Ringo Starr Songs Ranked
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. He occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including “Yellow Submarine”, “With a Little Help from My Friends” and their cover of “Act Naturally”. He also wrote and sang the Beatles’ songs “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Octopus’s Garden”, and is credited as a co-writer of others. Starr’s playing style, which emphasized feel over technical virtuosity, influenced many drummers to reconsider their playing from a compositional perspective. He also influenced various modern drumming techniques, such as the matched grip, tuning the drums lower, and using muffling devices on tonal rings. In his opinion, his finest recorded performance was on the Beatles’ “Rain”. In 1999, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. In 2011, Rolling Stone readers named him the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. He was inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a Beatle in 1988 and as a solo artist in 2015, and appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to music. In 2018, he was cited as the wealthiest drummer in the world, with a net worth of $350 million. Here are all Ringo Starr’s songs ranked.
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15. La de Da (Vertical Man, 1998)
“Such a wonderful, happy song. It doesn’t hurt that Paul McCartney & Steven Tyler are background vocalists on the track!
14. Golden Blunders (Time Takes Time, 1992)
“Ringo was always at his best with the right collaborators; particularly his fellow Beatles. This time, Ringo manages to carry out a great album without them. Ironically, it sounds more Beatle-esque than many of his other albums. The music is Ringo at his best.”
13. Liverpool 8 (Liverpool 8, 2008)
“A masterpiece. The song takes you through Ringo’s entire life, talking about his time with the Beatles, and all the fond memories he has. Truly a great song!”
12. Wrack My Brain (Stop and Smell the Roses, 1981)
“Sounding very much like a throwaway number given to Ringo by George, “Wrack My Brain” is simple, repetitive and quite a long way down in quality from earlier donations like “It Don’t Come Easy” and “Photograph”.
See more: Ringo Starr Albums Ranked
11. Octopus’ Garden (Abbey Road, 1969)
“I love the song. I loved it when Ringo sung it with the beatles and I love it when he sings it with his all star band. I am a big time Ringo Starr fan!”
10. Weight of the World (Time Takes Time, 1992)
“Great CD by Ringo Starr. Ringo is one of the ex-Beatles with great music that people forget about. Ringo has as many good solo songs as any of his ex-bandmates.”
9. A Dose of Rock ‘N’ Roll (Ringo’s Rotogravure, 1976)
“Ringo’s first single for new label Polydor was supposed to revitalise his fading solo career and included stellar support with Peter Frampton on guitar, a certain J Lennon on piano and Atlantic great Arif Mardin producing. The song’s okay, if a little dull and flaccid and Ringo does a decent vocal, even cheekily inserting a brief excerpt from his anticipated follow up, golden oldie “Hey Baby”, before the end, but in truth it never really takes flight and only grazed the U.S. top 30, failing pretty much everywhere else.”
8. Goodnight Vienna (It’s All Down To) (Goodnight Vienna, 1974)
“I rather like this Lennon-penned number for Ringo. Yes, I can tell it’s a throwaway and one he’d never record himself but it’s served up with humour and some panache. My favourite bit will always be JL’s count-in but the accordion’s a nice touch too.”
7. Oh My My (Ringo, 1973)
“The third big hit single from the successful “Ringo” album was this pounding disco-styled pounder with a galloping drum-beat and a horn section vying for stridency with the energetic female backing singers. Credit to producer Richard Perry’s hit-making production chops here, but Ringo himself seems lost in the mix somehow.”
6. Back Off Boogaloo (The Anthology… So Far, 2001)
“One of his first singles in the early 70’s a UK No2 hit and US No1. A catchy drum beat lead song lyrics refer to the strained relationship of him and Paul McCartney over the rights of The Beatles music. The words “Give me something tasty” is about Paul and how he should write and make some new songs of his own.”
See more: John Lennon Albums Ranked
5. Only You (And You Alone) (Goodnight Vienna, 1974)
“The greatest song ever. I listened to this song when I was 16 and I have loved it since then. Ringo Starr’s voice is enchanting. I close my eyes and dream of a love that I still hope will be one day.”
4. No No Song (Goodnight Vienna, 1974)
“Ringo sings Hoyt Axton’s words about how he doesn’t drink or snort coke anymore…all done in that loose ramshackle way that leaves little doubt that everyone was drunk and/or high when recording it. It’s like “In Heaven, There Is No Beer” but with irony, which wasn’t exactly something we really needed. There’s some charm involved, though, which keeps things bearable.”
3. You’re Sixteen You’re Beautiful (And You’re Mine) (Ringo, 1973)
“It’s not like it’s a stupendous, world-changing cover. It’s fun, and I just liked it, even if I was overlooking its disguised wrongness at the time. Yes, Ringo’s cover did come off as somewhat creepy even back in 1973. (He was 33 at the time.) You can’t legitimately sing this song if you’re over 18 …”
2. It Don’t Come Easy (Ringo, 1973)
“There’s a George Harrison bootleg take of this song with a slightly different construction and Hare Krishna backing vocals which gives the lie to the co-writing credit to Ringo here. In fact substitute George’s vocal over Ringo’s and you’d have a top-notch Harrison single but ever-generous to his old drummer, it was Ringo who benefitted from George’s largesse to notch his first and best single success.”
1. Photograph (Ringo, 1973)
“”Photograph” was written with George Harrison, and is a great song and probably Ringo’s most known solo hit. It was also included on his third album Ringo. “Down and Out” is a good rocker, written by Ringo but oddly left off the album. I mean, it ain’t the greatest piece of music but why go with other writers’ songs when you’ve got your own stuff laying around? Oh well.”