How many number one songs has Ringo Starr had?
Did any of the Beatles really know what failure felt like? In some ways, this might seem a bit of a shallow question, but it does bear asking, as trying to glean just a select few highlights of their career is like being avalanched over the head with a barrage of golden gongs. Even separately, that state of affairs continued to reign, with Ringo Starr no exception.
The drumming Beatle took over the mic at various points in the band’s tenure – most notably in the likes of ‘Octopus’s Garden’, ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’, and ‘Yellow Submarine’ – but it was in post-Beatles years that he really came into his own in a vocal capacity with a slew of rock anthems.
Of course, following the Beatles split, many people wondered what route the drummer would take. Reflecting on his concern for Ringo’s future, even Lennon confessed to Bob Harris on The Old Grey Whistle Test: “I’m pleased that everyone is doing well, I’m more pleased that Ringo is doing well and that he’s got himself a good niche because I knew Paul would be alright.”
In terms of songs such as ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ and ‘(It’s All Down to) Goodnight Vienna’, Starr had fans eating out the palm of his hand and only hungry for more. It was during this peak solo period of the first half of the 1970s that he provided this nourishment in the form of hit after hit, but some special tunes, in particular, shot all the way to the top of the tree.
So, what songs did Ringo Starr hit number one with?
At the height of this reign came Starr’s two stints at the top, obviously notwithstanding the many massive chart successes he had enjoyed as a quarter of the Beatles. This began in 1973 with his song ‘Photograph’, promptly followed up a year later with the jaunty – if now slightly politically incorrect – bop ‘You’re Sixteen (And You’re Mine)’.
Starr first topped the charts with ‘Photograph’, a nostalgia-drenched ode to times gone by penned alongside former bandmate George Harrison. While it may have been released as your fairly typical run-of-the-mill break-up ballad, in the years since the lyrics of the song have permeated through to real life and the poignant situations it finds itself mirroring. “Every time I see your face,/ It reminds me of the places we used to go/ But all I got is a photograph/ And I realize you’re not coming back anymore,” Starr yearns, taking on an emotionally charged double meaning since the passing of his old pal and writing partner to the tune.
A year after ‘Photograph’, in 1974, he also became the singing custodian of ‘You’re Sixteen (And You’re Mine)’, written by the Sherman brothers – yes, the ones from Disney – and giving Starr his sophomore number one. It was originally a rockabilly hit for old school crooner Johnny Burnette some 14 years prior, but Starr reinvigorated it straight into the heart of the psychedelic ‘70s, in many ways a precursor to the era of young love that would take the world by storm soon after with the likes of Grease. The song’s video depicts another budding Hollywood starlet in a fresh-faced Carrie Fisher, Starr’s blossoming – if fairly age-inappropriate – love.
All in all, Starr’s life, career, and tastes at the top of the charts have proved as monumental to the face of music as any of his other Fab friends; such is the legacy of each of them individually so seismic. His solo career saw him bouncing from reminiscing the good old days to recreating his teenage days all over again, but if one thing’s for certain, only someone with that starry charisma could pull it off.
