Poor old Ringo! He only played in the second best Rock ‘n’ Roll band in the world, but is remembered as much for voice-overs on children’s TV shows as anything else.
Look though. Regardless of how inept some critics would have you believe he was, he can play drums about a thousand times better than me; he sings a thousand times better than I can (yeah, you’d better believe it!) and there’s also the small matter of him playing on about twenty-seven Number One hits, whereas I’ve played on about…. none!
So, I don’t believe the (anti)-hype! Much respect and all that! With the eclectic list of musicians playing on the various tracks including: Peter Frampton; Elton John; Robbie Robertson; Billy Preston; Nicky Hopkins, and a certain John, Paul and George amongst others, it just has to be good.
Several of the tracks were selected and recorded whilst Ringo was battling through the thick fog of drug abuse from the mid / late seventies and there is a noticeable difference in the quality of music produced after his recovery in the nineties.
‘Hey Baby’ (itself a cover of an old Bruce Channel hit) was later made more (in)famous by DJ Otzi. ‘A Dose Of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ was presumably what inspired Jackson Browne’s ‘Stay’ a couple of years, and ‘Snookeroo’ (written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin!) and ‘No- No Song’ in particular, seem to been used as blueprints for Chas and Dave!
However, with ‘Act Naturally’ – a country song with Buck Owens and recorded in 1989 – ‘Weight Of The World’ (1993), ‘Never Without You’ (2003) and ‘Fading In and Fading Out’ (2005) there is a return to the selection and performance of good, strong compositions.
Of course, the early seventies saw Ringo at his best, when either writing classics like ‘Back Off Boogaloo’ and ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ on his own, or co-writing with George Harrison on ‘Photograph,’ and these are of course included in this twenty song collection.
‘Photograph. The Very Best Of Ringo’ is exactly what it says on the label. And while it may not be ‘cool’ to say you enjoy this, I did. So there!!