My Top Ten Favorite Ringo Songs

Although Beatles drummer Ringo Starr isn't known for his creative influence on their works, he has recorded some memorable music, both as a Beatle and as a solo artist. Here are my top ten favorites of Ringo's songs:

#10: It Don't Come Easy
This was Ringo's first singles release after the Beatles breakup, and it was very popular. I liked it, too, although I felt that it was way overplayed. A funny thing happened in conjunction with this song back then in early 1971. On several different occasions, I would be sitting around when suddenly I would feel prompted to turn on my radio. And time after time, the song being played would be It Don't Come Easy! Although I was beginning to think that I had psychic powers, this never did work with any other songs during the following years (and decades).

#9: Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine was the Beatles' "feel good" song in the midst of their final years of turmoil, although it actually appeared on their Revolver (UK) album in 1966. Although I wasn't too thrilled with Yellow Submarine when it first came out (this song was also overplayed on radio), I came to identify it positively with the same-titled movie, an animated farce that is one of my favorites.

#8: I Wanna Be Your Man
This was Ringo's track on their first U.S. album Meet the Beatles. A fast-paced "screamer", I Wanna Be Your Man was also recorded and released as a single by competitors The Rolling Stones around the same time.

#7: Matchbox
When the Beatles made their comedy farce A Hard Days Night, they released, within the United States, two albums that had overlapping tracks. My parents opted for buying the United Artists movie soundtrack album instead of Capitol Records' Something New. I wish they had picked Something New, which had a better selection of tracks, including Matchbox, a pleasant Ringo-rocker.

#6: Octopus's Garden
I suppose that if the Beatles had managed to stay together, then this would have been a good theme song for another Yellow Submarine-type movie. After all, with Octopus's Garden, we're once again frolicking around on the bottom of the sea! I generally didn't like the tracks on side one of Abbey Road, but Octopus's Garden stood out as the best by far (to me). Side two of Abbey Road, on the other hand, was a complete masterpiece!

#5: Don't Pass Me By
Ringo Starr was a true fan of American country music, and he showed his affection for this genre while with the Beatles by singing country songs on their albums (Honey Don't, Act Naturally, and What Goes On). Don't Pass Me By has a definite country flair to it as well. Personally, I associate it with some of my running training back in high school when, for some reason, I would keep playing this song over and over again in my mind while running! I guess the song's tempo went well with my pacing.

#4: Photograph
Ringo seemed to enjoy a very successful solo career. One of the reasons is that, of all the Beatles, he was the one who wasn't under scrutiny to produced artistically-relevant material. Also, after the initial offenses associated with the Beatles breakup in 1970-71, he cultivated friendship with his old bandmates. One of the fruits of this is his big 1973 hit Photograph, a record that could easily have been named as a Beatles song since all four Beatles contributed to it. This is the only single I've heard from Ringo's solo career where he is singing with a lot of heartfelt emotion. The other songs were either covers or novelty songs. I wish he had made a few more like Photograph.

#3: Boys
In 1964, the local (in Miami) Beatles radio stations 560-WQAM and 790-WFUN played a slew of earlier-recorded Beatles songs that had yet not been released on albums in the U.S.. Boys was one of these, and I took to it (being a seven-year boy myself). I liked the whole song and memorized it to the point where my father actually recorded me then singing it on tape (I wonder whether that still exists).

#2: I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends
Putting a Ringo song as the showcase track introducing their most celebrated album (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) was a stroke of genius on the part of Beatles producer George Martin. The song, basically a conversation between Ringo and the rest of the band, not only is the perfect response to the Sgt. Pepper build-up on track one: it represents Ringo Starr's professional life and success. He HAS gotten by with a little help from his friends.

#1: Goodnight
At the tail end of the 1968 Beatles double album generally referred to as the The White Album, Goodnight is the perfect cap to an album side dominated by the eery, disjointed John/Yoko collaboration Revolution 9. Goodnight, in my opinion, may be the greatest lullaby ever recorded, and definitely should displace Rock-a-Bye Baby for its sweet, soothing lyrics and melody. And Ringo, once again showing himself at his best singing from the heart, makes Goodnight a much better song than it already is.