The one album Ringo Starr felt was misunderstood: “You hope for the best”
Following the demise of The Beatles, Ringo Starr stepped out of the shadows. Despite being the drummer and not responsible for the songwriting element of their musicianship, Starr eventually established himself as a solo lead. Still, his time at the top in his own right was a short-lived affair.
Starr didn’t waste time before going solo and released two studio albums, Sentimental Journey and Beaucoups of Blues, in 1970. While Sentimental Journey was a success story, selling more than 500,000 units in the United States alone, its successor failed to break into the top 40 in the US or the UK.
Both records relied on covers rather than original material, and unlike his bandmates in The Beatles, Starr had yet to find his true voice. However, that all changed with his third album, Ringo, which was the greatest reflection of Starr as both an artist and a person yet.
Admittedly, Starr isn’t a born songwriter, but this was never an issue in The Beatles because he was in a group with two of the most magnificent lyricists that Britain has ever produced. Therefore, he was free to focus on his drumming.
The relationships he built with The Beatles also came back to bear fruits after they parted ways. For 1973’s Ringo, he called in a little help from his friends as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison all contributed to songs on the record. Starr also co-wrote a series of tracks on the album. As a result, the LP spawned two number-one singles, ‘Photograph’ and ‘You’re Sixteen’, sending Ringo to solo superstardom.
However, over the next decade, Starr’s albums became gradually more unpopular with each release made, and he faded out of sight of the hit parade. After 1983’s Old Wave was ignored once again by the masses, Starr took an extended break from recording and didn’t return with a new album for another decade.
In his personal life, there had been significant changes during that decade. In 1989, Starr sought help for his addiction problems, which had played a role in derailing his career and other important facets of his existence. Shortly after becoming sober, the drummer formed the All-Starr Band, an act that continues to tour today, and returned to the studio.
As it marked the first time that Starr had toured in decades, there was demand to see him perform, but interest in another solo album remained insignificant. The former Beatles drummer found this particularly painful as he was incredibly proud of his comeback record, 1992’s Time Takes Time, but it fell on deaf ears.
During an interview in 1998 with Paul Du Noyer to promote his latest solo release, Vertical Man, Starr aired his grievances about the lack of interest in his previous album. He began by saying of his new LP, “I think it’s the best since the Ringo/Goodnight Vienna period, really. You look at my musical career, and from Goodnight Vienna, it started going downhill. And now we’re on the way back. I had the Time Takes Time album, which I thought was brilliant. But people didn’t seem to want to go for it.”
Starr then pointed the blame at its commercial failure squarely at his record label, “Well, it was on Private Music. Which was so private… you had to be a member to hear it. Ha ha! No, I could make excuses, but you put your record out, and you hope for the best.”
Throughout his career, Starr has enjoyed the highs and suffered the bitter taste of defeat on many occasions, such as with Time Takes Time. While he could accept these losses when albums were admittedly below par, it was different with Time Takes Time, and his only regret is that more people didn’t feel the same.
