When The Beatles broke up, we worried about Ringo. The other three had experience in songwriting and singing. Ringo was given one song per album, usually written by Lennon/McCartney. Out of the entire Beatles catalog, Ringo only composed two tunes. Don't Pass Me By on the White Album and Octopus's Garden on Abbey Road. If the film Let it Be is any indicator, it looks like George helped him quite a bit with the latter.
John and Paul immediately set off with successful solo careers as expected. George had such a backlog of tunes written that didn't make it to Beatles records that he immediately released the epic All Things Must Pass to popular acclaim.
But what about Ringo? His first solo album, Sentimental Journey, was a goofy compilation of old standards. The followup, Beucoups of Blues was a trip to Nashville to record country songs.
He actually managed to put out some pretty hot singles during this period.
Ringo Starr - It Don't Come Easy b/w Early 1970 (Apple 1972)
A rockin' A Side that is one of Ringo's signature songs. Produced by George Harrison. The B Side documents Ringo's feeling about the other three Beatles post breakup.
Ringo Starr - Back Off Boogaloo b/w Blindman (Apple 1972)
Another rockin' A Side produced by George Harrison. This one came about during the period when Ringo was hanging out with Marc Bolan. (Ringo took the photo on the cover of T.Rex's The Slider LP). The single bristles with T Rex type energy. And dig that picture sleeve.
For some reason, the drums are mixed very loud on all four of these sides.
With a little help from his famous friends, Ringo managed to put out two hit LP's following these singles. Ringo and Goodnight Vienna.
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