Ringo 2012

Recorded: 2011
Producers: Ringo Starr, Bruce Sugar

Released: 30 January 2012, 31 January 2012 (US)

Personnel

Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, guitar, keyboards, percussion
Steve Dudas: guitar, bass guitar
Joe Walsh, Kenny Wayne Shepherd: guitar
David A Stewart: guitar, keyboards
Michael Bradford: bass guitar
Bruce Sugar: keyboards, piano, horn, organ, synth horns
Benmont Tench: organ
Charlie Haden, Don Was: bass guitar
Van Dyke Parks: keyboards, accordion
Matt Cartsonis: mandolin
Edgar Winter: saxophone, organ
Ann Marie Calhoun: violin
Amy Keys, Kelly Moneymaker, Richard Page: vocals

Tracklisting

‘Anthem’
‘Wings’
‘Think It Over’
‘Samba’
‘Rock Island Line’
‘Step Lightly’
‘Wonderful’
‘In Liverpool’
‘Slow Down’

Ringo 2012 is Ringo Starr’s seventeenth solo studio album. It features nine songs and lasts less than 30 minutes, making it his shortest album to date.

The album was produced by Starr, and recorded at his Rocca Bella studios in the UK and US. Working titles included Motel California, Another #9, and Wings.

It features re-recordings of two older songs: ‘Step Lightly’, which Starr recorded for 1973’s Ringo, and ‘Wings’, originally on 1977’s Ringo The 4th. It also contains a cover of Buddy Holly’s ‘Think It Over’ which had previously appeared on the 2011 Holly tribute album Listen To Me.

This is a song I first recorded on Ringo The 4th back when an album meant vinyl. These are different days, and it’s one of those songs I always wanted to revisit. I wrote ‘Wings’ with Vinnie Poncia in New York, and he doesn’t know I’ve done this yet. I’m going to surprise Vinnie and send it to him… For the last two years, I’ve been listening to a lot of reggae, so this album has a reggae feel to it. What can I tell you? I’m a product of my environment. I always loved the sentiment of this song, and I’m glad we finally got it right.

The song ‘In Liverpool’ was his third about his birth city in three consecutive albums, following the title track of Liverpool 8 and Y Not’s ‘The Other Side Of Liverpool’.

I came to the conclusion a while ago that I do not want to write an autobiography, because all anybody wants is those eight years from 1962 to 1970, and I would have ten volumes before we got there. So I thought I’ll do it in song, and do vignettes of certain aspects of my life.

Starr invited fans to create an official promo for the re-recording of ‘Wings’. The winning entry, chosen by Starr, was directed by Vancouver-based filmmaker Jem Garrard, who split the $3,000 prize with those she collaborated with on the film.

Kind of bearing in mind Ringo’s sense of humour, I thought that I would just … kind of go for something wacky and it will be a risk, but he’ll either love it or hate it.

I was fully aware that it was sounding crazy, but I called up my crew and wrote the idea that night and just didn’t sleep for four days.

The release

Ringo 2012 was released on 30 January 2012, and on the following day in the USA, on compact disc, vinyl, and digital download.

There was an Amazon.com exclusive DVD edition containing commentary on each of the songs.

The album charted at number 80 on the US Billboard 200, selling 6,348 copies in the first month.

It fared less well in the UK, peaking at number 181 and selling just 752 copies by the end of February 2012.

Press release

“Ultimately what’s most impressive about Ringo Starr isn’t what he’s been, but rather who he is,” wrote Rolling Stone rock critic David Wild. “The man’s great heart and soul, his wit and wisdom.” Ironically, the story of Ringo’s evolution from former Beatle to successful solo artist is still best told from the beginning.

Ringo Starr’s music, as a solo artist and as a Beatle, is permeated with his personality. His warmth and humor, and his exceptional musicianship have given us songs we all know and love, including “With A Little Help From My Friends,” “Don’t Pass Me By,” “Octopus’ Garden,” “Photograph,” “It Don’t Come Easy,” “Back Off Boogaloo,” “You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful And You’re mine),” “Don’t Go Where the Road Don’t Go,” “The No No Song,” and “Never Without You.”

Since beginning his career with The Beatles in the 1960s, Ringo Starr has been one of the world’s brightest musical luminaries. He has enjoyed a successful and dynamic solo career as a singer, songwriter and drummer, an active musical collaborator, and as an actor. Drawing inspiration from classic blues, soul, country, honky-tonk and rock ‘n’ roll, Ringo continues to play an important role in modern music with his solo recording and touring.

Ringo 2012 is the fabulous sound of a man you know and love working in the groove of a lifetime and making an album with nine songs that vividly reflect his life yesterday and today. “This album is me doing what I do here and now,” says Ringo, “and nobody’s more qualified to do that than I am!”

In fact, one of the only things that didn’t come easy for Ringo Starr making Ringo 2012 was the title. Ringo 2012 cannot help but recall the title of another classic album by Starr, 1973’s Ringo — in fact, Ringo 2012 features a startlingly new and improved version of “Step Lightly’ from the massively successful Ringo, as well as “Wings” from 1978’s Ringo The 4th.

“But for a moment there, I was going to call this album Motel California because of a cool picture of an L.A. motel I wanted on the back cover,” Ringo says with a laugh. “But then I figured my good friend and now brother-in-law Joe Walsh was already on a good album with a similar name. Then I considered Another #9 because there are nine songs on the album. And because I covered one of my old songs “Wings,” I even thought that Wings would be a nice album title. I’m sure Paul would have been cool with me calling my album Wings, but someone else would have found a way to misinterpret that too. So Ringo 2012 it is, pure and simple, just the way I like things.”

“At first I was thinking about 2012 because according to the Aztec calendar the world is going to end in 2012, but it’s just Ringo 2012 because this is where I am now. These recent albums are my audio-biographies, and I do live to the best of my ability in the now, and of course, I can revisit the past when I want to, but I don’t live there. I try to have the good day today, not next Wednesday. That’s just part of my make up. I’ve always been more of an optimist than a pessimist – that’s just how I was born. It came with the body.”

Ringo 2012 — released January 31 on HIP-O/UMe Records finds Starr working with a little help from his musical friends including guitarist Joe Walsh and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Michael Bradford, Steve Dudas, Charlie Haden, Amy Keys, Kelly Moneymaker, Richard Page, Van Dyke Parks, Dave Stewart, Bruce Sugar, Benmont Tench, Don Was and Edgar Winter. But more than ever, the focus on Ringo 2012 is firmly on the man calling the shots – Ringo, who produced the album just as he did 2010’s Y Not.

As Starr says with a smile, “I got out of bed in the morning, and thought who can produce this album? Then I looked in the mirror, and there he was. I do feel like I’ve found my best producer. We’re back to making records in real time, and not wasting time. I like the pace I’m working at. It’s the old pace, it’s about where I come from, and it worked well then too. Now because of technology, I can do it at home — I don’t have to go to any studio. I can have a cup of tea with Barbara in the morning, and walk the dog, I can live and make a record and we get it done right. There’s a lot of space on this record because when you have someone great like Benmont Tench playing his organ or piano, there’s room for him to play. I’m not cluttering anything up on these last two albums. I like it very open and sparse, sort of old rock & roll-ish in its way. And in the end, it’s all on the groove because I’m the drummer and I say so!”

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