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ALBUM REVIEW

RINGO STARR

R I N G O

Released -  1973 on Capitol Records. Produced by Richard Perry

Ringo Starr - Lead Vocals, Drums & Percussion

With:

Klaus Voormann - Bass on all tracks; Backing Vocals on "Devil Woman"
George Harrison - Electric & 12 String Guitars on tracks 1, 3, 4, 10; Backing Vocals on tracks 3 & 4
John Lennon - Piano & Backing Vocals on "I'm the Greatest"
Paul McCartney - Kazoo on "Your Sixteen"; Synthesizer, Piano & Backing Vocals on "Six O'clock"
Vini Poncia - Acoustic Guitar on tracks 4, 5, 8, 10; Percussion on track 8, Backing Vocals on tracks 4 & 6 (harmony)
Jim Keltner -  Drums (along with Ringo) on tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, & 9
Nicky Hopkins - Piano on tracks 3, 5, 7 & 10
Billy Preston - Organ on "I'm the Greatest"; Piano & Organ on "Oh My My"
Jimmy Calvert - Acoustic Guitar on tracks 4, 6, 7 & 9
Tom Scott - Saxophone on "Oh My My"; Horns on "Have You Seen My Baby" and "Devil Woman"
Marc Bolan - Guitars on "Have You Seen My Baby"
Steve Cropper - Electric Guitar on "Step Lightly"
Bobby Keys - Saxophone on "Photograph"
David Bromberg - Banjo & Fiddle on "Sunshine Life for Me"
Robbie Robertson - Guitar on "Sunshine Life for Me"
Rick Danko - Fiddle on "Sunshine Life for Me"
Levon Helm - Mandolin on "Sunshine Life for Me"
Garth Hudson - Accordion on "Sunshine Life for Me"
Tom Hensley - Piano on "Devil Woman"
James Booker - Piano on "Have You Seen My Baby"
Milt Holland - Percussion on "Have You Seen My Baby" &  "Devil Woman"; Marimbas on "You and Me"
Chuck Finley - Horns on "Devil Woman"
Lon & Derrek VanEaton - Percussion on "Photograph"

Backing Vocals: Harry Nilsson on "Your Sixteen"; Linda McCartney on "Six O'clock"; Merry Clayton & Martha Reeves on "Oh My My" and Richard Perry on "Devil Woman"

    REVIEW

After Ringo Starr's first two solo album's sold poorly and were pretty much forgotten shortly after their releases, nobody saw what was coming when his next solo LP, R I N G O, was released in 1973; a true hit with several great songs.

Ringo had a lot of help from his friends on this one, and this was long before he used the term "All Star Band" to describe those who played with him. As it was, other than bassist Klaus Voormann who appears on all the tracks, the other songs had several different friends playing on them. This album would go down as the only post-Beatles studio album that would feature all four former Beatles on it, although not all of them on any one song; but on  "I'm The Greatest", a song John Lennon wrote for Ringo, three former Beatles appeared: Starr, Lennon & George Harrison.

My all time favorite Ringo song shows up here, "Photograph", what a great little gem it is. Ringo wrote this with George, and his vocals are just perfect for this song, you can feel the sadness in his voice the way he sings this one, a pure ten! The album has two more great songs on it, one of them also written by Ringo, "Oh My My", it's just full of life with a great piano and organ by Billy Preston. Then the cover of "Your Sixteen", hell, I dig Ringo's version here better that the late Johnny Burnette's hit version, with Harry Nilsson's back up vocals being a key to making this one sound so good, along with a great piano by Nicky Hopkins and a nice sax solo from Paul McCartney.

"I'm The Greatest" is one more fantastic tune, and really the closest Beatles fans would ever get to that dreamed Beatles reunion. Then the Band joins Ringo on the very country sounding "Sunshine Life for Me", yet another strong number. Although the last 4 songs are on the weak side (the three weakest ones could have been dropped, what a even more highly rated album this would have been!), it's still a great effort put out by Ringo, and like I noted, nobody expected anything like this from Mr. Starkey!

R I N G O now comes with 3 bonuses songs, including the hit single "It Don't Come Easy", along with it's B side, the interesting "Early 1970", a song Ringo wrote about the ending of the Beatles. Overall a nice job by our drummer boy!

- Keno, 2005

To listen to some soundclips from R I N G O, or to purchase it click on: Ringo

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