Ringo Starr's Biography
Solo Work
Being that many consider Ringo to be the least talented Beatle, it was astonishing to see how successful a solo career he had. He did not have the great number of hits that Paul had, but he did have the same amount of number ones as John (2). Ringo's charm once again shone through, and he became a star on his own with a great solo career.
His first album after leaving the Beatles caused a great fight between he and Paul. Paul wanted to release McCartney, his first solo album, before Let It Be, but Ringo had that date chosen for Sentimental Journey his first album. Eventually Ringo went to see Paul and realized how important the album was to him, and let Paul release his first. Ringo's first album does not have great hits on it, and it consists of old numbers before the Beatles arrived on the pop scene.
His next album, Beaucops of Blues, was a much different story. The album was preceded by a great, number one single, "It Don't Come Easy/ Early 1970" and the album was a smash. Ringo was not alone in the work on the album, he always had other people helping them on the albums. Often one of the former Beatles would be involved, and that is why many considered Ringo to be the one that would get the group back together. Ringo, his next album, featured the help of each of his bandmates with John writing, "I'm the Greatest" for him, George working with Ringo with his next hit off the album "Photograph" and Paul had a song called "Six O'clock" on the album. It is very strange to think that George and Ringo, the members of the Beatles that people thought were replaceable were the first to get number ones on the pop charts. In between Ringo and his next album, Goodnight Vienna, he released another catchy, but pointless single called "Backoff Boogaloo". None of Ringo's songs were brilliant lyricaly, yet, they all have his style on them and they are so catchy. He also had various singles from different albums that would become great songs and hits too like, "Only You", "Oh My My", and "No No Song". He released albums that were not as strong as the first couple of ones, but they had some catchy songs on them. Albums like, Blast From Your Past, Ringo's Rotogravure, Ringo the IV, and Bad Boy.
He had a couple of albums after John's death, but his music career was not doing so well. But his acting career was. He was in many movies in the seventies, like Caveman, where he met his second wife, Barbara Bach, they wed in the 80s and he also played Mr. Conductor on a children's show. But underneath all of the acting, Ringo was troubled with alcholism. He was the first Beatle to promote a product which was wine coolers, and as soon as he moved into Tittenhurst where John lived, the first thing he put in was a bar. In 1988 he checked into a rehabilation center and was treated for alcholoism and has been sober ever since.
The problem now is that he found himself without a record contract and no one would sign him. He eventually got signed and at first his albums did not do very well, until 1992 with Time Takes Time. This album did not do as good as it should have and it is definitely one of Ringo's finest. Songs like "Weight of the World", "Don't Go Where the Road don't go", "Runaways" and "After All These Years" were on this album and all are very good songs. Like before, none of them were lyrically great, but they had a great feel to them. In 1998 he released an album called "Vertical Man", which had great reviews but was in my opinoin inferior to Time Takes Time. Again he collaborated with many other artists, like Tom Petty, Alanis Morrisette,and many many others in the big hit of the album "La De Da", which includes former bandmate Paul McCartney, and George Harrison contributed a slide guitar solo on the song "King Of Broken Hearts". He plugged the album by going on VH-1 "Storytellers" which was another album of his that was released.
Ringo was an unexpected success as a solo artist. His life had its turbulences, but it all evened out. He is now very happy with his three kids, the oldest of which, Zak, is a drummer for the Who, his wife Barbara, and every now and then he goes on tour with his All-Starr Band.