It\u2019s easy to forget just how entertaining Ringo Starr is. <\/p>\n
Yes, that\u2019s an \u201cis,\u201d not a \u201cwas.\u201d You may be tempted to think of Ringo in the past tense — and this collection certainly encourages that — but Ringo is more than just the beat keeper from one of the world\u2019s most popular bands of all time.<\/p>\n
Ringo had a good dozen or so real hits, particularly in the early days of his solo career, but even since then his musical output has been consistent, save for the best-forgotten Stop And Smell The Roses<\/i> from 1981. That was a true stinker. \u201cWrack My Brain\u201d from that debacle shows up here.<\/p>\n
By \u201cconsistent,\u201d I mean you know what you\u2019re getting with a Ringo Starr album because it’s always the same. His voice is not the greatest, he puts a fair amount of filler in his albums, and yet he still brings you along, smiling, glad to just be there. <\/p>\n
On this collection that attempts to cover the breadth of his career (from Beaucoups Of Blues<\/i> through Choose Love<\/i>), Ringo hits that mark of consistency on every tune. And I even found myself, as the end approached, wishing for another song or two from his late career renaissance albums\u00a0Time Takes Time<\/i> (1993) and\u00a0Ringo Rama<\/em>\u00a0(2003) —<\/em> say, \u201cDon\u2019t Know A Thing About Love\u201d or \u201cMemphis In Your Mind.\u201d<\/p>\n The Very Best <\/i>opens with Ringo\u2019s biggest hit, \u201cPhotograph,\u201d from his 1973 Ringo<\/i> project. Co-written by George Harrison (who adds vocals and acoustic guitar, as well), the song doesn\u2019t sound dated. Sure, it is a golden oldie after all. But dated? Nope. <\/p>\n Harrison was not the only high-profile guest on Ringo\u2019s many albums. Flip through the credits from just these songs and you also see John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Stephen Stills, Billy Preston, Harry Nilsson, Michael Brecker, Peter Frampton, Danny Kortchmar and Buck Owens. Apparently, everyone loved the guy.<\/p>\n All of these guests were merely the precursors to Ringo\u2019s mid-career Ringo and the All Starrs band albums — none of which are represented here, since they were largely live discs. Owens, in fact, provides one of the pleasant oddball moments on this disc with the duet \u201cAct Naturally\u201d from Owens\u2019 1989 disc of the same name. After all, what would a Ringo album be without some oddball moments?<\/p>\n So what are Ringo\u2019s hits? You can probably name two or three, but, in addition to \u201cPhotograph,\u201d there was also \u201cIt Don\u2019t Come Easy,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re Sixteen (You\u2019re Beautiful And You\u2019re Mine),\u201d \u201cBack Off Boogaloo,\u201d \u201cOh, My My,\u201d \u201cOnly You (And You Alone),\u201d \u201cSnookeroo,\u201d \u201cNo-No Song,\u201d \u201cA Dose of Rock and Roll,\u201d and \u201c(It\u2019s All Down To) Goodnight Vienna.\u201d All of which are here.<\/p>\n In addition, this collection adds a couple rarities (\u201cI\u2019m The Greatest\u201d and \u201cEarly 1970\u201d) and one song from each of Ringo\u2019s later career projects, \u201cWeight Of The World (Time Takes Time<\/i>), \u201cKing Of Broken Hearts\u201d (Vertical Man<\/i>), \u201cNever Without You\u201d (Ringo Rama<\/i>) and \u201cFading In And Fading Out\u201d (Choose Love<\/i>). Then a couple others — for a total of 20 entertaining and representative cuts from, arguably, the world\u2019s most recognized drummer.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Overall, this tells the story quite well and may even entice Beatle fans who never thought of Ringo’s solo career as worth looking into. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":29025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6193],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40538","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ringo-starr","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40538"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}