Sentimental journey (Ringo Starr) (LP 3907 - 3914)

Ringo Starr  Sentimental Journey (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1970) **  

Ringo Starr  Beaucoups of Blues (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1970) ***

Ringo Starr  Ringo (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1973) ****  

Ringo Starr  Goodnight Vienna (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1974) ***

Ringo Starr  Blast From Your Past (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1975) ****  

Ringo Starr  Ringo's Rotogravure (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) ***

Ringo Starr  Ringo the 4th (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1977) ***

Ringo Starr  Bad Boy (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1978) **

Genre: Apple Records, pop 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, DJ Records, Marbecks Records. 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Photograph (Ringo)

Gear costume: Goodnight Vienna

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: The focus on Ringo brings to conclusion the rundowns on the four solo Beatle careers. It's probably fitting that Ringo completes the picture because that's what he did for The Beatles, and his canon is the weakest of the four, even though he has put out a huge body of work. I have most of his albums, most of his singles/E.P.s and most of his books. I struggle to be a completist with his post Apple Records product, as gentle readers will pick up on as we proceed.

This first post will concentrate on the seventies' studio albums, which started in 1970 with two albums!

Sentimental Journey is his debut solo album - a trip through Ringo's childhood memory of standards that his parent's generation loved. He recruits some big names to do the arrangements: George Martin; Richard Perry, Maurice Gibb; Paul McCartney; Quincy Jones were some. All are sung by Ringo with his usual gusto and enthusiasm.

Ultimately though, this is a curiosity and as far away from rock'n'roll as he could get - which was probably the idea. The same went for his second album of 1970 - the country sounds of Beaucoup of Blues.

That one is a lot more fun and a natural fit for Ringo, given his love of country music and the crafty use of it as a vehicle while in The Beatles. He sounds more authentic on these songs and $15 Draw is a terrific song. 

He kind of wrote off these two albums and regarded his next one (Ringo) as the start of his solo career but he shouldn't. The standards album has become huge for a number of other artists (I think Rod Stewart has done 389 albums in that style now) and country music only became bigger and bigger during the seventies and beyond. That easy going, more laid-back genre suits him.

Ringo is notable for many reasons. All of The Beatles make an appearance and contribute songs, there are loads of superstar guests, and it hit a commercial peak for Bongo Starr. Each track has a freshness still in 2025!

John Lennon's I'm the Greatest was the lead off song on Ringo and he repeats that feat with the title track on Ringo's follow up album - Goodnight Vienna. Many of the same stellar guests appear and the musicianship is the equal to that of Ringo. The songs weren't as consistently as great though and while it's an enjoyable Ringo album it didn't replicate the commercial success of Ringo.

His Apple Records career ended with 1975's Blast from Your Past. It was a nifty compilation that included his successful singles It Don't Come Easy and Back Off Boogaloo as well as a B side (Early 1970) and the best from Beaucoup of Blues, Ringo, Goodnight Vienna.

All four Beatles turned up for Ringo's first album on Polydor - Ringo's Rotogravure (again, as with Ringo, all four weren't ever in the same room). This started out with the first two tracks as a much grittier rock'n'roll album but then quickly went back into safe Ringo style pop rock.

Again, there is a plethora of superstar guests. This time those being Eric Clapton, Harry Nilsson, Peter Frampton, Dr John and Melissa Manchester as well as the Fabs. The same formula that worked for Ringo and Goodnight Vienna is employed again, and again it is a fun Ringo style album.

Ringo the 4th followed a year later - he was certainly living up to the demands of his contract. It was a weird title, and a weird cover - Ringo holding a sword, with a girl perched on his shoulders. What was he and (girlfriend of the time) Nancy thinking? Plenty of material for Freudian analysis was the end result.

Gone were the guest superstars and the Fabs for this album. Instead, Ringo goes for a soul-pop sound with hints of disco. It did include some good songs like Gave it All Up which is one of my favourites, and Out on the Streets. 

The rest of the album, played by session musicians of wide repute is good too - certainly no worse or better than his previous two. Unfortunately, it did not stop the commercial slide begun with Ringo's Rotogravure.

Things would get worse before they got better with Bad Boy. It's basically a withdrawal from dance/ soul-pop into just anemic old school shuffle rock. If you thought anyone could sing Motown material (because it's that good - especially Holland/ Dozier/ Holland) - Ringo's version of Where Did Our Love Go will show that anyone can't. Sadly, the whole album sounds uninspired.  

Side bar: neither Bad Boy nor Ringo the 4th appear on Spotify.

Where do they all belong? A sad way to sign off from the seventies. His next album wouldn't appear until 1981.