Between 1970 and 1974, Ringo Starr quietly became one of the most successful and dependable pop craftsmen of the era. From swing standards and country ballads to polished pop and adult contemporary classics, his first four albums — Sentimental Journey, Beaucoups of Blues, Ringo, and Goodnight Vienna — chart a career development from childhood nostalgia to maturity.
Four albums. Four different faces of the same man.
Despite the recent ‘Power To The People’ box set from the Lennon Estate, the Wings’ Greatest Hits compilation released this month, and the much heralded ‘Anthology 4’ set on its way from Apple, the quiet reissue of these four albums by UMe might just be the best Beatles release of the year.
SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY (1970)
Rock Star Standards
In early 1970, just as the world was bracing itself for The Beatles’ split, Ringo Starr made a record for his mum.
Sentimental Journey was a love letter to the music of his Liverpool childhood – those post-war singalongs he fondly remembered being rolled out at family gatherings.
Ringo embraced classics like “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Love Is a Many-Splendoured Thing,” and “Dream”. Despite being lushly arranged by a raft of producers - including George Martin, Quincy Jones, and Paul McCartney - Ringo’s delivery has a charm and humility that place these songs squarely in his parents’ living room or in the pub across the road.
The album cover shows the Empress pub in Liverpool, located just around the corner from his childhood home, a cut-out of Ringo standing in the doorway and crudely cropped images of his relatives pasted at the windows.
Critics – and John Lennon – openly scoffed. The counterculture wanted revolution, not reminiscence.
But Ringo was not looking for cool. Amidst the splintered wreckage of his former band, he was looking for comfort.
“[It] was after the break-up, really, and I was lost for a while. That’s well-documented. Suddenly the gig’s finished that I’d been really involved in for eight years. ‘H-oh, what’ll I do now?’ And I just thought of all those songs that I was brought up with, all the parties we’d had in Liverpool at our house and all the neighbours’ houses. Songs my uncles and aunties sang, songs my stepfather sang. So, I called George Martin and said, ‘Why don’t we take a sentimental journey?’ You see, it got me on my feet again, that was the good thing about that album. “
- Ringo, Mojo July 2001
But looking back from 2025, this career left-turn was in its own way ground-breaking: the first time a rock star had made an album of pre-rock standards.
It also allowed Ringo – then still only 29 - to take the first step on a solo career without drawing direct comparison to the Beatles. Listen today and it is warm, funny and utterly charming.
At this remove in 2025 it also seems outrageously prophetic. Before Harry Nilsson or Linda Ronstadt, before Rod’s Great American Songbook series, or Paul’s Kisses on the Bottom, Ringo bridged the gulf between Tin Pan Alley and modern pop.
BEAUCOUPS OF BLUES (1970)
The Liverpool Cowboy
Five months later, Ringo would swap his Talk Of The Town tuxedo for denim and head to Nashville. The resulting album, Beaucoups of Blues, is a quiet masterpiece - a straight country album recorded with pedal steel virtuoso Pete Drake and members of Elvis Presley’s band, among others.
“George was making an album, and I sent my car for this steel guitarist and producer Pete Drake, from Nashville. So, Pete came and he noticed in my car I had all these country tapes. I don’t know why he was shocked at this, but he goes, ‘Wow, you’ve got all these country tapes!’ ‘Yeah. I love country music.’ He said, ‘Well, why don’t you come to Nashville, and we’ll make a record?’
- Ringo, Mojo July 2001
Drake having compiled a selection of newly written songs before Ringo’s arrival, the album was finished in three days at RCA’s Studio B.
The sessions perfectly captured Ringo’s personality. Always a fan of country music this is not parody, pastiche, or side-project. His voice unvarnished, honest, and tender, Ringo inhabits these songs with genuine affection.
Some of these songs about heartbreak, loss, and redemption sound like metaphors for the Beatles’ breakup. Even John Lennon liked it – sort of:
“I think it’s a good record. I wouldn’t buy any of it. I think it’s a good record and I was pleasantly surprised …. and I didn’t feel as embarrassed as I did about his first record.”
-John Lennon, 1970
At a time when most rock stars approached Nashville with a smirk - if at all - Ringo arrived with absolute respect, and was repaid in kind. The result is one of the most authentic country records ever made by an Englishman.
Unfairly overlooked by Beatles fans, Beaucoups of Blues was and is in its own way a radical project that stands the test of time.
Ringo’s return to the genre in 2025 with Look Up, the promotion of which was crowned by an appearance at the Grand Ol’ Opry, deservedly gave him a number one on the UK's Official Americana and Country Artists charts.
RINGO (1973)
A Fabulous Creation
By 1973, The Beatles may have been three years gone, but they were not forgotten. Solo albums and singles swamped the charts, not least Ringo’s two standalone singles, It Don’t Come Easy (No. 4 in the UK and in the US) and Back Off Boogaloo (No. 2 in the UK and No.9 in the US).
Then came Ringo, an album that reunited the Beatles, emotionally if not literally.
Produced by Richard Perry, this album exudes craftsmanship. Perry’s production is lush but never heavy-handed; the arrangements sparkle and the harmonies – often the work of Harry Nilsson – shimmer.
Each ex-Beatle contributes. John Lennon’s “I’m the Greatest” gets the part started; Paul McCartney’s “Six O’clock” is sweetly tender; but it is Ringo’s co-write with George Harrison, “Photograph” provides the album’s centrepiece.
The supporting cast is equally stellar — Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Marc Bolan, Levon Helm, and Garth Hudson.
“Photograph” became a global No. 1 single. Arguably the best solo single from any ex-Beatle, it is certainly Ringo’s finest moment. In a year filled with nostalgia for the rock’n’roll of the 1950s – Ringo’s cover of “You’re Sixteen,” featuring McCartney on kazoo, returned him to the top of the U.S. charts later in the year. “Oh My My” reached No.5 in the US.
In the increasingly fractured musical landscape of the early 1970’s, dominated by the hard rock of Led Zeppelin and at the other extreme the confessional singer-songwriting of James Taylor, Ringo offered fun, entertainment, and a sense of community; an aspect perfectly reflected in the cover art.
In turbulent times, it was an album that children and adults, critics and fans could all love. Perfectly produced pop with heart. Just like his other band.
GOODNIGHT VIENNA (1974)
Pure Pop for Grown-Ups
After the triumph of Ringo, the follow-up could easily have been a stumble. Instead, Goodnight Vienna arrived as a confident companion piece — smoother, more polished, and perfectly tailored for mid-’70s FM radio.
John Lennon was back with the swaggering title track; a rollicking album opener that radiates joy and friendship. Lennon’s arrangement of “Only You (And You Alone)” transforms the Platters classic into soft-pop elegance and provided Ringo with a single that reached No.6 in the US., cementing his unexpected transformation into adult-pop star.
Back in the producer’s chair, Richard Perry gives Goodnight Vienna a crisp sheen: punchy horns, smooth backing vocals, and just enough funk to keep the album grounded.
Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s “Snookeroo” is an upbeat, affectionate portrait of a Liverpool lad made good. The humorous “No No Song”, a faintly reggae-tinged - and in Ringo’s hands in 1974 ironic - anti-drug anthem, gave him another US Top 5 hit. Roger Miller’s “Husbands and Wives” and Harry Nilsson’s “Easy for Me” provide the slightly maudlin heartbreak; Ringo’s marriage was on the rocks by 1974.
The overall result is perhaps Ringo’s most mature record — part pop album, part hangout, and part hangover. It’s the sound of a man comfortable in his own skin, enjoying playing good songs with good friends.
History tends to regard Ringo as the affable Beatle, the joker behind the drumkit. But listen to those early solo albums and you hear something far subtler — a musician who completely understood that emotional connection matters more than musical innovation or complexity.
Across these four albums, it is possible to trace both the beginnings of Ringo’s evolution as a solo artist and the broader arc of early-’70s popular music. And each step feels effortless, as if Ringo were simply following the music that made him happy and in doing so just happened to capture the new decade’s cultural and emotional shift.
Four albums. Four distinct styles. These albums are not about virtuosity, or enlightenment, or sloganeering, they are about comfort and camaraderie. That is why they endure.
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