RINGO STAR, HISTORY:
Richard Starkey, MBE (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English drummer, singer, songwriter, and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. On most of the band's albums, he sang lead vocals for one song, including "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Yellow Submarine" and their cover of "Act Naturally". He also wrote the Beatles' songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of others, such as "What Goes On" and "Flying".
Starr was twice afflicted by life-threatening illnesses during his childhood, and as a result of prolonged hospitalisations, fell behind scholastically. In 1955, he entered the workforce and briefly held a position with British Rail before securing an apprenticeship at a Liverpool equipment manufacturer. Soon afterwards, he became interested in the UK skiffle craze, developing a fervent admiration for the genre. In 1957, he cofounded his first band, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, which earned several prestigious local bookings before the fad succumbed to American rock and roll by early 1958.
When the Beatles formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. After achieving moderate success with that band in the UK and Hamburg, he quit the Hurricanes and joined the Beatles in August 1962, replacing Pete Best. Starr played key roles in the Beatles' films and appeared in numerous others. After the band's break-up in 1970, he released several successful singles including the US number four hit "It Don't Come Easy", and number ones "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen". In 1972, he released his most successful UK single, "Back Off Boogaloo", which peaked at number two. He achieved commercial and critical success with his 1973 album Ringo, which was a top ten release in both the UK and the US. He has been featured in a number of documentaries and hosted television shows. He also narrated the first two seasons of the children's television series Thomas & Friends and portrayed "Mr Conductor" during the first season of the PBS children's television series Shining Time Station. Since 1989, he has successfully toured with twelve variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
Starr's creative contribution to music has received praise from drummers such as Phil Collins, who described him as "a great musician", and Steve Smith, who commented: "Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity. Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm ... we started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect ... 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." In 2011, Rolling Stone readers named Starr the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. Starr, who was previously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle in 1988, was inducted for his solo career in 2015, making him one of 21 performers inducted more than once.
1940–56: Early life
Richard Starkey was born on 7 July 1940, at 9 Madryn Street, in Dingle, Liverpool. He is the only child of confectioners Elsie and Richard Starkey. Elsie enjoyed singing and dancing, a hobby that she shared with her husband, an avid fan of swing. Prior to the birth of their son, whom they nicknamed "Ritchie", the couple had spent much of their free time on the local ballroom circuit, but soon after his birth their regular outings ended. Elsie adopted an overprotective approach to raising her son that bordered on fixation. Subsequently, "Big Ritchie", as Starkey's father became known, lost interest in his family, choosing instead to spend long hours drinking and dancing in pubs, sometimes for several consecutive days.
In 1944, in an effort to reduce their housing costs, his family moved to another neighbourhood in the Dingle, 10 Admiral Grove; soon afterwards, his parents separated, and they divorced within the year. Starkey later stated that he has "no real memories" of his father, who made little effort to bond with him, visiting as few as three times thereafter. Elsie found it difficult to survive on her ex-husband's support payments of thirty shillings a week, so she took on several menial jobs cleaning houses before securing a position as a local barmaid, an occupation that she enjoyed for twelve years.
At age six Starkey developed appendicitis. Following a routine appendectomy he contracted peritonitis, causing him to fall into a coma that lasted for three days. His recovery spanned twelve months, which he spent away from his family at Liverpool's Myrtle Street Children's hospital. Upon his discharge in May 1948, his mother allowed him to stay home, causing him to miss school. At age eight, he remained illiterate, with a poor grasp of mathematics. His lack of education contributed to a feeling of alienation at school, which resulted in him regularly playing truant at Sefton Park. After several years of twice weekly tutoring from his surrogate sister and neighbour, Marie Maguire Crawford, Starkey had nearly caught up to his peers academically, but in 1953, he contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium, where he remained for two years. During his stay the medical staff made an effort to stimulate motor activity and relieve boredom by encouraging their patients to join the hospital band, leading to his first exposure to a percussion instrument; a makeshift mallet made from a cotton bobbin that he used to strike the cabinets next to his bed. Soon afterwards, he grew increasingly interested in drumming, receiving a copy of the Alyn Ainsworth song "Bedtime for Drums" as a convalescence gift from Crawford. Starkey commented: "I was in the hospital band ... That's where I really started playing. I never wanted anything else from there on ... My grandparents gave me a mandolin and a banjo, but I didn't want them. My grandfather gave me a harmonica ... we had a piano – nothing. Only the drums."
Starkey attended St Silas, a Church of England primary school near his house where his classmates nicknamed him "Lazarus", and later Dingle Vale Secondary modern school, where he showed an aptitude for art and drama, as well as practical subjects including mechanics. As a result of the prolonged hospitalisations, he fell behind his peers scholastically and was ineligible for the 11-plus qualifying examination required for attendance at a grammar school. On 17 April 1953, Starkey's mother married Harry Graves, an ex-Londoner who had moved to Liverpool following the failure of his first marriage. Graves, an impassioned fan of big band music and their vocalists, introduced Starkey to recordings by Dinah Shore, Sarah Vaughan and Billy Daniels. Graves stated that he and "Ritchie" never had an unpleasant exchange between them; Starkey later commented: "He was great ... I learned gentleness from Harry." After the extended hospital stay following Starkey's recovery from tuberculosis, he did not return to school, preferring instead to stay at home and listen to music while playing along by beating biscuit tins with sticks.
Beatles biographer Bob Spitz described Starkey's upbringing as "a Dickensian chronicle of misfortune". Houses in the area were "poorly ventilated, postage-stamp-sized ... patched together by crumbling plaster walls, with a rear door that opened onto an outhouse." Crawford commented: "Like all of the families who lived in the Dingle, he was part of an ongoing struggle to survive." The children who lived there spent much of their time at Princes Park, escaping the soot-filled air of their coal-fuelled neighbourhood. Adding to their difficult circumstances, violent crime was an almost constant concern for people living in one of the oldest and poorest inner-city districts in Liverpool. Starkey later commented: "You kept your head down, your eyes open, and you didn't get in anybody's way."
After his return home from the sanatorium in late 1955, Starkey entered the UK workforce, but lacking motivation and discipline, his initial attempts at gainful employment proved unsuccessful. In an effort to secure himself some warm clothes, he briefly held a position at British Rail, who supplied their employees with suits. They gave him a hat, but no uniform, and unable to pass the physical examination, he was laid off and granted unemployment benefits. He then found work as a waiter serving drinks on a day boat that travelled from Liverpool to North Wales, but his fear of conscription into military service led him to quit the job, not wanting to give the Royal Navy the impression that he was suitable for seafaring work. In mid-1956, Graves secured Starkey a position as an apprentice machinist at a Liverpool equipment manufacturer. While working at the facility Starkey befriended Roy Trafford, and the two bonded over their shared interest in music. Trafford introduced him to skiffle, and he quickly became a fervent admirer.
1957–61: First bands
Soon after Trafford piqued Starkey's interest in skiffle, the two began rehearsing songs in the manufacturing plant's cellar during their lunch breaks. Trafford recalled: "I played a guitar, and [Ritchie] just made a noise on a box ... Sometimes, he just slapped a biscuit tin with some keys, or banged on the backs of chairs." The pair were joined by Starkey's neighbour and co-worker, the guitarist Eddie Miles, forming the Eddie Miles Band, later renamed Eddie Clayton and the Clayton Squares after a Liverpool landmark. The band performed popular skiffle songs such as "Rock Island Line" and "Walking Cane", with Starkey raking a thimble across a washboard, creating primitive, driving rhythms. Starkey enjoyed dancing as his parents had years earlier, and he and Trafford briefly took dance lessons at two schools. Though the lessons were short-lived, they provided Starkey and Trafford with an introduction that allowed them to dance competently while enjoying nights out on the town.
On Christmas Day 1957, Graves gave Starkey a second-hand drum kit consisting of a snare drum, bass drum and a makeshift cymbal fashioned from an old rubbish bin lid. Although basic and crude, the kit facilitated his progression as a musician while increasing the commercial potential of the Eddie Clayton band, who went on to book several prestigious local gigs before the skiffle craze faded in early 1958 as American rock and roll became popular in the UK.
In November 1959, Starkey joined Al Caldwell's Texans, a skiffle group who were looking for someone with a proper drum kit so that the group could transition from one of Liverpool's best-known skiffle acts to a full-fledged rock and roll band. They had begun playing local clubs as the Raging Texans, then Jet Storm and the Raging Texans before settling on Rory Storm and the Hurricanes soon before recruiting Starkey. About this time he adopted the stage name Ringo Starr; derived from the rings he wore and also because it implied a country western influence. His drum solos were billed as Starr Time.
By early 1960 the Hurricanes had become one of Liverpool's leading bands. In May, they were offered a three-month residency at a Butlins holiday camp in Wales. Although initially reluctant to accept the residency and end his five-year machinist apprenticeship that he had begun four years earlier, Starr eventually agreed to the arrangement. The Butlins gig led to other opportunities for the band, including an unpleasant tour of US Air Force bases in France about which Starr commented: "The French don't like the British; at least I didn't like them." The Hurricanes became so successful that when initially offered a highly coveted residency in Hamburg, they turned it down due to their prior commitment with Butlins. They eventually accepted, joining the Beatles at Bruno Koschmider 's Kaiserkeller on 1 October 1960, where Starr first met the band. Storm's Hurricanes were given top-billing over the Beatles, who also received less pay. Starr performed with the Beatles during a few stand-in engagements while in Hamburg. On 15 October 1960, he drummed with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, recording with them for the first time while backing Hurricanes singer Lu Walters on the George Gershwin aria "Summertime". During Starr's first stay in Hamburg he also met Tony Sheridan, who valued his drumming abilities to the point of asking Starr to leave the Hurricanes and join his band.
1962–70: The Beatles
Starr quit Rory Storm and the Hurricanes in January 1962 and briefly joined Sheridan in Hamburg before returning to the Hurricanes for a third season at Butlins. On 14 August, Lennon asked Starr to join the Beatles; he accepted. On 16 August, Beatles manager Brian Epstein fired their drummer, Pete Best, who recalled: "He said 'I've got some bad news for you. The boys want you out and Ringo in ... He said that George Martin wasn't too pleased with my playing [and] the boys thought I didn't fit in." Starr first performed as a member of the band on 18 August 1962, at a Horticultural Society dance at Port Sunlight. After his appearance at the Cavern Club the following day, Best fans, upset by his firing, held vigils outside his house and at the club shouting "Pete forever! Ringo never!" Harrison received a black eye from one of the upset fans and Epstein, whose car tires they had flattened in anger, temporarily hired a bodyguard to ensure his safety.
Starr's first recording session as a member of the Beatles took place on 4 September 1962. He stated that Martin had thought that he "was crazy and couldn't play ... because I was trying to play the percussion and the drums at the same time, we were just a four piece band". For their second recording session with Starr, which took place on 11 September 1962, Martin replaced him with session drummer Andy White while recording takes for what would be the two sides of the Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do", backed with "P.S. I Love You". Starr played tambourine on "Love Me Do" and maracas on "P.S. I Love You". Concerned about his status in the Beatles, he thought: "That's the end, they're doing a Pete Best on me." Martin later clarified: "I simply didn't know what Ringo was like and I wasn't prepared to take any risks."
By November 1962 Starr had been accepted by Beatles fans, who were now calling for him to sing songs. Soon afterwards, he began receiving an amount of fanmail equal to that of the others, which helped to secure his position within the band. Starr considered himself fortunate to be on the same "wavelength" as the other Beatles: "I had to be, or I wouldn't have lasted. I had to join them as people as well as a drummer." He was given a small percentage of Lennon and McCartney's publishing company, Northern Songs, but he derived his primary income during this period from a one-quarter share of Beatles Ltd, a corporation financed by the band's net concert earnings. He commented on the nature of his lifestyle after having achieved success with the Beatles: "I lived in nightclubs for three years. It used to be a non-stop party." Like his father Starr became well known for his late-night dancing and he received considerable praise for his skills.
During 1963, the Beatles enjoyed increasing popularity in Britain. In January, their second single, "Please Please Me", followed "Love Me Do" into the UK charts and a successful television appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars earned them favourable reviews, leading to a boost in sales and radio play. By the end of the year, the phenomenon known as Beatlemania had spread throughout the country, and by February 1964 the Beatles had become an international success, performing on The Ed Sullivan Show to a record 73 million viewers. Starr commented: "In the states I know I went over well. It knocked me out to see and hear the kids waving for me. I'd made it as a personality ... Our appeal ... is that we're ordinary lads." He was a source of inspiration for several songs written at the time, including Penny Valentine's "I Want to Kiss Ringo Goodbye" and Rolf Harris's "Ringo for President". In 1964, "I love Ringo" lapel pins outsold all other Beatles merchandising. During live performances, the Beatles continued the Starr Time routine that had been popular among his fans: Lennon would place a microphone in front of Starr's kit in preparation for his spotlight moment and audiences would erupt in screams. When the Beatles made their film debut in A Hard Day's Night, Starr garnered much praise from critics, who considered both his delivery of deadpan one-liners and his non-speaking scenes highlights of the movie. The extended non-speaking sequences had to be arranged by director Richard Lester due to Starr's lack of sleep the previous night, Starr commented: "Because I'd been drinking all night I was incapable of saying a line." Epstein attributed Starr's acclaim to "the little man's quaintness". After the release of the Beatles' second feature film, Help! (1965), Starr won a Melody Maker poll against his fellow Beatles for his performance as the central character in the film.
During an interview with Playboy in 1964, Lennon explained that Starr had filled in with the Beatles when Best was ill; Starr replied: "Best took little pills to make him ill". Soon after Starr made the comment, a provoked Best filed a libel suit against him that lasted for four years before the court reached an undisclosed settlement in Best's favour. In June, the Beatles were scheduled to tour Denmark, the Netherlands, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, but Starr became ill the day before the start of the tour. Stricken with a high-grade fever, pharyngitis and tonsillitis, he was admitted to a local hospital where he briefly stayed followed by several days of recuperation at home. During this time, Starr was temporarily replaced for five concert dates by 24-year-old session drummer Jimmie Nicol. Starr was discharged from the hospital, and he rejoined the band in Melbourne on 15 June. He later admitted that he feared he would be permanently replaced during his illness. In August, when the Beatles were introduced to Bob Dylan, Starr was the first to try a cannabis cigarette offered to the band by Bob Dylan, whereas Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison were hesitant.
On 11 February 1965, Starr married Maureen Cox, whom he had first met in 1962. By this time the stress and pressure that went along with Beatlemania had reached a peak for him. He received a telephoned death threat before a show in Montreal, and resorted to positioning his cymbals vertically in an attempt to provide protection from would-be assassins. The constant pressure of the Beatles' fame impacted their live performances; Starr commented: "We were turning into such bad musicians ... there was no groove to it."He was also feeling increasingly isolated from the musical activities of his bandmates, who were moving past the traditional boundaries of rock music into territory that often did not require his accompaniment; during recording sessions he spent countless hours playing cards with their road manager Neil Aspinall and roadie Mal Evans while the other Beatles perfected tracks without him. In a letter published in Melody Maker, a fan asked the Beatles to let Starr sing more; he replied: "I am quite happy with my one little track on each album".
In August 1966, the Beatles released Revolver, their seventh UK LP. The album included the song "Yellow Submarine", which was the only British number one single with Starr as the lead singer. Later that month and owing to the increasing pressures of touring, the Beatles gave their final concert, a 30-minute performance at San Francisco 's Candlestick Park. Starr commented: "We gave up touring at the right time. Four years of Beatlemania were enough for anyone." By December, he had moved into an upscale estate on three acres in Saint George's Hill called Sunny Heights. Although he had adorned the house with many of the finest luxuries available at the time, including numerous televisions, light machines, film projectors and stereo equipment, a billiard table, go-kart track and a bar named the Flying Cow, he did not include a drum kit, he explained: "When we don't record, I don't play".
For the Beatles' seminal 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Starr sang lead vocals on the Lennon–McCartney composition "With a Little Help from My Friends". Although the Beatles had enjoyed widespread commercial and critical success with Sgt. Pepper, the long hours they spent recording the LP contributed to Starr's increased feeling of alienation within the band, he commented: "It wasn't our best album. That was the peak for everyone else, but for me it was a bit like being a session musician ... They more or less direct me in the style I can play." His inability to compose new material led to his input being minimised during recording sessions; he often found himself relegated to adding minor percussion effects to songs by McCartney, Lennon and George Harrison. During his down-time Starr worked on his guitar playing; he commented: "I jump into chords that no one seems to get into. Most of the stuff I write is twelve-bar".
Epstein's death in August 1967 left the Beatles without management; Starr remarked: "It was a strange time for us, when it's someone who've relied on in the business, where we never got involved." Soon afterwards, the band began an ill-fated film project, Magical Mystery Tour. Starr's growing interest in photography at the time lead to his billing as the movie's Director of Photography, and his participation in the film's editing was matched only by McCartney.
In February 1968, Starr became the first Beatle to sing during another artist's show without the other three present. He sang the Buck Owens hit "Act Naturally", and performed a duet with Cilla Black, "Do you Like Me Just a Little Bit?" on her BBC One television programme, Cilla. Later that year Apple Records released The Beatles, commonly known as the White Album. Creative inspiration for the double-LP came in part from the band's recent interactions with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While attending an intermediate course at his ashram in Rishikesh, India, they enjoyed one of their most prolific writing periods, composing most of the album's songs there. Despite leaving after 10 days, Starr completed his first recorded Beatles song, "Don't Pass Me By", while in India. During the recording of the White Album, relations within the band became openly divisive. As the sessions progressed, their collective group dynamic began to decay; at times only one or two Beatles were involved in the recording for a track. Starr had grown weary of McCartney's increasingly overbearing approach and Lennon's passive-aggressive behaviour, which was exacerbated by Starr's resentment of Yoko Ono 's near constant presence. After one particularly difficult session during which McCartney had harshly criticised his drumming, Starr quit the band for two weeks, taking a holiday with his family in Sardinia on a boat loaned by Peter Sellers. During a lunch break the chef served octopus, which Starr refused to eat. A subsequent conversation with the ship's captain regarding the behaviours of the animal served as the inspiration for his Abbey Road composition, "Octopus's Garden", which Starr wrote on guitar during the trip. When he returned to the studio two weeks later, he discovered that his drum kit had been covered in flowers.
Despite a temporary return to congenial relations during the completion of the White Album, production of the Beatles' fourth feature film, Let It Be, and its accompanying LP, strained an already tenuous cohesion within the band. On 20 August 1969, the Beatles gathered for the final time at Abbey Road Studios for a mixing session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Following a business meeting on 20 September 1969, Lennon told the others that he had quit the Beatles.
Solo career
On 10 April 1970, McCartney publicly announced that he had quit the Beatles. Starr released two albums before the end of that year: Sentimental Journey, a UK number seven hit composed of his renditions of many pre-rock standards that included musical arrangements by Quincy Jones, Maurice Gibb, George Martin and McCartney, and the country-inspired Beaucoups of Blues, engineered by Scotty Moore and featuring renowned Nashville session musician Pete Drake.
Starr played drums on Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Ono's Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (1970), and on Harrison's albums All Things Must Pass (1970) and Living in the Material World (1973). In 1971, Starr participated in the Concert for Bangladesh, organised by George Harrison, and with him co-wrote the hit single "It Don't Come Easy", which reached number four in both the US and the UK. The following year he released his most successful UK hit, "Back Off Boogaloo", which peaked at number two (US number nine). Later that year he made his directorial debut with the T. Rex documentary Born to Boogie. In 1973, he earned two number one hits in the US: "Photograph", a UK number eight hit that was co-written with Harrison, and "You're Sixteen", written by the Sherman Brothers. Starr's third million-selling single and his second US chart-topper, "You're Sixteen" was released in the UK in February 1974 where it peaked at number four in the charts.
In November 1973, Starr released Ringo, a commercially successful album produced by Richard Perry that featured writing and musical contributions from George Harrison, Lennon and McCartney. The LP yielded the hit song "Oh My My", a US number five that was Starr's fifth consecutive top-ten hit. The album reached number seven in the UK and number two in the US. Goodnight Vienna followed in 1974 and was also successful, reaching number eight in the US and number 30 in the UK. The album earned Starr a pair of top-ten hits with his cover of the Platters' "Only You (And You Alone)", which peaked at number six in the US and number 28 in the UK, and "No No Song", which was a US number three and Starr's seventh consecutive top-ten hit. During this period he became romantically involved with Lynsey de Paul. He played tambourine on a song she wrote and produced for Vera Lynn, "Don't You Remember When", and he inspired another De Paul song, "If I Don't Get You the Next One Will", which she described as being about revenge after he missed a dinner appointment with her because he was asleep in his office.
Starr founded the record label Ring O'Records in 1975. The company signed eleven artists and released fifteen singles and five albums between 1975 and 1978, including works by David Hentschel, Graham Bonnet and Rab Noakes. The commercial impact of Starr's recording career subsequently diminished, although he continued to record and remained a familiar celebrity presence. In 1976 Starr appeared as a guest in the Band's farewell concert, featured in the 1978 Martin Scorsese documentary The Last Waltz. Also in 1976, Polydor Records released Ringo's Rotogravure, an album that featured compositions by McCartney, Lennon and George Harrison. Although the album and its accompanying singles failed to chart in the UK, the LP produced two minor US hits, "A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll" (number 26) and a cover of "Hey! Baby" (number 74), and achieved moderate sales, reaching a chart position of 28. This inspired Polydor to revamp Starr's formula; the results were a curious blend of disco and 1970s pop, Ringo the 4th (1977). The album was a commercial disaster, failing to chart in the UK and peaking at number 162 in the US. In 1978 Starr released Bad Boy; the album reached a disappointing number 129 in the US and failed to chart in the UK.
1980s
Following Lennon's murder in 1980, George Harrison modified the lyrics of a song he had originally written for Starr, "All Those Years Ago", as a tribute to their former bandmate. The track, which included vocal contributions from both Paul and Linda McCartney and Starr's original drum part, peaked at number two in the US charts, and number 13 in the UK. In 1981, Starr released Stop and Smell the Roses. The LP contained the Harrison composition "Wrack My Brain", which reached number 38 in the US charts, but failed to chart in the UK. Lennon had offered a pair of songs for use on the album: "Nobody Told Me" and "Life Begins at 40", but following his death, Starr did not feel comfortable recording them. Soon after the murder, Starr and his girlfriend Barbara Bach flew to New York City to be with Lennon's widow Yoko Ono.
From 1984 to 1986, Starr narrated the children's series Thomas & Friends, a Britt Allcroft production based on the books by the Reverend W. Awdry. Starr also portrayed the character Mr. Conductor in the programme's American spin-off Shining Time Station, which debuted in 1989 on PBS. He left after the first season. In 1985, he performed with his son Zak as part of Artists United Against Apartheid on the recording, Sun City. In 1987 Starr played drums on the song "When We Was Fab", from George Harrison's album Cloud Nine. The song, which was co-written by George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, charted in the top 30 in both the UK and the US. The same year, Starr, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne joined Eric Clapton, Elton John, Phil Collins and Ray Cooper in a performance for the Prince's Trust charity.
During October and November 1988, Starr and Bach attended a detox clinic in Tucson, Arizona, each receiving a six-week treatment for alcoholism. On 23 July 1989, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band gave their first performance to an audience of ten thousand in Dallas, Texas. The band consisted of Starr and a varying assortment of musicians who had been successful in their own right with popular songs at different times. The concerts interchanged Starr's singing, including selections of his Beatles and solo songs, with performances of each of the other artists' well-known material, the latter incorporating either Starr or another musician as drummer.
1990s
The first All-Starr excursion led to the release of Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band (1990), a compilation of live performances from the tour. In the same year, Starr recorded a version of the song "I Call Your Name" for a television special marking the 10th anniversary of John Lennon's death and the 50th anniversary of Lennon's birth. The track, produced by Jeff Lynne, features a supergroup composed of Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh and Jim Keltner.
The following year, Starr made a cameo appearance on The Simpsons episode "Brush with Greatness" and contributed an original song, "You Never Know", to the soundtrack of the John Hughes film Curly Sue. In 1992, Starr released his first studio album in nine years, Time Takes Time, which was produced by Phil Ramone, Don Was, Jeff Lynne and Peter Asher and featured guest appearances by various stars including Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson. In 1994, Starr began a collaboration with the surviving former Beatles for the Beatles Anthology project. They recorded two new Beatles songs built around solo vocal and piano tapes recorded by Lennon and gave lengthy interviews about the Beatles' career. Released in December 1995, "Free as a Bird" was the first new Beatles single since 1970. In March 1996, they released a second single, "Real Love". Harrison refused to participate in the completion of a third song.
Starr guested on two songs from McCartney's 1997 album, Flaming Pie (produced by Jeff Lynne). McCartney had written a song about Starr's ex-wife Maureen, who died in 1994, called "Little Willow" and asked Starr if he would play on another song, "Beautiful Night". The day after the "Beautiful Night" session, the two recorded a jam session, which developed into another song, "Really Love You", notable for being the first official release ever credited to McCartney/Starkey. In 1998, he released two albums on the Mercury label. The studio album Vertical Man marked the beginning of a nine-year partnership with Mark Hudson, who produced the album and, with his band the Roundheads, formed the core of the backing group for the album. In addition, many famous guests joined on various tracks, including Martin, McCartney and, in his final appearance on a Starr album, Harrison. Most of the songs were written by Starr and the band. Joe Walsh and the Roundheads joined Starr for his appearance on VH1 Storytellers, which was released as an album under the same name. During the show, he performed greatest hits and new songs and told anecdotes relating to them.
2000s
Starr is on stage with two guitarists and two microphones. He is wearing sunglasses and a black and silver T-shirt, and both of his arms are raised. His right arm forms a V-shaped peace symbol.
Starr on stage in New York City in 2005
Starr was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2002, joining an elite group including Buddy Rich, William F. Ludwig, Sr., and William F. Ludwig, Jr. On 29 November 2002 (the first anniversary of Harrison's death), Starr performed "Photograph" and a cover of Carl Perkins' "Honey Don't" at the Concert for George held in the Royal Albert Hall, London. In 2003, Starr formed Pumkinhead Records with All-Starr Band member Mark Hudson. The label was not prolific, but their first signing was Liam Lynch, who produced a 2003 LP entitled Fake Songs.
Starr served as an honorary Santa Tracker and voice-over personality in 2003 and 2004 during the London stop in Father Christmas's annual Christmas Eve journey, as depicted in the annual NORAD tracks Santa program. According to NORAD officials, he was "a Starr in the east" who helped guide North American Aerospace Defense Command's Santa-tracking tradition.
Star is in 2001 playin' the drumms on "Moment in Paradise" and "Easy Money" on the album "Zoom" of "The Electric Light Orchestra".
In 2005, Liverpool's City Council announced plans to demolish Starr's birthplace, 9 Madryn Street, stating that it had "no historical significance". The LCC later announced that the building would be taken apart brick by brick and preserved.
Starr released Liverpool 8 in 2008, an album produced by David A. Stewart, Mark Hudson and Starr. Hudson was the initial producer of the recordings but was replaced by Stewart after a falling out with Starr. According to the journalist Peter Palmiere, the partnership between Hudson and Starr ended because of Starr's insistence on using synthesised sounds, for which Stewart is known, whereas Hudson wanted real guitars, pianos and strings. On 10 October 2008, Starr posted a video on his website stating that he would not be signing autographs after 20 October 2008. He stated that he is too busy and that anything after that date sent to any address will not be signed.
On 4 April 2009, Starr reunited with McCartney at the David Lynch "Change Begins Within" Benefit Concert at Radio City Music Hall. After separate performances from Starr and other artists, McCartney's set came last, and towards the end he announced "Billy Shears", whereupon Starr joined him to perform "With a Little Help from My Friends" and, with all performers, "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Cosmically Conscious".
Starr appeared on-stage during Microsoft's June 2009 E3 press conference with Yoko Ono, McCartney and Olivia Harrison to promote The Beatles: Rock Band video game. In November 2009, Starr once again performed the voice of Thomas the Tank Engine for "The Official BBC Children in Need Medley". This is the first number 1 UK hit Starr has been involved in since the Beatles disbanded in 1970.
2010s
In 2010 Starr self-produced and released his fifteenth studio album, Y Not, which included the track "Walk with You" and featured a vocal contribution from McCartney. Later that year, he appeared during Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief as a celebrity phone operator. On 7 July 2010, Starr celebrated his 70th birthday at Radio City Music Hall, New York with another All-Starr Band concert, topped with friends and family joining him on stage including Yoko Ono and his son Zak: McCartney made a surprise appearance.
Starr recorded a cover of Buddy Holly's "Think It Over" for the tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, which was released on 6 September 2011. On 30 January 2012, he released the album Ringo 2012. Later that year, Starr announced that his All-Starr Band would tour the Pacific Rim during 2013 with select dates in New Zealand, Australia and Japan; it would be his first performance in Japan since 1996, and his debut in both New Zealand and Australia.
In January 2014, Starr reunited with Paul McCartney for a special performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards performing the song "Queenie Eye" at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. In February 2014, Starr was featured alongside McCartney in the program The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In the summer of 2014, Starr toured Canada and the US with an updated version of the Twelfth All-Starr Band, featuring multi-instrumentalist Warren Ham instead of saxophonist Mark Rivera. In July 2014, Starr became involved in "#peacerocks", an anti-violence campaign started by fashion designer John Varvatos, in conjunction with the David Lynch Foundation. In September 2014, Starr won at the GQ Men of the Year Awards for his humanitarian work with the David Lynch Foundation.
In January 2015, through a Twitter post, Starr first revealed the title of his new 11-track studio album, Postcards from Paradise. The album came just weeks in advance of Starr's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was released on March 31, 2015 to mixed to positive reviews.
Influences
During his youth, Starr had been a devoted fan of skiffle and blues music, but by the time he joined the Texans in 1958, he had developed a preference for rock and roll. He was also influenced by country artists, including Hank Williams, Buck Owens and Hank Snow, and jazz drummers such as Chico Hamilton and Yusef Lateef, whose compositional style inspired Starr's fluid and energetic drum fills and grooves. While reflecting on Buddy Rich, Starr commented: "He does things with one hand that I can't do with nine, but that's technique. Everyone I talk to says 'What about Buddy Rich?' Well, what about him? Because he doesn't turn me on." He stated that he "was never really into drummers", but identified Cozy Cole 's 1958 cover of Benny Goodman 's "Topsy Part Two" as "the one drum record" he bought.
Starr's first musical hero was Gene Autry, about whom he commented: "I remember getting shivers up my back when he sang, "South of the Border". By the early 1960s he had become an ardent fan of Lee Dorsey. In November 1964, Starr told Melody Maker: "Our music is second-hand versions of negro music ... Ninety per cent of the music I like is coloured."
Drums
A colour photograph of Starr playing a dark coloured drum kit on a stage. The background is yellow.
Starr with his All-Starr Band in Paris, 26 June 2011
The overall effect of Starr's drumming for the Beatles has received high praise from notable drummers. Starr commented: "I'm no good on the technical things ... I'm your basic offbeat drummer with funny fills ... because I'm really left-handed playing a right-handed kit. I can't roll around the drums because of that." Beatles producer George Martin stated: "Ringo hit good and hard and used the tom-tom well, even though he couldn't do a roll to save his life", although Martin later added, "He's got tremendous feel. He always helped us to hit the right tempo for a song, and gave it that support – that rock-solid back-beat – that made the recording of all the Beatles' songs that much easier." Starr commented: "I've always believed that the drummer is not there to interpret the song", comparing his drumming to painting, he stated: "I am the foundation, and then I put a bit of glow here and there ... If there's a gap, I want to be good enough to fill it."
In 2011, readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted Starr as the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. Journalist Robyn Flans, a long-time contributor with Modern Drummer magazine, writing for the Percussive Arts Society stated: "I cannot count the number of drummers who have told me that Ringo inspired their passion for drums". Drummer Steve Smith commented on Starr's musical contribution:
Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity. 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.
Starr influenced Phil Collins, the drummer for Genesis, who said: "I think he's vastly underrated, Ringo. The drum fills on "A Day in the Life" are very, very complex things. You could take a great drummer from today and say, 'I want it like that', and they really wouldn't know what to do." In September 1980, Lennon told Rolling Stone:
Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. Ringo was a professional drummer who sang and performed and was in one of the top groups in Britain, but especially in Liverpool. So Ringo's talent would have come out one way or the other ... whatever that spark is in Ringo, we all know it but can't put our finger on it. Whether it's acting, drumming, or singing, I don't know. There's something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced as an individual ... Ringo is a damn good drummer.
In his extensive survey of the Beatles' recording sessions, historian Mark Lewisohn confirmed that Starr was both proficient and remarkably reliable and consistent. According to Lewisohn, there were fewer 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 owing to mistakes by the other three Beatles.Starr is considered to have influenced various modern drumming techniques, such as the matched grip, tuning the drums lower, and using muffling devices on tonal rings, as well as placing the drums on high risers for visibility as part of the band. According to Ken Micallef and Donnie Marshall, co-authors of Classic Rock Drummers: "Ringo's fat tom sounds and delicate cymbal work were imitated by thousands of drummers." Starr also provided percussion instruments on the Beatles' records as well as drums. Starr performs nearly all of his own drums on his solo records and percussion as well.
He endorses and uses Ludwig drums, pedals and hardware, Zildjian cymbals and Remo drumheads. Previously using Pro-Mark drumsticks, Starr has been using his Zildjian Purple DIP® Ringo Starr signature drumsticks since 2013.
The first kit Starr used with the Beatles was a Premier kit, which he had used with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, but switched to Ludwig in 1963.
Vocals
Starr sang lead vocals for a song on most of the Beatles' studio albums as part of an attempt to establish a vocal personality for each band member. In many cases, Lennon or McCartney wrote the lyrics and melody especially for him, as they did for "Yellow Submarine" from Revolver and "With a Little Help from My Friends" on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. These melodies were tailored to Starr's limited baritone vocal range. Because of his distinctive voice, Starr rarely performed backing vocals during his time with the Beatles, but they can be heard on songs such as "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Carry That Weight". He is also the lead vocalist on his compositions "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden". In addition, he sang lead on "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Boys", "Matchbox", "Honey Don't", "Act Naturally", "Good Night" and "What Goes On".
Songwriting
Starr's idiosyncratic turns of phrase, or Ringoisms as they became known, such as a hard day's night and tomorrow never knows, were used as song titles by the Beatles, particularly by Lennon. McCartney commented: "Ringo would do these little malapropisms, he would say things slightly wrong, like people do, but his were always wonderful, very lyrical ... they were sort of magic". As well as inspiring his bandmates' creativity in this way, Starr occasionally contributed lyrics to unfinished Lennon–McCartney songs, such as the line "darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there" from "Eleanor Rigby".
Starr is credited as the sole composer of two Beatles songs: "Octopus's Garden" and "Don't Pass Me By". Starr is credited as a co-writer of "What Goes On", "Flying" and "Dig It". On material issued after the break-up, Starr received a writing credit for "Taking a Trip to Carolina" and received joint songwriting credits with the other three Beatles for "12-Bar Original", "Los Paranoias", "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", "Suzy Parker", heard in the Let It Be film, and "Jessie's Dream" from the Magical Mystery Tour film.
Personal life
When Starr married Maureen Tigrett in 1965, Beatles manager Brian Epstein served as best man, with Starr's step-father Harry Graves and fellow Beatle George Harrison as witnesses. Soon afterwards, the couple's matrimony became the subject of a US novelty song, "Treat Him Tender, Maureen", by the Chicklettes. Starr and Maureen had three children together: Zak (born 13 September 1965), Jason (born 19 August 1967) and Lee (born 11 November 1970). In 1971, Starr purchased Lennon's former home, Tittenhurst Park at Sunninghill in Berkshire and moved his family there. Following Starr's repeated infidelities, the couple divorced in 1975. Maureen died from leukaemia in 1994.
In 1980, while on the set of the film Caveman, Starr met actress Barbara Bach; they were married on 27 April 1981. In 1985, he was the first of the Beatles to become a grandfather upon the birth of Zak's daughter, Tatia Jayne Starkey. Zak Starkey is also a drummer, and during his father's regular absences, he spent time with the Who's Keith Moon. Zak has performed with his father during some All-Starr Band tours.
Starr and Bach split their time between homes in Cranleigh, Surrey; Los Angeles; and Monte Carlo. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2011, Starr was listed at number 56 in the UK with an estimated personal wealth of £150 million. In 2012, Starr was estimated to be the wealthiest drummer in the world. In 2014 Starr announced that his 200-acre Surrey estate at Rydinghurst, with its Grade II listed Jacobean house, was for sale. However, he retains a property in the London district of Chelsea off King's Road and he and Bach continue to divide their time between London and Los Angeles.