Ringo Starr’s favourite Beatles song to play live was actually a cover
Ringo Starr has a unique history with touring and playing live, which wasn’t part of his life for over two decades, but has since once again become his greatest passion.
The Beatles endured a first-of-its-kind issue at the height of their fame, which was that they’d simply become too popular to tour. Not only was the infrastructure not in place, as Shea Stadium proved, for them to play venues that fulfilled demand, but being on the road was also an unnecessary distraction from the studio.
After leaving The Beatles, Ringo remained a studio musician for many years. It took until 1989 for him to start touring with his All-Starr Band, which reignited his love of thrilling audiences and performing the songs that have soundtracked his life.
Furthermore, as much as Starr loves being positioned behind a set of drums, he’s a born performer who treasures being in the limelight at the front of the stage. With The Beatles, his chances were limited at showcasing his skill set, but whenever Starr had his opportunity, he enjoyed every second of the moment.
While The Beatles were the Fab Four, they didn’t act democratically, especially at the start of their careers. The focus was primarily on Paul McCartney and John Lennon, who were the faces of the band and also acted as their chief songwriters. Although George Harrison later came into a life of his own as a writer, it took time, and initially, he was living off scraps with Ringo.
On their first album, Please Please Me, Starr chose to record a cover of ‘Boys’ by The Shirelles for his vocal contribution to the LP. The song only took a single take to nail down, and during the same day, the band miraculously managed to complete the recording process for multiple songs.
However, it’s a song that Starr adores greatly to this day, which he has performed over 800 times as a solo artist. While The Beatles didn’t originally write it, it is Starr’s favourite song that they recorded to play live today. Sentimentally, it’s a piece of music that brings back beautiful memories for Starr, and whenever he sings it, they all come flooding back to him.
Explaining his decision upon being asked his favourite song to play live by Vulture, Starr said: “‘Boys’. I’ve been doing it forever and it’s a girl’s song. A wonderful girl group called the Shirelles did the original. I was performing it with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes before the Beatles, and it just rocks. It makes me smile that I’m still doing this song after all these years.”
Starr isn’t the only member of the Fab Four who has special feelings towards ‘Boys’, even though it’s a deep cut in their back catalogue. McCartney fondly said of ‘Boys’ in Anthology: “Ringo always used to do a song in the show. Back then, he had ‘Boys’. It was a little embarrassing because it went, ‘I’m talking about boys – yeah, yeah – boys’. It was a Shirelles hit, and they were girls singing it, but we never thought we should call it ‘Girls’, just because Ringo was a boy. We just sang it the way they’d sung it and never considered any implications.”
When The Beatles first began touring, ‘Boys’ was a staple in their sets and in total, they performed the musical number live on 129 occasions from 1963 until 1964. It might not be as widely adored as other Beatles songs that Ringo sang, such as ‘Octopus’s Garden’, ‘Yellow Submarine’ or ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. Nevertheless, it immediately transports him back to those early days with the Fab Four when anything seemed possible whenever he performs it, which is a priceless, fuzzy feeling.
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