How do you follow up being a member of the Beatles? That’s an issue that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr each struggled with, to different degrees, after the band ended their career in 1970. 

Ringo had as much charisma – or more – than any of his bandmates. He was, and remains, a very underrated drummer. And over the years, he’s also developed as a singer/songwriter and bandleader. 

2025 marks 55 years since Ringo’s solo debut, 1970’s Sentimental Journey. That album saw Ringo interpreting pre-rock and roll standards (four decades before McCartney did a similar album with 2012’s Kisses On The Bottom, by the way). Ringo’s solo catalog includes over 20 studio albums and EPs, not to mention a ton of live albums documenting his different “All-Starr” touring bands, which he has been leading since 1989, when he kicked off his first solo tour. 

His latest release, 2025’s Look Up, is being billed as a country album, but country music is nothing new to Ringo; Starr sang on the Beatles’ cover of Carl Perkins’ “Honey Don’t” back in 1964 and their cover of Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally” in 1965. Ringo wrote and sang the country-tinged “Octopus’s Garden” from 1969’s Abbey Road, which is one of his most iconic vocal performances with the Beatles. And Ringo’s second solo album, 1970’s Beaucoups of Blues, was recorded in Nashville and reflected his love of country music. 

Of course, his discography goes beyond country music, and here, we’re looking back at some of Ringo’s greatest moments as a solo artist; some of these songs were massive hits and others you might have missed. 

• “Write One For Me (featuring Willie Nelson)” from ‘Ringo Rama’ (2003)

  Here, Ringo teams up with one of country music’s greatest icons, Willie Nelson. Ringo co-wrote this one with his producer/guitarist Mark Hudson and bassist/guitarist Gary Burr. Timothy B. Schmit – a former All-Starr and member of the Eagles – is singing backing vocals here. In this song, Ringo and Willie are at a bar, and both are looking for the perfect song to help them woo the object of their affection. Ringo watches a singer/guitarist performing at the bar and tells him, “By closing time, I face the fact/That if I had a gift like that/I know that I could win her back, but there’s some things I can’t do/So now it’s up to you.”

  Willie, meanwhile, pokes a bit of fun at the Fab Four: “It does no good for you to play a pretty song like ‘Yesterday’/’cause that’s not what I need to say to get her to love me.” Nelson, a rather prolific songwriter, whose career predates the Beatles, tells the singer, “I can’t come up with a single line: so would you write the song?” Hey, even legends get writer’s block!

• “Walk With You” from ‘Y Not’ (2010)

  Here, Paul McCartney backs up Ringo, playing bass and singing backing vocals. Ringo co-wrote the song with Van Dyke Parks, well known for collaborating with Brian Wilson on the Beach Boys’ Smile. The song is a lovely tribute to friendship; it wasn’t originally conceived with McCartney’s participation in mind, but his presence on the song gives it a lot of weight. Ringo and Paul have frequently played on each others’ albums and have even joined the other on stage on rare occasions. That’s the closest we’ll ever get to a Beatles reunion, and it’s always lovely to hear the two together, especially on this song. Paul (and John) were the clear bosses of the Beatles, and there’s a sweetness to hearing Paul join Ringo in a supporting role; his vocals really add to the song’s poignance.

• “Here’s To The Nights” from ‘Zoom In’ (2021)

  This song also features Paul McCartney on backing vocals, along with a cavalcade of other huge names, including Ringo’s brother-in-law (and occasional bandmate) Joe Walsh, Sheryl Crow, Jenny Lewis of indie rockers Rilo Kiley, Lenny Kravitz, Chris Stapleton, Yola, Ben Harper, Dave Grohl, Finneas O’Connell (brother and collaborator of Billie Eilish), Eric Burton of the Black Pumas and Corinne Bailey Rae. It’s a pandemic-era jam written for Ringo by Songwriting Hall Of Famer Dianne Warren. You may be familiar with some of her chart toppers, including Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing,” Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” and Belinda Carlisle’s “I Get Weak,” among many others.

  But “Here’s To The Night” is a bit different from most of Warren’s hits: it sounds like a great drinking song that you’d play at a high school reunion or even a funeral. Was she thinking of Ringo’s adventures with the Beatles when she wrote it? Maybe, but it doesn’t matter: it can apply to you and your friends, and it’s too bad that more people don’t know this song. “Here’s to the nights we won’t remember/With the friends we won’t forget/May we think of them forever/As the days that were the best/May we make some noise together/Make a beautiful mess/And say we did it all.” Ringo and his all-star friends deliver this song perfectly, even as most of them contributed their parts remotely. And during a time when too many of us were going to too many pandemic-era funerals, the song had an added resonance.

• “Have You Seen My Baby” from ‘Ringo’ (1973)

  Most Ringo fans will cite Ringo as his best solo album; there was so much talent working with him. John, Paul and George all wrote songs for him, although this one was written by Randy Newman, who was a pretty big star as a solo artist at the time. Ringo’s pal Marc Bolan of T. Rex is playing guitar on the track. This one is a straight-ahead rocker about an unfaithful woman who the narrator just can’t quit.

• “Weight Of The World” from ‘Time Takes Time’ (1992)

  The first single from Ringo’s “comeback” album, Time Takes Time. That album followed a string of subpar records, including 1981’s Stop and Smell The Roses and 1983’s Old Wave. The ‘80s weren’t a great era for Ringo’s music, but he got sober towards the end of the decade, resulting in his first “All-Starr Band” tour in the summer of 1989. Time Takes Time was his first album since he got sober, and his new focus was obvious.

  “Weight of the World” was written by little-known writers Brian O’Doherty and Fred Velez, and the song worked perfectly. The lyrics addressed self-examination, which Ringo probably experienced as he was getting sober. “Maybe I haven’t always been there just for you/Maybe I try but then I got my own life too/Every heart has a hunger/I’m not getting any younger/I got all the crosses I can bear.”

• “Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)” from ‘Ringo’ (1973)

  Written for Ringo by George Harrison, it’s another example of Ringo’s love of country music and Americana. The song features George as well as members of the Band – Robbie Robertson on guitar, Levon Helm on mandolin, Rick Danko on fiddle, and Garth Hudson on accordion. Starr became friendly with the guys from the Band: he was one of the many guests at their legendary “Last Waltz” concert, and Helm and Danko were part of the very first All-Starr Band.

  Harrison apparently wrote the song while troubled about the relationship between the ex-Beatles: George, Ringo and John were battling Paul over a number of business issues, a topic he also tackled in his own song, “Sue Me, Sue You Blues.”

• “Beaucoups of Blues” from ‘Beaucoups of Blues’ (1970)

  Ringo’s second solo album was a foray into country music and has the sound of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s hits in that genre. Ringo went to Nashville for the album and you can hear it; it was produced by Pete Drake (who worked on albums by Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich, among others) and featured a number of Music City’s hottest studio musicians of the time. The song was written by Nashville songwriter Buzz Rabin. The album made a bit of impact in the genre; it was a #35 album on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.

• “Time On My Hands” from ‘Look Up’ (2025)

  Ringo’s latest; this one was written for him by his producer T-Bone Burnett, along with co-producer Daniel Tashian who worked with Kacey Musgraves on her Grammy-winning classic Golden Hour. The other co-writer is Paul Kennerley, who like Starr, is a British lover of country music. It’s a classic “tear in my beer” classic (minus the beer). Starr loves classic country; he’s not looking to mimic the hot radio singles of today. Here, Ringo sings about an ex-lover. “I thought it was forever/But she had other plans/Now these arms are empty/And I’ve got time on my hands.”

• “Grow Old With Me” from ‘What’s My Name’ (2019)

  Here, Ringo covers one of John Lennon’s later-era solo classics. Apparently, Lennon wrote it for Ringo to record. But following Lennon’s death, Starr couldn’t bring himself to do the song. (You can hear Lennon’s version on the posthumous album Milk and Honey.) But nearly three decades later, he revisited it, with Paul McCartney on bass and backing vocals. Lennon’s original is heartbreaking: he didn’t live much longer after writing the song, and he didn’t get the chance to grow old with his wife and collaborator, Yoko Ono. Ringo’s version is somber and has gravity; Lennon’s specter looms over the song, but on the other hand, Starr knows he’s fortunate to have grown old with Barbara, his wife of more than four decades.

• “Bye Bye Blackbird” from ‘Sentimental Journey’ (1970)

  While most of Ringo’s debut had a very traditional pop sound, “Bye Bye Blackbird” starts out sounding like a Dixieland jazz song before morphing into a big band jam that sounds like it comes from an old-time Hollywood musicial. Arranged by Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, the song was first recorded by Sam Lanin’s Dance Orchestra in 1926 but has also been covered by Rosemary Clooney, Mitch Miller, Peggy Lee, and Johnny Mathis, among many others. That might sound like an odd choice for the drummer from the world’s most popular rock and roll band, but Starr wanted to do an album of songs that his mother loved. And he was well suited to that genre: check out “Good Night,” which closes the Beatles’ “White Album.” It features Starr singing accompanied by an orchestra without John, Paul or George.

• “Never Without You” from ‘Ringo Rama’ (2003)

  Ringo Rama was Ringo’s first album since the passing of George Harrison, and this song pays tribute to his former bandmate. He quotes some of the songs that George wrote, including “Within You Without You,” “Here Comes The Sun” and “All Things Must Pass.” He also recruited Harrison’s pal Eric Clapton to lay down the solo. It’s unmistakably Clapton, but his solo is a tribute to George’s slide playing, which he often used towards the end of his career, particularly on Cloud Nine and on the Traveling Wilburys records. Ringo co-wrote the song and the lyrics “Your song will play on without you and this world won’t forget about you” hit hard (and were true).

• “R U Ready?” from ‘Liverpool 8’ (2008)

  Co-written by Ringo with his frequent collaborators Mark Hudson, Gary Burr and Steve Dudas. It has an old-timey bluegrass sound, and much of the song is recorded to sound as if you are listening to it from the 1940s through a transistor radio. And like a lot of classic bluegrass, it mentions Jesus: “Jesus was a wise man and everyone’s a saint.” Unlike most bluegrass, it also mentions Buddha and Krishna. The song is about what happens when we die; Ringo clearly doesn’t subscribe to any specific religious belief about the afterlife: “Are you ready to cross over/Are you ready to let go?/To face the final curtain/In the land of ‘I don’t know.’” But he doesn’t fear the unknown. Quite the opposite: he sings, “All roads lead to Heaven, no matter what they say.”

• “It Don’t Come Easy” (single release, 1971, later included on ‘Ringo’ reissues)

  Ringo is credited as the sole writer on the song, but when he performed it on VH1 Storytellers in 1998, he noted that he wrote the song with George Harrison (something that fans long suspected). He also recalled that George wanted the last verse to be about God, or Krisha, neither of which Starr wanted. So they agreed to make the final verse about peace.

  Harrison produced the track, which was a #4 hit in America and was more popular than the singles released at the time by his bandmates Lennon (“Power To The People”) and McCartney (“Another Day”). It’s a classic rock staple and always will be.

• “Photograph” from ‘Ringo’ (1973)

  Co-written by Ringo and George (who actually got credit here), it’s one of the best songs by any member of the Beatles. And it also makes you think: maybe John and Paul should have given George and Ringo more room on the Beatles’ albums. The song was originally written about not being over an ex-lover; the narrator has only a photograph to remember her. It hits differently now. When Ringo performed it at the “Concert For George” in 2002 on the first anniversary of his passing, backed by George’s son Dhani, along with some of his friends and collaborators (Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Ray Cooper, Jim Keltner and Jim Capaldi, among others), it was one of the emotional highlights of the show. “Every time I see your face, it reminds me of the places we used to go,” Ringo sings. “But all I’ve got is a photograph and I realize you’re not comin’ back anymore.”

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