Written by: John Lennon
Recorded: 13, 14 March 1973
Producer: Richard Perry
Released: 2 November 1973 (US), 23 November 1973 (UK)
Available on:
Ringo
Personnel
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums
John Lennon: piano, vocals
George Harrison: guitar
Klaus Voormann: bass guitar
Billy Preston: organ
‘I’m The Greatest’ is the opening track on Ringo Starr’s 1973 album Ringo.
The song was written by John Lennon in 1970.
Well, that was John who wrote that one, and I think only he could write it and only I could sing it because we both knew we were having fun. There’s a really great shot of John behind me when we were recording it, screaming because I loved that energy. I still do ‘I’m The Greatest’ today – “Way back home in Liverpool.”
Photograph – The Very Best Of Ringo Starr
Lennon recorded a home demo containing two takes of ‘I’m The Greatest’ in late 1970, following the completion of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. It’s possible that he considered including the song on the Imagine album, although it was never tackled in the studio at the time.
It’s the Muhammad Ali line, you know. I couldn’t sing it, but it was perfect for Ringo. He could say ‘I’m the greatest’ and people wouldn’t get upset. Whereas if I said ‘I’m the greatest,’ they’d all take it so seriously.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The 1970 recordings showed how Lennon originally conceived the song with a jazz-style piano backing. At this stage the lyrics were largely unwritten, and lacked much of the final version’s self-deprecating humour. It is feasible that he wanted it to be a confessional song about his childhood, judging by the original lyrics: “Long time ago, way back home in Liverpool, my mama told be I’d be great…”
In 1971, during the Imagine sessions, Lennon tried out the song in the studio for the first time. This time his band included Klaus Voormann on bass guitar and Jim Gordon on drums. Although he later claimed he’d never considered recording his own version, this studio attempt featured a telling line: “Yoko told me I was great.”
In the studio
Early in 1973 Lennon was invited by Starr to go to Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles to help contribute to Ringo, his third studio album. Starr had sent requests to each of the former Beatles for new material, and Lennon revived ‘I’m The Greatest’. He rewrote several of the lines to make them relevant to Starr, and helped arranged the recording.
George Harrison was also in Los Angeles, and had arranged a meeting with Lennon to discuss the 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 Beatles compilations. Lennon invited him into the studio, making perhaps the closest there ever came to a Beatles reunion.
The session took place on 13 March 1973, and was the first time three of the former Beatles had been in the studio together since 1970.
George Harrison and John Lennon were meeting with Ringo in Los Angeles – it was right in the middle of all that Allen Klein business. Ringo played them the [Ringo] tracks, and George had actually started to participate and help by writing ‘Photograph’ with Ringo, and playing on the session – I had met George several years before, and he was the first Beatle I ever met, back in ’68 or ’69. But the main thrust was when Ringo played the tracks for John. John got very excited by what he heard, and immediately wrote a song for Ringo which turned out to be a sort of chronology of Ringo’s life with The Beatles, as well as a brief history of his boyhood, through teenage years on to becoming one of The Beatles, and the song was called ‘I’m The Greatest’.It was on that session that John came down, and it was the first time that I had met John. To say that it was an exciting experience to work with him would be a gross understatement, because it was really quite unique and very special, and something I’ll never forget, which goes without saying. The song wasn’t quite complete, so we started to run it down, so there was also that very special thrill of experiencing a song being completed in the studio by John Lennon, and we all gathered round the piano and chipped in our ideas to help complete it. Then the phone rang and it was George, who said, ‘I hear there’s a track going down. Is it OK if I come?’, and I said, ‘Hold on a minute, and I’ll ask John if it’s OK.’ So here I am asking John if George can come down… And John said, ‘Hell, yes, tell him to get down here and help me finish this bridge.’ That was very much like John, and it was on that session that the three of them played for the first time, I believe, since the break-up of The Beatles. I’m sure Paul would have been there, but that was the time when he couldn’t come into the country.
The Record Producers, John Tobler and Stuart Grundy
From behind the piano Lennon led a version with Starr on drums, Harrison on electric guitar and Voormann on bass. They recorded 12 takes, four of which were complete, with Lennon singing guide vocals. One of these studio outtakes was released in slightly edited form in the John Lennon Anthology box set in 1998.
The best attempt formed the basis for the album version, which had lead and backing vocals, lead guitar by Harrison and an organ part by Billy Preston overdubbed the following day. The Ringo album was produced by Richard Perry, who also added Sgt Pepper-style crowd effects around the line “Yes my name is Billy Shears”.
