out. He did, however, write "
Don't Pass Me By" (on
The White Album) and "
Octopus's Garden" on
Abbey Road (1969), albeit with quite a bit of help from Harrison.
The White Album continued to show Starr's taste for
country music that he had brought into the band earlier, such as on the track "
What Goes On" from
Rubber Soul (1965), which was co-written by Lennon, McCartney and Starr. Starr also wrote "Taking A Trip to Carolina" (on the second CD of the release
Let It Be... Naked), and received joint writing credits with the other three Beatles for "
Flying", "
Dig It", "12-Bar Original", "Los Paranoias", "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", and The Beatles' version of "
Free as a Bird", while "
Maggie Mae" was credited as being 'Traditional, arranged by Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey'.
After the breakup of The Beatles on
April 10,
1970, Starr released two albums before the end of that year.
Sentimental Journey featured Starr's renditions of many pre-rock standards and included the production talents of
Quincy Jones, George Martin and Paul McCartney, among others. His next album,
Beaucoups of Blues, put Starr in a country context, and included legendary
Nashville session musician
Pete Drake. He scored hit singles with "
It Don't Come Easy" (1971) and "Back Off Boogaloo" (1972), the latter of which was his biggest UK hit, peaking at #2. Starr achieved two #1 hits in the US, with "
Photograph" (co-written with Harrison) and "
You're Sixteen", both in 1973.
He also participated in
The Concert For Bangladesh organised by Harrison in
1971, as well as drumming on Harrison's
All Things Must Pass, Lennon's
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and
Yoko Ono's early solo work. Indeed, his song "Early 1970" (the
B-side of "
It Don't Come Easy") voiced a hope that he could remain friendly and play music with all three of his former Beatle bandmates. Starr then made his debut as a film director with the
T. Rex documentary
Born to Boogie. Starr became firm friends with T. Rex frontman
Marc Bolan and during the period of filming the documentary, Starr released the single "Back Off Boogaloo".
Starr remains the only Beatle to have failed to top the UK singles charts as a solo artist. He is also the only Beatle to have failed to top the UK album listings, his highest position being #7, achieved in the UK with both
Sentimental Journey and
Ringo; the latter reached no lower than #2 in the USA, giving Starr his highest album position there.
In
1971, he started a furniture company with Robin Cruikshank and sold $4,000 coffee tables and a donut-shaped fireplace designed by Starr.
short article and pictureThe
1973 album
Ringo remains his biggest-selling collection. Produced by
Richard Perry with participation by all three former bandmates on different tracks, Starr became the most commercially successful ex-Beatle at that time. The album
Goodnight Vienna followed the next year and was also successful. Hits and notable tracks from these two albums included "
Photograph", the #1 chart topper
"You're Sixteen" (written by the
Sherman Brothers) and "I'm The Greatest" (written by Lennon) from
Ringo, and "
Only You (And You Alone)" and "No No Song" from
Goodnight Vienna. In late
1975 these singles and others were collected for Ringo's first greatest hits compilation,
Blast from Your Past, which was also the last album to be released on
Apple Records.
Starr's recording career subsequently diminished in commercial impact, although he continued to record and remained a familiar celebrity presence. Starr signed with Atlantic Records in the mid '70s, and in 1976 the album
Ringo's Rotogravure was released. While it did feature a minor hit single, the album sold only fairly well. This caused the label to revamp Starr's formula; the results were a curious blend of disco and '70s pop. The album
Ringo the 4th (1977) was a commercial disaster, and Starr soon signed with Portrait Records. His stint with
Portrait began on a promising note: 1978 saw the release of
Bad Boy, as well as a network TV special. Sadly, neither were very popular, and Starr did not release another album with Portrait.
In 1975, Starr founded his own record label called Ring O'Records but only four albums were released on it between 1975 and 1978 (
Startling Music by
David Hentschel,
"Graham Bonnet" by
Graham Bonnet,
"Restless" by
Rab Noakes and a rerelease of an Apple Records album by
John Tavener,
"The Whale"), as well as 16 singles by different artists such as
Bobby Keys,
Carl Grossman,
Colonel Doug Bogie, David Hentschel, Graham Bonnet,
Suzanne,
Johnny Warman,
Stormer, Rab Noakes and
Dirk & Stig (the last being names of characters from The Beatles pastiche band "
The Rutles", created by
Eric Idle and
Neil Innes.)
In 1980, George Harrison wrote "
All Those Years Ago" for Starr to sing on his album
Stop and Smell the Roses, but then took it back and sang a re-written version himself, including it on his 1981 album
Somewhere in England following John Lennon's murder. Starr, along with Paul and Linda McCartney, also played on Harrison's track. Starr was interviewed by
Rolling Stone and
Musician around this time.
Stop and Smell the Roses was a well regarded album, but again did not sell particularly well. The Harrison-penned "Wrack My Brain" became Starr's last Top 40 single to date.
When John Lennon was gunned down in
1980, Starr and his girlfriend Barbara immediately flew to
New York, to comfort Lennon's widow
Yoko Ono. They were noted for having done so, as Harrison and McCartney did not.
Old Wave, produced by
Joe Walsh, was released in 1983, but Starr's fortunes as a recording artist were put in serious decline when the album was only released in
Germany,
Canada, Scandinavia, Australia and
Brazil (the album finally saw belated US release on CD in 1994).
In
1984, Starr narrated the children's
television series
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He was unsure about taking the role at first, having never previously read the books by
Reverend Awdry, and at the time he felt that children would be more interested in "dinosaurs with lasers." Nevertheless, he had a change of heart and took the role. Although he only narrated the first two series, he is still best-remembered as the narrator. Starr also portrayed the character Mr. Conductor in the program's American spin-off
Shining Time Station, which debuted in
1989.
In
1985, Starr played the Mock Turtle in the film version of
Alice in Wonderland.
Beginning in
1989, following a stint in detox for
alcoholism, Starr became a visible presence on the summer touring scene, organizing a series of concert tours under the name
Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, teaming with well-known musicians from various rock eras. The format of the concerts had Starr singing a couple of his Beatles or solo songs, then each of the other musicians taking a turn to sing one of their songs with Starr behind the drums, then Starr singing a couple more, then another go around, and so on. In this way, Starr is relieved from having to carry the full burden of the show, and the audience gets to hear a variety of music. The eighth such All-Starr Band tour took place in 2003. A 2006 edition is currently set for a US tour.
The success of the initial All-Starr tour led to Starr releasing his first album in nine years, 1992's
Time Takes Time. It received substantial exposure and the track "Weight Of The World" got considerable airplay. Critics were on balance positive about Starr's return to the studio, but it would be another six years before the artist would release a studio follow-up.
Other than the films Starr did with The Beatlesâ€"(
A Hard Day's Night (1964),
Help! (1965),
Magical Mystery Tour (1967),
Let It Be (1970))â€"he has acted in several films such as
Candy (1968),
The Magic Christian (
1969) (alongside
Peter Sellers),
Blindman (1971),
Son of Dracula (
1974) and
Caveman (
1981). For the 1979 documentary film on
The Who,
The Kids Are Alright, Starr appeared in interview segments with fellow drummer
Keith Moon. He starred as Larry the Dwarf in
Frank Zappa's
200 Motels (
1971). His voice is also featured in
Harry Nilsson's animated film
The Point! (
1971). He was especially well-received in the British film
That'll Be the Day (
1973) where he co-starred as a
Teddy boy. He also played 'The Pope' in
Ken Russell's
Lisztomania (1975).
In
1991, Starr appeared as himself in an episode of the animated comedy programme
The Simpsons, entitled "Brush With Greatness". He was the first Beatle to ever appear on the show. Both Harrison and McCartney have since lent their voices to the series. Tributes to Lennon have appeared on the Simpsons over the years.
In the same year Starr recorded the song
You'll Never Know, which was played over the end credits in the
James Belushi motion picture
Curly Sue.
In
1996, Starr appeared in a
Japanese advertisement for
apple juice; 'ringo' is
Japanese for 'apple'.
In the mid-1990s, Starr appeared in an advertisement for
Pizza Hut, pronouncing that the time is ripe for 'the lads' to get back together. At the commercial's pay-off, he is joined by three members of
The Monkees and quips to the camera, "Wrong lads."
In
2000, he appeared in the first of the "Smart Investor" TV commercials for
Charles Schwab Brokerage. In the commercial, Starr is trying to help a group of young songwriters come up with a rhyme for "elation". Starr suggests such financial investment terms as "dividend reinvestment participation", "market capitalization", "European market fluctuation" and "asset allocation", as an instrumental version of the song
Money, recorded by the Beatles, plays in the background. At the commercial's pay-off, he looks at the confused songwriters and says, "What? Too many syllables?"
In
2001, Starr and Harrison were both guest musicians on the
Electric Light Orchestra's album
Zoom, playing on two tracks each.
In
2002 Starr was inducted into the
Percussive Hall of Fame joining
the elite group of percussive inductees, which includes
Buddy Rich and
William F. Ludwig, Sr. and his son.
On
November 29,
2002, Starr performed "Photograph" and a cover of Carl Perkins, "Honey Don't" at the
Concert For George held in the
Royal Albert Hall,
London, on the first anniversary of Harrison's death. According to the
official website, "Ringo Starr caught everyone with a tear in their eye with a rendition of "Photograph", a composition he wrote with George, which seemed to sum up how everyone felt." The song includes the lines, "But all I've got is a photograph / and I realize you're not coming back anymore".
When drummer Carl Palmer was asked by fans in Mexico City about his drumset he used in a tour with
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (reportedly valued at $25,000), his answer was that he sold it to Ringo.
In
2003, Starr began recording for the independent label
Koch Records, releasing
Ringo Rama that year and
Choose Love in
2005; the former includes his stylish tribute to Harrison, "
Never Without You", and the latter features appearances by
Billy Preston and
Chrissie Hynde.
In January
2005, it was announced that
comic book creator
Stan Lee would be working with Starr to produce a new
animated musical
superhero based on Starr.
In September
2005, Liverpool City Council decided they would bulldoze Starr's birthplace as it had 'no historical significance' [
8], despite a previous reprieve back in July. [
9]. The LCC later announced that the building would be taken apart brick by brick and preserved after all. [
10]
Starr toured again in the summer of 2006, with an All-Starr Band featuring
Sheila E. on percussion, bassist
Hamish Stuart (formerly of
The Average White Band and Paul McCartney's touring band), and
Edgar Winter. The tour was underway on Ringo's 66th birthday,
July 7 2006, when the All-Starr Band performed in
Clearwater, Florida.
Starr appeared on the Tonight Show with
Jay Leno on June 20, 2006. He sang two songs; "
What Goes On" from
Rubber Soul and "
With a Little Help from My Friends" from
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Of the four members of The Beatles, only Starr has yet to be elevated to the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.
Ringo's Website is updated by Starr himself on a somewhat regular basis.
Ringo Starr's
mantra is 'Peace and Love, Peace and Love, Peace and Love'.
# 1989 Ringo Starr,
Clarence Clemons,
Rick Danko,
Levon Helm,
Dr. John,
Jim Keltner,
Nils Lofgren,
Billy Preston,
Joe Walsh# 1992 Ringo Starr,
Timmy Cappello,
Burton Cummings,
Dave Edmunds,
Nils Lofgren,
Todd Rundgren,
Timothy B. Schmit,
Zak Starkey,
Joe Walsh# 1995 Ringo Starr,
Randy Bachman,
Felix Cavaliere,
John Entwistle,
Mark Farner,
Billy Preston,
Mark Rivera,
Zak Starkey# 1997-98 Ringo Starr,
Gary Brooker,
Jack Bruce,
Peter Frampton,
Simon Kirke,
Mark Rivera (dropped in rehearsals â€"
Dave Mason)# 1999 Ringo Starr,
Gary Brooker,
Jack Bruce,
Timmy Cappello,
Simon Kirke,
Todd Rundgren (dropped off before start â€"
Joe Walsh)# 2000 Ringo Starr,
Jack Bruce,
Eric Carmen,
Dave Edmunds,
Simon Kirke,
Mark Rivera# 2001 Ringo Starr,
Sheila E.,
Greg Lake,
Ian Hunter,
Howard Jones,
Roger Hodgson,
Mark Rivera# 2003 Ringo Starr,
Paul Carrack,
Sheila E.,
Colin Hay,
John Waite,
Mark Rivera# 2006 Ringo Starr,
Rod Argent,
Hamish Stuart,
Richard Marx,
Billy Squier,
Sheila E.,
Edgar WinterFor a detailed discography, see: Ringo Starr discographyFor a detailed filmography, see: Filmography of Ringo Starr*
RingoStarr.com — Official Website, featuring video updates from Ringo
*
Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band*
Ringo's paintings*
Ringo Starr lyrics — A collection of lyrics organized by album from
lyrics.info*
Press Conference with Ringo Starr on The BackStage Pass internet radio show
