Today's Birthdays

one click shows all of today's celebrity birthdays

Browse All Birthdays

43,625    Actors
27,931    Actresses
4,867    Composers
7,058    Directors
842    Footballers
221    Racing drivers
925    Singers
9,111    Writers

Get FamousLikeMe on your website
One line of code gets FamousLikeMe on your website. Find out more.

Subscribe to Daily updates


Add to Google

privacy policy



Famous Like Me > Actor > S > Ringo Starr

Profile of Ringo Starr on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Ringo Starr  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 7th July 1940
   
Place of Birth: Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK
   
Profession: Actor
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Ringo Starr as photographed by John Kelly for the 1968 LP The Beatles (aka 'The White Album').

Richard Starkey, MBE (born July 7, 1940), known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is a popular British musician, best known as drummer for The Beatles. Ringo is known for his reliable, steady drumming and innovative fills. His everyman personality made him an easy fit with the other Beatles. He was the eldest member of the band.

Starr married Maureen Cox in 1965, and they had three children, Zak, Jason, and Lee. The couple divorced in 1975; and in 1981 Starr married actress Barbara Bach, most famous for her role as Major Amasova (female lead and main "Bond Girl") in The Spy Who Loved Me.


Early years

Starr's parents split up when he was young; and his mother re-married (to Harry Graves). He was raised in the working class Dingle area of Liverpool. He went through two serious illnesses as a child and spent a total of three years in hospital, thereby falling considerably behind in school; after his last visit to the hospital, at age 15, he could barely read and write.

Like the other Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, young Ritchie (as he was known in those days) also eventually became caught up in Liverpool's Skiffle craze. In 1957, he started his own group with Eddie Miles called The Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group; then he joined the Raving Texans in 1959, a quartet that played while Rory Storm sang. During this time, he got the nickname Ringo, because of the rings he wore, and because it sounded "cowboyish", and the last name Starr so that his drum solos could be billed as "Starr Time".

Starr first met the Beatles in Hamburg, in October 1960, while he was performing with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. When the Beatles removed Pete Best as their drummer on August 16, 1962, Starr was their choice to replace him.

Although Storm was magnanimous about losing to Starr, Best fans were upset, holding vigils outside Best's house and fighting at the Cavern Club, shouting "Pete Best forever! Ringo never!"

Role in The Beatles

Starr's drumming style played a pivotal role in the music played and recorded by The Beatles. He filled a role that he was hired for in 1963, then went on to establish a new approach to rhythm in popular music that continues to grow in its significance and influence with every decade since the Beatles recorded their music. Starr is left-handed yet plays a right-handed kit; his tendency to lead with his left hand contributes to his distinctive drumming style.

"Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity," said drummer Steve Smith. "Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm in how the public saw drummers. We started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for the Beatles songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and still identify the song."

Many drummers list Starr as a major influence including Max Weinberg of The E Street Band, Liberty DeVitto of Billy Joel's band, Phil Collins, and others. According to Collins, Starr is "vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song 'A Day in the Life' are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' They wouldn't know what to do." In his extensive survey of The Beatles' recording sessions, Mark Lewisohn confirmed that Starr was both proficient and remarkably reliable and consistent. According to Lewisohn there were less than a dozen occasions in the Beatles' eight-year recording career where session 'breakdowns' were caused by Starr making a mistake, while the vast majority of takes were stopped due to mistakes by the other three members. Starr has commented that the most difficult drumming he has ever performed was on the Beatles song "Rain". Starr is also notable for having advanced various modern drumming techniques (for playing and recording) such as the matched grip, placing the drums on high risers for visibility as part of the band, tuning the drums lower, using muffling devices on tonal rings, along with his general contributions to the Beatles as a whole.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison have all said that Starr was the best rock and roll drummer in the world, although when asked in an interview once "Is Ringo Starr the best drummer in the world?" Lennon quipped "He's not the best drummer in the Beatles!" This was in reference to the songs on 1968's White Album "Back In The USSR" and "Dear Prudence", the first two tracks on the album, in which McCartney handled the drumming; Starr had walked out earlier and did not return for two weeks until the other three Beatles urged him to come back. They even went so far as to dress up his drum kit in flowers when he returned. McCartney also played the drums on "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in early 1969 since only Lennon and McCartney were immediately available to record the song. Starr also did not play drums on some of the recordings of "Love Me Do" as the session drummer Andy White was brought in by the Beatles' producer George Martin.

Starr's easygoing, everyman personality played a major role in the Beatles' success, combining very effectively, Lennon's wit, McCartney's charm, and Harrison's quiet seriousness. With these qualities The Beatles became the "Fab Four". Starr also contributed in areas where the others were weak like public relations (Starr did most of the talking during their press conferences) and acting (Starr being the only competent actor of the four, being cast in the lead roles in their feature films and specials).

Starr generally sang at least one song on each studio album, as part of establishing the vocal personality of all four members. In some cases Lennon or McCartney would write the lyrics and melody especially for him, as Lennon did with "With a Little Help from My Friends", from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and as McCartney did for "Yellow Submarine" from Revolver. Often these melodies would be deliberately limited to take into account Starr's vocal range—most of "With A Little Help From My Friends" is sung within the space of five notes.

Of the four Beatles, Starr did the least songwriting. The Beatles explained that when he would present a song as a contender for an album cut, the song would sound (to the other three Beatles) like a knockoff of another popular song, but Starr did not recognize the similarities until they pointed it out. He did, however, write "Don't Pass Me By" (on The White Album) and "Octopus's Garden" on the album Abbey Road, albeit with quite a bit of help from Harrison. The White Album continued to show Starr's taste for country music that he had brought into the band earlier, such as on the Rubber Soul' album track "What Goes On", which was co-written by Lennon, McCartney and Starr. Starr also wrote "Taking a Trip to Carolina" (on the second CD of the Let It Be... Naked release), and received joint writing credits with the other three Beatles for "Flying", "Dig It", "12-Bar Original", "Los Paranoias", "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", and the Beatles' version of "Free As A Bird", while "Maggie Mae" was credited as being "Traditional arr. Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey".

In addition Starr contributed a number of lyrical ideas and song titles to Lennon and McCartney, although sometimes unintentionally. One of the most famous examples of this was the title for the band's first motion picture, A Hard Day's Night. Starr had emerged from the studio after a long day of work and commented to the others that it had been a "hard day's..." - before he finished his sentence, Starr noticed that it was now night time and added "night". Lennon and McCartney liked the twisted phrase enough that they decided to use it as the title for the still untitled movie the band had been filming. Another example is the title to "Tomorrow Never Knows". Starr also contributed to the lyrics of the Clapton/Harrison song "Badge". According to a Clapton interview, the lines

I told you 'bout the swans that live in the park.
Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to Mabel.

were thought up by Starr.

Beatles in the Philippines

The Beatles went to the Philippines in 1966 to perform. When they came back, none of them had any pleasant memories of their visitation. Ringo Starr was particularly distraught by the experience. From "the Beatles Anthology", Ringo Starr said, "I hated the Philippines", due to the hostile attitudes of the inhabitants that they received.

Why?

According to "Anthology," Starr recounts how President Ferdinand Marcos' wife Imelda had expected a private audience with the Beatles, which the group passed up as it fell on their day off. That night, Imelda Marcos went on Philippine TV to lambast the Beatles, stirring public outrage against them. As they attempted to leave the country, security forces manhandled them as riled up crowds chanted threats; at some points during their flight the security threatened to throw the group to the mobs.

After the Beatles

After the breakup of the Beatles on April 10, 1970, Starr scored hit singles with "It Don't Come Easy" and "Back Off Boogaloo". The latter has been his biggest UK hit at #2, although he has achieved two #1 hits in the US with "Photograph" (co-written with Harrison) and "You're Sixteen".

He also participated in The Concert For Bangla Desh organised by Harrison in 1971, as well as drumming on Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and Yoko Ono's early solo work. Indeed, his song "Early 1970" (the B-side of "It Don't Come Easy") voiced a hope that he could remain friendly with and play music with all three of his former Beatles bandmates.

In 1973 the Ringo album came out, lushly produced by Richard Perry and with participation by all three former bandmates on different tracks. It was a major triumph and Starr became the most commercially successful ex-Beatle at that time. The Goodnight Vienna album followed the next year and was also successful. Hits and notable tracks from these two albums included "Photograph", "You're Sixteen", "I'm the Greatest" (written by Lennon), "Only You (And You Alone)", and "No No Song".

Starr's recording career subsequently diminished in impact, although he continued to sporadically release albums. Beginning in 1989 he became a visible presence on the summer touring scene, organizing a series of concert tours under the name Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, teaming with well-known musicians from various different rock eras. The format of the concerts has Ringo singing a couple of his Beatles or solo songs, then each of the other musicians taking a turn to sing one of their songs with Ringo behind the drums, then Ringo singing a couple more, then another go around, and so on. In this way Ringo is relieved from having to carry the full burden of the show and the audience gets to hear a variety of music. The eighth such All-Starr Band tour took place in 2003.

Other than the films Ringo did with the Beatles, (A Hard Day's Night (1964), Help (1965), Magical Mystery Tour (1967), Yellow Submarine (1968), Let It Be (1970), he has acted in several films such as, Candy (1968), The Magic Christian (1969) (alongside Peter Sellers), Son of Dracula (1974) and Caveman (1980). He starred as Larry the Dwarf in Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (1971). His voice is featured in Harry Nilsson's animated film The Point! (1971). He was especially well-received in the British film That'll Be the Day (1973) where he co-starred as a Teddy boy. He also played "The Pope" in Ken Russell's Lisztomania (1975).

In 1978, he started a furniture company with Robin Cruikshank and sold $4,000 coffee tables and a donut-shaped fireplace designed by Starr. short article and picture

When John Lennon was shot in 1980, Ringo was the first to come to comfort Yoko.

In 1984, he narrated on the children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and portrayed the character Mr. Conductor on that program's American spinoff Shining Time Station, which debuted in 1989.

In 1985, he played the Mock Turtle in the film version of "Alice in Wonderland."

Ringo lent his voice on The Simpsons episode, Brush with Greatness in 1991.

In 1991, he appeared as himself on the cartoon The Simpsons. In 1996, he appeared in a Japanese advertisement for apple sauce; coincidentally, ringo (林檎) and sutta are Japanese for apple and grated respectively, implying grated apple.

In the mid-1990's, Starr appeared in a Pizza Hut advertisement, pronouncing that the time is ripe for "the lads" to get back together. At the commercial's pay-off, he is joined by three members of The Monkees and quips to the camera, "Wrong lads."

In 2002 Starr was inducted into the Percussive Hall of Fame joining the elite group of percussive inductees, which includes Buddy Rich and William F. Ludwig, Sr. and his son.

On November 29, 2002, Starr performed "Photograph" at the Concert For George held in the Royal Albert Hall, London on the first anniversary of Harrison's death. According to the official website, "Ringo Starr caught everyone with a tear in their eye with a rendition of Photograph, a composition he wrote with George, which seemed to sum up how everyone felt."

In 2003 Starr began recording for the independent label Koch Records, releasing Ringo Rama that year and Choose Love in 2005; the former includes his stylish tribute to Harrison called "Never Without You", and the latter features appearances by Billy Preston and Chrissie Hynde.

In January of 2005, it was announced that comic book creator Stan Lee would be working with Starr to produce a new animated musical superhero based on Starr.

In September 2005 Liverpool City Council decided they would bulldoze Starr's birthplace as it had "no historical significance". , despite a previous reprieve back in July. . The LCC later announced that the building would be taken apart brick by brick and preserved after all.

All-Starr Band editions

  1. 1989 Ringo Starr, Clarence Clemons, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Dr. John, Jim Keltner, Nils Lofgren, Billy Preston, Joe Walsh
  2. 1992 Ringo Starr, Timmy Cappello, Burton Cummings, Dave Edmunds, Nils Lofgren, Todd Rundgren, Timothy B. Schmit, Zak Starkey, Joe Walsh
  3. 1995 Ringo Starr, Randy Bachman, Felix Cavaliere, John Entwistle, Mark Farner, Billy Preston, Mark Rivera, Zak Starkey
  4. 1997-98 Ringo Starr, Gary Brooker, Jack Bruce, Peter Frampton, Simon Kirke, Mark Rivera (dropped in rehearsals – Dave Mason)
  5. 1999 Ringo Starr, Gary Brooker, Jack Bruce, Timmy Cappello, Simon Kirke, Todd Rundgren (dropped off before start – Joe Walsh)
  6. 2000 Ringo Starr, Jack Bruce, Eric Carmen, Dave Edmunds, Simon Kirke, Mark Rivera
  7. 2001 Ringo Starr, Sheila E., Greg Lake, Ian Hunter, Howard Jones, Roger Hodgson, Mark Rivera
  8. 2003 Ringo Starr, Paul Carrack, Sheila E., Colin Hay, Mark Rivera, John Waite

Discography

For a detailed discography, see: Ringo Starr discography

Filmography

For a detailed filmography, see: Ringo Starr Filmography

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ringo Starr