The vocal performance Ringo Starr was never proud of: “Forgive my throat”
Ringo Starr never claimed to have the strongest voice out of The Beatles. Compared to the front line of the group, Starr was more comfortable hanging in the back, playing the drums and riding through his solo career with a little help from his friends whenever he got the chance. Even though Starr eventually morphed into a great performer on his own, he never thought that he quite did justice to The Beatles’ cover of the blues tune ‘Matchbox’.
Then again, it’s not like anyone was expecting Starr to suddenly turn into the percussive version of Pavarotti or anything. If anything, the idea of giving him tunes to sing himself was more of a novelty on the first few albums, and even if he was a little bit pitchy or struggled to stay on key, it didn’t matter as long as he put some personality behind it.
And from its sound, ‘Matchbox’ feels like the perfect track for Starr to have. For all of the great bluesy tracks that the Fab Four cut together, their harmonies never fit all that well with guttural blues, so giving Starr a track that’s nothing but a bit of good-natured sexualised fun would surely for a decent B-side, right?
Well, yes and no. While The Beatles never exactly struck out when it came to their singles, some of their also-rans never reached the same heights as the ‘Love Me Do’s of the world for a reason, and from the minute ‘Matchbox’ starts, the band sound like they’re trying to fill space on a single rather than putting their hearts into it.
Given their track record of fantastic covers, this one falls slightly flat the minute Starr comes in. There’s a bit of a Stonesy swagger that they might have been going for, but hearing Starr struggle to stay in key and fumble over some of the words sounds like he’s just heard the song for the first time ten minutes before recording and was told to make the most of it.
Despite the track not even being out for a year, Starr was already apologetic about his performance, saying, “I’m featured on it. Actually, it was written by Carl Perkins about six years ago. Carl came to the session. I felt very embarrassed. I did it just two days before I went in the hospital (with tonsilitis) so please forgive my throat.”
Considering this was only the third time that fans got to hear one of Starr’s vocals, though, he did eventually flesh out his voice a little bit more. In fact, one of the best comparisons to ‘Matchbox’ is actually his work on an entirely different Carl Perkins tune: ‘Honey Don’t’ from Beatles for Sale.
Since most of that album was recorded when they were neck deep in Beatlemania, Starr sounds like he’s been singing the tune for years when he comes roaring in, even having enough swagger to ask George Harrison to rock on a little bit for him before the solo kicks in. Starr’s contributions might fill out the bottom of the list for most fans’ favourite Beatles songs, but even if ‘Matchbox’ is far from perfect, The Beatles were still a united front and would make sure that Starr always had a feature on their albums.
