Ringo Starr has released a new version of Choose Love as the latest single from the upcoming album Long Long Road, revisiting the song first recorded for his 2005 album while continuing his collaboration with producer T Bone Burnett.
by Paul Cashmere
Ringo Starr has issued Choose Love as the latest single from his forthcoming album Long Long Road, offering a newly recorded interpretation of the song that first appeared on his 2005 album of the same name. The track arrives as the second preview of the new record, following the March release of the single It’s Been Too Long featuring Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz.
Long Long Road will be released on April 24, 2026 through Universal Music Enterprises and will become Starr’s 22nd studio album. Produced by T Bone Burnett and recorded between Nashville and Los Angeles, the project continues the partnership that delivered the 2025 album Look Up, a record that reintroduced Starr to country and Americana audiences.
The new recording of Choose Love reflects the album’s broader theme, drawing connections between different periods of Starr’s solo career. On the upcoming album the track features guest vocals from St Vincent, bringing a contemporary voice to a song originally written by Starr with longtime collaborators Mark Hudson and Gary Burr.
“I’m blessed to have T Bone in my life right now and working with me on these records,” Starr said when discussing the new album. “After we did the last record, which I love listening to, this one just sort of happened. I like to say sometimes I make the right moves, like you can go left or right at any point, and one of the right moves was hooking up with T Bone for Look Up, and now for this one, which I’m calling Long Long Road, because I’ve been on a long long road.”
The original Choose Love album was released in June 2005 in the United States and later that year in the United Kingdom. It was Starr’s fourteenth studio album and was recorded between 2004 and 2005 with the same creative team that had worked on his late 1990s and early 2000s albums Vertical Man and Ringo Rama.
Produced by Starr and Mark Hudson, the album featured the studio group often referred to as The Roundheads and included appearances from Billy Preston and Chrissie Hynde. Like several of Starr’s solo albums from that era, Choose Love combined contemporary rock production with lyrical references to the Beatles legacy.
‘Choose Love’ stood out for its deliberate musical nods to the band that launched Starr’s career. The song was built around a guitar figure reminiscent of mid 1960s Beatles recordings and included lyrical references to songs such as The Long And Winding Road, Tomorrow Never Knows and What Goes On. Another line nodded to Starr’s own solo hit It Don’t Come Easy, while the phrase “you’ve got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues” echoed the lyric used in the song Photograph.
By revisiting Choose Love two decades later, Starr brings that song into a different musical environment shaped by the Nashville based musicians surrounding the Long Long Road sessions. Producer T Bone Burnett assembled a group of players who also worked on the Look Up album, including Paul Franklin, David Mansfield, Dennis Crouch, Daniel Tashian, Rory Hoffman, Patrick Warren and Colin Linden.
Burnett has spoken openly about his admiration for Starr’s musicianship and his belief that Starr’s style sits comfortably within American roots traditions. “I’ve loved Ringo’s playing and his singing for my whole life,” Burnett said. “One night we were at a poetry reading together and he said, why don’t you write a song for me? So I wrote him a Gene Autry type song because I always heard Ringo as a Texas artist. The way he played felt just like Texas music to me.”
Long Long Road also reflects Starr’s long standing interest in country music, a connection that dates back to his 1970 album Beaucoups Of Blues which was recorded in Nashville shortly after the end of The Beatles.
The previous ‘Look Out’ led to a notable milestone when Starr made his debut appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in February 2025 after being invited by Emmylou Harris during concerts at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Long Long Road will be released on April 24, 2026.
Long Long Road Tracklisting
Returning Without Tears
Baby Don’t Go
I Don’t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore
It’s Been Too Long
Why
You And I (Wave Of Love)
My Baby Don’t Want Nothing
Choose Love (featuring St Vincent)
She’s Gone
Long Long Road
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