Ringo Starr has recorded 13 songs by the other Beatles across his catalogue plus one rare Beatles song. That’s enough to make a standalone album.
Both Paul McCartney and George Harrison each separately contributed five songs each for Ringo releases. Paul had the song ‘Six O’Clock’ on Ringo Starr’s 1973 classic ‘Ringo’ He most recently contributed ‘Feeling the Sunlight’ to 2023’s ‘Rewind Forward’ EP.
Paul wrote ‘Six O’Clock’ specifically for Ringo for the ‘Ringo’ album. Ringo also reached out to his other former bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison.
George’s ‘Sunshine Life For Me’ was written in Ireland while he was staying with singer songwriter Donovan. The songs is about George’s legal woes at the time over the copyright issue with ‘My Sweet Lord’.
‘You and Me (Babe)’ was written by Beatles road manager Mal Evans while he was living in Los Angeles with George Harrison. Mal started the song, George finished it.
George and Ringo did write ‘Photograph’ together. Starr had hired a luxury yacht in the south of France after he and then wife Maureen and George and then wife Patti, attended the wedding of Mick Jagger and Bianca Macias in St Tropez. Another guest on the yacht was Cilla Black thought she was going to get the song for her album but Ringo decided to keep it for his.
John’s I’m The Greatest’ is effectively a Beatles song. Paul is the only one not to appear on it. John plays piano and backing vocals, George is on guitar.
The rare Beatles song Ringo recorded was the 1967 ‘Christmas Time Is Here Again’ recorded for the fanclub. The song was officially released as a limited edition on The Beatles ‘The Christmas Records’ vinyl box set. It was also the b-side of the 1995 ‘Real Love’ single which is also a rarity today.
It wasn’t unusual for Beatles songs to not have all four Beatles on them. John isn’t on “Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘I Me Mine’, Ringo was absent for ‘Back In The USSR’, ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’, Paul is the only Beatle on ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Blackbird’, John is the only Beatle of ‘Julia’ and only Paul and Ringo are on ‘Why Don’t We Do It In the Road’.
The songs by Beatles for Ringo are:
Paul
Six O’Clock (with Linda McCartney) (Ringo, 1973)
Pure Gold (from Ringo’s Rotogravure, 1976)
Private Property (Stop and Spell The Roses, 1981)
Attention (Stop and Spell The Roses, 1981)
Feeling The Sunlight (from Rewind Forward EP, 2023)
John
I’m The Greatest (Ringo, 1973)
(It’s All Down To) Goodnight Vienna (from Goodnight Vienna, 1974)
Cookin’ (In the Kitchen of Love) (from Ringo’s Rotogravure, 1976)
George
Photograph (with Ringo) (Ringo, 1973)
Sunshine Life Me For (Rail Away Raymond) (Ringo, 1973)
You and Me (Babe) (with Mal Evans) (Ringo, 1973)
I’ll Still Love You (from Ringo’s Rotogravure, 1976)
Wrack My Brain (Stop and Spell The Roses, 1981)
Unreleased Beatles
Christmas Time Is Here Again, (from I Wanna Be Santa Claus, 1999)
For the record, the complete list of incomplete Beatles on Beatles songs we found on a recent Reddit thread is:
Act Naturally – Paul, George, Ringo
Yesterday – Paul
Eleanor Rigby – Paul, John, George
Love You To – Paul, George, Ringo
She Said She Said – John, George, Ringo
For No One – Paul, Ringo
She’s Leaving Home – Paul, John
Within You Without You – George
The Inner Light – Paul, John, George
Back in the U.S.S.R – Paul, John, George
Dear Prudence – Paul, John, George
Wild Honey Pie – Paul
Martha My Dear – Paul, George
Blackbird – Paul
Don’t Pass Me By – Paul, Ringo
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road- Paul, Ringo
I Will – Paul, John, Ringo
Julia – John
Mother Nature’s Son – Paul
Long, Long, Long – Paul, George, Ringo
Revolution 9 – John, George
Good Night – Ringo
The Ballad of John and Yoko – Paul, John
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – Paul, George, Ringo
Here Comes The Sun – Paul, George, Ringo
Because – Paul, John, George
Golden Slumbers – Paul, George, Ringo
Her Majesty – Paul
I Me Mine – Paul, George, Ringo
As this can be seen above:
Paul isn’t present in 5 songs (or is present in 96.6% of all Beatles songs)
John isn’t present in 18 songs (or is present in 91.5% of all Beatles songs)
George isn’t present in 12 songs (or is present in 94.3% of all Beatles songs)
Ringo isn’t present in 15 songs (or is present in 92.9% of all Beatles songs)
Congrats whoever MasterpieceApart1098 on Reddit is. Thats some great research.
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