The first record Ringo Starr ever bought
No matter who you are, whether an ordinary music fan or a titan at the level of Ringo Starr, buying a record for the first time is a momentous occasion. However, that purchase doesn’t always have to be a seminal album or era-defining song. Sometimes, this pivotal investment can also be a frivolous novelty act, like in the case of the former Beatles drummer.
Starr grew up in a musical household, but he didn’t always boast an exceptional taste in the art form. During an interview with BBC Radio 6 in 2011, the drummer returned to the start of his journey, reminiscing about the records that were dear to him during his early life. Also, he touched upon the piece of art he credits with seducing him to rock ‘n’ roll.
“My family, whenever there was a party, everybody had a party piece, and everybody sang. If there was a piano, they’d play piano, and if there was a banjo, so that’s where I really started hearing it,” Starr said of his introduction into the world of music at the hands of his family.
When probed upon the first record he ever purchased, Starr admitted: “The first record was ‘The Laughing Policeman’.” After being asked who sang the track, the former drummer of The Beatles jokingly reiterated the song title before adding: “I don’t know”.
The novelty ‘The Laughing Policeman’ has been recorded by several artists and was first popularised in the 1890s by George W. Johnson. However, Charles Penrose changed the lyrics and recorded a less-problematic version of the track in 1926, removing racial language.
The track largely contains nonsensical laughing, but Penrose also sings: “I know a fat old policeman, He’s always on our street, A fat and jolly red-faced man, He really is a treat, He’s too kind for a policeman, He’s never known to frown, And everybody says he’s the happiest man in town.”
Starr was likely a very young child when he bought this record, and thankfully, his taste in music soon evolved. The drummer explained: “And then I bought ‘Oh My Papa’, Eddie Calvert, I think it was, and ‘Mama’ (by) David Whitfield. I was a very sentimental young kid, and then what was great was when I was 15, my grandparents took me to the Isle of Man. They had the Bill Haley movie, Rock Around The Clock, and it was just incredible rock ‘n’ roll.”
He continued: “Very stiff when we listen to it now, but the lads, and a lot of them from Liverpool, of course, had the ‘Kiss Me Quick’ hats on. They were all like cowboys, and on holiday, they just ripped up the place, and I thought, ‘Ahh, great! That’s what I want to do.'”
From that moment, Starr never looked back and devoted himself to making music in the style of Haley. Within a few years, he was a prominent figure in the Liverpool scene and less than a decade later, Starr was internationally renowned with The Beatles.
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