#121: With A Little Help From My Friends

Written by: John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Released: June 1, 1967
Appears on: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Lead vocal: Ringo

"With A Little Help From My Friends" has become Ringo's signature song - the one he has to perform at every show. (I've seen him do it twice and it's always fun.) The song was born as "Bad Finger Boogie" and probably the easiest track to record on the album. The only strange instrument on the track is John's cowbell (which is the only instrument he plays on the track). George Martin adds a Hammond organ part and Paul puts in a piano part. George is on lead guitar and Ringo, of course, plays drums and tambourine. 
Paul wrote the tune and Ringo always loves to tell the story about What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me? Ringo himself felt it necessary to change it  to stand up and walk out on me (although, I think the fact that tomatoes was just one too many syllables didn't help the line). 
The back-up harmonies are also great. It turns the song into a hilarious 'call-and-response' spoof. The lyrics just add to the hilarity. There is nothing - absolutely nothing - funnier than What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you, but I know it's mine.
In Paul's Sgt. Pepper dream world, Ringo plays "Billy Shears", singing this happy-go-lucky song. It's funny that the previous song seems to frame the role as the lead singer of this imaginary band, but he's played by a guy who was lucky to be able to get one song on an album. That's just another one of those Beatle in-jokes, I think. 
Since its first appearance on Sgt. Pepper's, the track has always appeared attached to the title track. Nowhere else in the Beatles catalog have two songs been so connected. There has never been an officially released fade-in mix, although making one yourself is pretty easy these days. So, the release history is the same as the title track and you can check the post on that song. 
Even on the radio, you'll never hear the two separated. It's much like radio's insistence on never separating Queen's "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions".
In 1968, the song got some big attention as Joe Cocker's first hit on his first album. It's radically different and actually pretty good, but I'll always appreciate Ringo's sweet, innocent original more.        

#108: Yellow Submarine

Written by: John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Released: August 5, 1966
Appears on: Revolver
Lead vocal: Ringo

In the town, where I was born
Lived a man, who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines...


...Thus starts one of the most fun songs the Beatles ever recorded. Sure its a children's song and Ringo's vocal confirms that, but it's still infectious beyond belief. The song is 44 years old and yet if you listen to it today, you'll still get that chorus stuck in your head for days on end. WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE, A YELLOW SUBMARINE...A YELLOW SUBMARINE!!!! 
It was the first time the Beatles had an opportunity to essentially record a party and release it. Singer Marianne Faithful, Stone Brian Jones, roadies Neil Aspinall & Mal Evans, George Martin, engineer Geoff Emerick and George's wife Patti can all be heard contributing backing vocals. Mal also plays the bass drum on the track, augmenting the sparse instrumentation by the Beatles themselves. The only guitar on the track is John's acoustic, with George playing tambourine, Ringo on drums and Paul on bass. 

As for the lyrics...well, what is there to say about a story about sailing on a yellow submarine? I guess you could say that there's some universal, philosophical message that we all live on earth, our very own 'yellow submarine'. Paul wrote the song specifically with Ringo in mind and John and Donovan helped polish it. (Donovan supposedly just came up with the line sky of blue, sea of green, which must have been so difficult.)
"Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby" were released as a double A-Sided single on the same day as Revolver's release and the single stayed at the #1 position on all the major UK charts for 4 weeks. It was the only Ringo vocal to be released on either side of a single in the UK (in the US, Capitol released several of Ringo's songs as B-Sides). 
The song's child-like nature made it a natural choice to be used as a launching point for an animated Beatles movie, which happened in 1969. I'll talk more about that when we get to the songs that premiered in that film. Also, the song has been on several compilations, including A Collection Of Beatles Oldies, the original Yellow Submarine soundtrack, 1962-1966 (where it and "Eleanor Rigby" were the only representatives for Revolver), the UK 20 Greatest Hits, Reel Music, Yellow Submarine Songtrack and 1.


WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE!!!! Sing along! A YELLOW SUBMARINE! A YELLOW SUBMARINE!!!! WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE!!!!...                    

#94: What Goes On

Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney & Richard Starkey
Released: December 3, 1965
Appears on: Rubber Soul
Lead vocal: Ringo


Unfortunately on George's birthday, I get to talk about one of the most unremarkable Beatles songs. 
"What Goes On" was apparently written by John prior to the Beatles getting a recording contract. He believed that the track could be a good follow-up to "Please Please Me", but this never materialized. Plans were made to record the song the same day as the "One After 909" takes that appear on Anthology 1 were recorded, but this also never happened. Over the years, Paul worked on it, extending the verses and fixing the chorus (John is quoted as saying that Paul wrote the 'middle eight', but the song has no real middle eight). Ringo has always joked about what he actually did. He said at a press conference that he wrote "About five words, and I haven't done a thing since!" It's entirely possible that Paul had included him in his re-writing of the song since they were planning on giving it to him. 
In the end, the version we know of today is a fun country song that was somehow chosen to open side two of Rubber Soul. It's a perfect fit for Ringo, but it really isn't one of the Beatles' most noteworthy songs. George pulls off another Carl Perkins-esque solo, almost as if somebody forget to tell him that it wasn't a Perkins number! 
Typically, if a Ringo song isn't "Yellow Submarine", it doesn't get included on a compilation. This is true for "What Goes On". It never appeared anywhere else. In the US, however, the song was released on Yesterday And Today because it was one of the songs taken off of Rubber Soul. It was first released as the B-Side of "Nowhere Man" for the same reason that "Act Naturally" was the B-Side to "Yesterday". Ringo was still incredibly popular in the States. 
This used to be one of those rare Beatles songs that Ringo never performed, but during the last two All-Starr tours, he has dusted the song off. 
"What Goes On" proves that even the Lennon & McCartney team was not invincible and every now and then, a dud could be produced by the two.    

#78: Act Naturally

Written by: Johnny Russel & Voni Morrison
Released: August 6, 1965
Appears on: HELP!
Lead vocal: Ringo


The Beatles were always good for a laugh, but they usually kept their humor off their records...until this one. 

Ringo was originally given the worst song John & Paul ever wrote, "If You've Got Trouble" (summed up by Ringo yelling "Oh, rock on...anyBODY!" during the solo) for HELP! Thankfully that song was quickly dropped because it just sucked. Instead, Ringo got to flex his rockabilly muscles again with a cover of Buck Owen's "Act Naturally" (done here on TV in 1965). 
The funniest thing about the song is the cruel irony. Ringo was thrown into the spot-light, thanks to his solo sequence in A Hard Day's Night and it was assumed that he would make a great actor. This is why Richard Lester made the story of HELP! revolve around him. (If you watch the Anthology, though, Ringo reveals that that wasn't acting in A Hard Day's Night - it was a drunk's walk-through of London.) Of course, Ringo isn't that great an actor (and as HELP! shows, none of them were - they were only good at playing themselves, which they obviously weren't in that film), so to have him sing a song about a misplaced 'actor' is a great idea.  
It also opened the non-film side of HELP! The British LP followed the same sequence as A Hard Day's Night. While "Act Naturally" may seem to signal that the second side of HELP! might all be filler, this is quickly proved incorrect by the next song. 


The Beatles obviously were hoping that "Act Naturally" would become an obscure joke, but Capitol in the US made sure that wasn't about to happen. Capitol, again capitalizing on the US's love for Ringo, released it as the B-Side to a much more important song. Thus, The Beatles performed it on the 1965 US tour and Ringo performs it to this day. In 1989, while Ringo was attempting a comeback from alcoholism, he recorded the song again with Buck Owens for Capitol. That was actually a success, reaching #27 on the Billboard country charts.    

#64: Honey Don't

Written by: Carl Perkins
Released: December 4, 1964
Appears on: Beatles For Sale
Lead vocal: Ringo


Back when I wrote about "Matchbox", I mentioned that it was one of two songs the Beatles recorded where they switched vocalists. "Honey Don't" is the other. John had been singing this Carl Perkins number (here's the awesome original) as late as August, 1963 when they recorded it for the BBC. This version featuring John is on 'Live At The BBC'. 
Since Ringo hadn't been given an original song to sing since "I Want To Be Your Man", John & Paul obviously felt that there was no reason to break Ringo's streak of covers. So, John gave up "Honey Don't" to Ringo. Of course, hearing John do it is great, but again, nobody sings rockabilly like Ringo. 
The song is a lot of fun and you can tell that they had fun making it. Ringo gets to yell "Rock on, George, for Ringo one time!" Still, it's impossible not to get that same feeling you get from all the other covers here - that they feel forced to do these old songs after an album full of originals. 


In the US, the song came up on Beatles '65. 
It's kind of funny how Ringo still does this at every single show he does. He also felt that it was necessary to do it at The Concert For George, even though it might have been classier for him to find another Perkins song to do.  

#41: Matchbox

Written by: Carl Perkins
Released: June 19, 1964
Appears on: Long Tall Sally (EP) & Past Masters, Vol. 1
Lead vocal: Ringo

The last song on the Long Tall Sally EP is the sole Ringo song that didn't appear on an album - a cover of Carl Perkins's "Matchbox".

"Matchbox" is one of only two songs that the Beatles covered where the singer on the recorded version was not the one that always sang it. John was the Beatle assigned to "Matchbox" all through the Cavern and Hamburg years. However, by 1964, it had become a Ringo song, who loved Carl Perkins almost as much as John loved Larry Williams, Paul loved Little Richard and George loved Chuck Berry.

Probably one of the reasons why Ringo got to do this song was because they knew they couldn't give him a shot on A Hard Day's Night, so they gave him a consolation prize.

Ringo has the perfect voice for this song and it proves that his real talent lied in singing rockabilly numbers (in fact, probably one of the best Beatle solo records is his country album, Beaucoups of Blues). It's like he was born in England, but should have come from some backwater Texas town.

As we all know, Capitol did some bizarre things to make as much money as they could off the Beatles name during 1964 and, probably the most bizarre thing they did was release the "Slow Down" b/w "Matchbox" 45. It made a lot of money for Capitol, reaching #17 on Billboard, but it was still a silly release. It was the only time where Capitol got its wish to make money off the Beatles' covers and it made Capitol even happier, since neither had appeared on an LP (yet...they appeared on Something New shortly after the 45). They also got a chance to cash in on America's bizarre love for anything Ringo. It also didn't hurt that the single would be popular in the Southeast, where Country is (still) king.

Next up: we get to the meat of A Hard Day's Night!!!!

#30: I Want To Be Your Man

Written by: John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Released: November 22nd, 1963
Appears on: with the beatles
Lead vocal: Ringo

Ringo does a fine version of this pedestrian song that John and Paul literally threw together for the Rolling Stones. In 1963, the Stones had yet to hit it big, so they were looking for a hit single. Eventually, they bumped into John and Paul during a lunch break. The two tossed "I Want To Be Your Man" to them and it quickly became their first Top-20 single in England. You can find their version here.

At this point, the Lennon/McCartney team were banging out songs for just about everybody under Brian Epstein's management, but never actually recorded any of those songs*, so it is surprising that "I Want To Be Your Man" (a song written for a non-Epstein group) was recorded by the group. They probably did it just to fill a slot on the album and to give Ringo a spot. Still, it's a pretty frantic, rockin' song that also became Ringo's spotlight on tour in the US.

*For the obsessive compulsive people, the Billy J. Kramer 45, "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" b/w "I'll Get You", was recorded after The Beatles released their versions.

#9: Boys

Written by: Luther Dixon & Wes Farrell
Released: March 22nd, 1963
Appears on: Please Please Me
Lead vocal: Ringo

You know how when you watch an old movie and you say to yourself (or the person you're watching the movie with) "They couldn't get away with that today"? For example, you watch the greatest movie ever made, Walt Disney's Pinocchio from 1940. Now, there is no way an animated, G-rated film today could possibly get away with showing children chewing and smoking tobacco and calling themselves jackasses.
In today's music world, there is no way possible that a rock group is going to cover a girl group song like "Boys". They could get away with songs like "Please Mr. Postman", "Chains" or "Baby It's You", but a song like "Boys" is not something a group today would touch. Granted, there's nothing in the song that could be taken as homosexual or anything if a man sings it, but who listens to lyrics anyway?
The song is just about what the singer has heard about what happens "when a boy kisses a girl". So, the singer could easily be male or female.
The original song was recorded by the Shirells, who also recorded "Baby It's You", and written by Luthor Dixon and Wes Farrell (who wrote "Come On, Get Happy" and "Hang On Sloopy"). The Beatles' version, which was recorded in one take during the marathon that gave us the whole album, was Ringo's debut song. During the Cavern days, it was Ringo's song, so they figured, why not give him a shot on the album. (Pete Best sang the song before Ringo joined and Ringo had made the song his own with Rory Storm & The Hurricanes.) It's a quick song, doing nothing really interesting to distinguish itself, but it is a fun, innocent little corner of Please Please Me.