Post by erik on Sept 9, 2023 20:46:06 GMT -5
The one Beatle who many detractors said would fail as a solo artist is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with the first of many memorable post-Fab Four solo hits.
IT DON’T COME EASY (Ringo Starr; Apple: 1971)—It was always assumed that, of all of the four Beatles, Ringo Starr would be the one to suffer the most following the group’s catastrophic disbanding in 1970 when it came time to get a solo career in order. And in fact, he did have quite a hard time doing so. His first solo album Sentimental Journey, which came out at about the time of the Beatles’ break-up and was a collection of American pop standards, was a critical and commercial catastrophe. The follow-up, Beaucoups of Blues, a country-and-western project recorded in Nashville and released in September 1970, did better on both critical and commercial counts, but it too failed to yield any hits. But with the help of his fellow ex-Beatle George Harrison, Ringo did indeed find his way to solo success. Unlike his fellow Beatles, Ringo wasn’t exactly known as a songwriter (though “Don’t Pass Me By”, a C&W-slanted song of his, was featured on the group’s 1968 White Album); but even while the group was beginning to have the internal arguments that led to its collapse, he had gotten a song together in his head that was tentatively titled “You Gotta Pay Your Dues”. He wanted to write the song to combat the idea that somehow he was this downtrodden figure in the greatest rock band that there ever was. With Harrison’s help, he recorded this song, now titled “It Don’t Come Easy”, at London’s Trident Studios in spurts during March and October 1970, all the while as Ringo was featured on Harrison’s triple-LP release All Things Must Pass. As Ringo didn’t have an album coming out just yet, “It Don’t Come Easy” was released as a non-album single in March 1971; and to a lot of people’s surprises, except for his fellow Beatles, the song became a very big hit, reaching #4 in both America and England in May of that year. Ringo would continue to have hits throughout the rest of the 1970’s and early 1980’s; and in later years, he would tour with his All-Starr Band, a musical aggregation that would include, among others, Eagles’ guitarist Joe Walsh. He was inducted along with his fellow Beatles into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988; and twenty-seven years later, in 2015, he was inducted a second time for his own solo work.
IT DON’T COME EASY (Ringo Starr; Apple: 1971)—It was always assumed that, of all of the four Beatles, Ringo Starr would be the one to suffer the most following the group’s catastrophic disbanding in 1970 when it came time to get a solo career in order. And in fact, he did have quite a hard time doing so. His first solo album Sentimental Journey, which came out at about the time of the Beatles’ break-up and was a collection of American pop standards, was a critical and commercial catastrophe. The follow-up, Beaucoups of Blues, a country-and-western project recorded in Nashville and released in September 1970, did better on both critical and commercial counts, but it too failed to yield any hits. But with the help of his fellow ex-Beatle George Harrison, Ringo did indeed find his way to solo success. Unlike his fellow Beatles, Ringo wasn’t exactly known as a songwriter (though “Don’t Pass Me By”, a C&W-slanted song of his, was featured on the group’s 1968 White Album); but even while the group was beginning to have the internal arguments that led to its collapse, he had gotten a song together in his head that was tentatively titled “You Gotta Pay Your Dues”. He wanted to write the song to combat the idea that somehow he was this downtrodden figure in the greatest rock band that there ever was. With Harrison’s help, he recorded this song, now titled “It Don’t Come Easy”, at London’s Trident Studios in spurts during March and October 1970, all the while as Ringo was featured on Harrison’s triple-LP release All Things Must Pass. As Ringo didn’t have an album coming out just yet, “It Don’t Come Easy” was released as a non-album single in March 1971; and to a lot of people’s surprises, except for his fellow Beatles, the song became a very big hit, reaching #4 in both America and England in May of that year. Ringo would continue to have hits throughout the rest of the 1970’s and early 1980’s; and in later years, he would tour with his All-Starr Band, a musical aggregation that would include, among others, Eagles’ guitarist Joe Walsh. He was inducted along with his fellow Beatles into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988; and twenty-seven years later, in 2015, he was inducted a second time for his own solo work.