Ringo actually started recording his first solo album in late 1969, before
the Beatles had officially split. Partially to please his parents, he set out to record an album not of rock & roll, but of standards from the 1930s and 1940s, with help from a bellyful of top arrangers (
Richard Perry,
Chico O'Farrill,
Maurice Gibb,
Klaus Voorman,
George Martin,
Quincy Jones,
Elmer Bernstein,
Oliver Nelson, and
Paul McCartney). Savaged by some critics, it's really not all that bad. But it ain't rock & roll, it's not what
Ringo does best, and it's not an essential part of anyone's collection, Beatles fan or otherwise, though it rose into the U.K. Top Ten and U.S. Top 30 when it was released, largely on the strength of
Starr's then-fresh association with
the Beatles. Reissued on CD in 1995. ~ Richie Unterberger