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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Toppermost of the Poppermost, 4 Sep 2004
This album, from 1973, yielded three big hits: "You're Sixteen" (which featured Paul McCartney on kazoo), "Photograph" (which Ringo co-wrote with George Harrison) and "Oh My My."
While one of its selling points today is that it's the only album by a former Beatle featuring each of the other former Beatles, this fact was not given much attention in 1973. Industry people knew it, and people who read record reviews would have noticed passing references to this fact. But, this was not what made it a hit. What kept this album selling well was its pop sensibility. Nostalgia for the 1950s was at a peak, and a cover of "You're Sixteen" was a good idea. The original was just famous enough to capture fans yearning for happier times and just obscure enough to seem novel. "You're Sixteen" was a monster hit. Like the rest of the album, it was played well and had a driven quality.
The album holds up today not only because of the quality of the musicianship but because Richard Perry's production was crisp and warm; no mean trick.
The album, as originally released, ended with a sweet farewell called "For You and Me (Babe.)" Three bonus tracks have been added at the end, but only the third ("Down and Out") was recorded at the same time RINGO was recorded. The other two are "It Don't Come Easy" and "Early 1970." "It Don't Come Easy" is serious rock, but it is quite different from the RINGO album. "Early 1970" is country-rock with very specific lyrics about Ringo's life after the break-up of the Beatles. George Harrison plays guitar on both "Early 1970" and "It Don't Come Easy." He is on several tracks on the RINGO album itself, but somehow, he and Ringo and all the other musicians on this CD seem to be in a mood to entertain by 1973. The tracks from earlier have a plaintive tone. Somewhere between 1971 and 1973 the emotions of the sixties had vanished, and the RINGO album is proof that good stuff did come out in the seventies.
This is good pop.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's always the quiet ones..., 17 Oct 2000
In 1973 the ex-Beatles were looking to be pretty washed up. John was fighting to stay in America, separated from Yoko and released the dismal "Mind Games". After conquering the world with the triple album "All Things Must Pass" in 1970, George had finally returned with a likeable but fairly flimsy follow up with "Living In The Material World". Paul was still struggling to get WINGS off the ground (no pun intended) and had recently released the solid yet unspectacular "Red Rose Speedway". Then from out of nowhere came this Ringo gem. Notable not only for being one of the most enjoyable solo Beatle efforts, this album also features contributions by Marc Bolan, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney, the only post Beatle album able to make that claim. This album cannot be taken as an artistic statement of any description, and has all the depth of a puddle, but is simply FUN. From the witty Lennon scripted opener, to George Harrison and Mal Evans' drunken sounding finale this is endless fun. Obvious highpoints are the fantastically stupid Ringo/Vini Poncia composition "Devil Woman" ("You're like the devil with the horns on your head/The only way I'll get you is to get you in bed"! ), Paul's gentle "Six O'Clock" (save for some hideously dated keyboards), John's "I'm The Greatest", and the genuinely lovely ballad (and hit single) "Photograph", written by George and Ringo (a nice irony - a Harrison/Starkey composition that bettered anything Lennon or McCartney had written yet that year). That Paul went on to release the epochal "Band On the Run" the same year does not tarnish this amaiable album's charms one bit. It's no "Ram", "Flaming Pie", All Things Must Pass" or "Imagine", but no Beatle fan should be without it.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eponymous!, 8 Sep 2004
This is a driven, upbeat CD. Ringo's star-turn excels at all levels. The CD luckily preserves the original booklet, with Klaus Voorman's marvelous illustrations. The personnel are famous, but they get down to musical business. It's entertaining. There are some dark songs, such as "Photograph," but the performance of this and every song on here is vibrant.
Two of the bonus tracks are from a few years before 1973, when RINGO was released, and their mood is a bit closer to the sixties vibe. But the RINGO is a reminder that the seventies could be energetic.
The front-cover art really matches the music, and, like RINGO, doffs its cap to SGT. PEPPER'S. Richard Perry's production is crisp and clear, and Ringo Starr's showmanship works very well.
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