Ringo Starr Ringo Starr __NOTOC__ Richard Starkey, MBE (born July 7, 1940) is best known by his stage name, Ringo Starr, as the drummer for The Beatles from August 16, 1962 (when he replaced Pete Best) until their breakup in 1970. Ringo is known for his reliable, steady drumming and innovative fills. His easygoing personality made him an easy fit with the other Beatles. Prior to joining the Beatles, he was the drummer for the Liverpool band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, from 1959 to 1962. His musical talents were primarily confined to drumming, rather than singing or songwriting. Of all the Beatles, he did the least songwriting. The Beatles explained that when he would present a song as a contender for an album cut, the song would (to them) be a clear knockoff of another popular song, but Ringo would not recognize the similarities until they pointed it out. Ringo did, however, write "Octopus's Garden" (on the album Abbey Road) and "Don't Pass Me By" (on The White Album), as well as contributing to several others. Ringo generally sang at least one song on each studio album; in some cases John Lennon or Paul 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. 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. Starr did however contribute a number of lyrical ideas and song titles to Lennon and McCartney, although usually 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". Although some have tried to downplay his contributions to the band, Starr's unique drumming style played a major role in the overall sound of The Beatles. To this day, 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, Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish, and others. According to Collins, Ringo is "vastly underrated. The drum fills on "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." Lennon, McCartney and Harrison have all said that Ringo 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?" John Lennon quipped "He's not the best drummer in the Beatles" In 1972, after the breakup of the Beatles, Starr's solo recording of "Photograph" topped the Billboard charts. He also performed in several summer tours called Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, beginning in 1989. Starr married Maureen Cox in 1965, divorced in 1975 - children Zak, Jason and Lee. He has been married to actress Barbara Bach (most famous for her role as the "Bond Girl" in The Spy Who Loved Me) since 1981. He 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. In 1984, he also narrated on the children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He portrayed the character Mr. Conductor on another kid's TV series, Shining Time Station which debuted in 1989. In 1991, he appeared as himself on the cartoon The Simpsons. Hit singles 1971 "It Don't Come Easy" #4 US, #4 UK 1972 "Back Off Boogaloo" #2 UK, #9 US 1973 "Photograph" #1 US, #8 UK 1974 "You're Sixteen" #1 US, #4 UK 1974 "Oh My My" #5 US 1974 "Only You" #6 US, #28 UK 1975 "No No Song" b/w "Snookeroo" #3 US 1975 "(It's All Da-Da-Down To) Goodnight Vienna" #31 US 1976 "A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll" #26 US 1981 "Wrack My Brain" #38 US 1992 "Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go" 1998 "La De Da" 2003 "Never Without You" (with electric guitar played by Eric Clapton) Trivia In 1996, Ringo Starr appeared in a Japanese advertisement for apple sauce, which conincidentally is what Ringo means in Japanese. See also Ringo Starr Discography Ringo Starr Filmography External links RingoStarr.com - Official Website, featuring video updates from Ringo Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band Most Popular Articles: Music    Musical Instruments    Guitar    Classical Music    History    Music Definition    Country Music    Rock Music    Pop Music    Hip Hop    Rap    DJ    Video Games    Casino Games    Poker    Blackjack    Casinos    Real Estate    Loan    Auction    eBay    Marketing    Search Engine Optimization    File Sharing    MP3    Music Industry    Kazaa    Internet    Supermodel    Fashion    Fashion Designers    Erotica    Modeling    Clothing    Boots    Shoes    Diamond Engagement Rings    Diamond    Rugs    Gospel Music    Affiliate    E-Commerce    Radio This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringo_Starr