{"id":1044759,"date":"2026-09-05T10:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1044759\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T10:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:47:21","slug":"4-cool-songs-members-of-the-beatles-wrote-for-ringo-starrs-ringo-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1044759\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Cool Songs Members of the Beatles Wrote for Ringo Starr\u2019s \u2018Ringo\u2019 Album"},"content":{"rendered":"

The four men who comprised The Beatles weren\u2019t agreeing on a lot circa 1973. But John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison all stepped up and helped out Ringo Starr on his 1973 album Ringo.<\/p>\n

Each of them wrote at least one song for the project. Here\u2019s a look back at four of those songs that helped to make the Ringo album so special.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m The Greatest\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

When you talk about near-Beatles reunions, \u201cI\u2019m The Greatest\u201d is way up there. Not only did John Lennon write the song, but he also sang backing vocals. Meanwhile, Starr is on drums, and George Harrison plays guitar. Meanwhile, a pair of Beatle buddies, Billy Preston<\/a> and Klaus Voorman, contribute organ and bass, respectively. Lennon wrote the song as a possible vehicle for himself. Reviving it for the Ringo album, he realized that the boastful lyrics would provide clever contrast for the self-deprecating Starr. There are plenty of meta references going on in the song, with references to Billy Shears, \u201cboogaloo,\u201d and Starr once being part of \u201cthe greatest show on Earth\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix O\u2019Clock\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney steered clear of the \u201cI\u2019m The Greatest\u201d session, preventing a total Beatle reunion on the song. But he made his presence felt on Ringo just the same. That\u2019s Paul mimicking the sound of a kazoo during the solo on \u201cYou\u2019re Sixteen\u201d, Starr\u2019s hit cover of the early rock song. And McCartney and wife Linda also contributed the melancholy, melodic \u201cSix O\u2019Clock\u201d to the proceedings. Keen listeners could probably spot that this was a Macca song without needing the credits. The ups and downs of the tune are right in keeping with his balladic work. He and Linda also add some backing vocals to the track, while Ringo does a nice job inhabiting the sad sack protagonist.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou And Me (Babe)\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

George Harrison was the most involved of the three ex-Beatles who helped out on Ringo. In addition to this track and the one still to come on the list, Harrison wrote the countryish \u201cSunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)\u201d for the project. Mal Evans, another longtime Beatle associate, nabbed a co-writing credit on \u201cYou And Me (Babe)\u201d, which rounds out the album. The lyrics, which Evans began, cleverly work in a couple of ways. You can hear them as a stoic sendoff to a former lover. Or you can imagine them being a message from a touring band to their fans on their way out of one city. Ringo\u2019s thank-yous at the end of it lean into the latter interpretation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhotograph\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

Starr doesn\u2019t get enough credit for writing some very good songs in his heyday. That\u2019s partly due to the fact that he often struggled to finish the process. When that was the case, he often turned to Harrison, who ended up with co-writing credits on many of Ringo\u2019s biggest hits. In the case of \u201cPhotograph\u201d, it started when Harrison taught the drummer Starr a new chord to add to his rudimentary guitar skills. Give credit to producer Richard Perry, who lacquered the track with Wall of Sound-style production, right down to the castanets. Bobby Keys\u2019 saxophone adds to the effect. And Starr delivers one of his finest vocals on this massive hit filled with bittersweet regret.<\/p>\n

(Photo by Kevin Winter\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The four men who comprised The Beatles weren\u2019t agreeing on a lot circa 1973. But John Lennon, Paul…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1044760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[20829,171,975,977,4185,978,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1044759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1970s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-ringo-starr","tag-rock-music","tag-the-beatles","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117218042650504413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1044760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}