''Choose Love'' is the 14th studio album by

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

, released in 2005.

Background and recording

Recorded throughout 2004 into 2005, using the same team that created ''

Vertical Man ''Vertical Man'' is the 11th studio album by Ringo Starr, issued in 1998. The album served as Starr's attempt at a commercial comeback following the success of '' The Beatles Anthology'' project. Starr enlisted the help of many of his musician f ...

'' (1998) and ''

Ringo Rama ''Ringo Rama'' is the 13th studio album by Ringo Starr, released in 2003. Background and recording As the follow-up to '' I Wanna Be Santa Claus'' (1999), it continues Starr's alliance with Mark Hudson as well as most of his collaborators fro ...

'' (2003), Starr produced the set with longtime musical partner Mark Hudson and performed it with their studio team. The title track has a Beatles-like " Day Tripper" guitar riff with a coda similar to " The Word" and mentions the Beatles songs " The Long and Winding Road", " Tomorrow Never Knows" and " What Goes On". As ever, a Starr album would be lacking if it did not include some celebrity guests and ''Choose Love'' does not deviate from the formula; it features

Billy Preston William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, during which he bac ...

and

Chrissie Hynde Christine Ellen Hynde (born September 7, 1951) is an American musician. She is a founding member and the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band the Pretenders, and one of the band's two remaining original members alon ...

as its most notable guests.

Release

''Choose Love'' was released on 7 June 2005 in the US, and on 25 July in the UK. There was an edition of the album that was a dual disc (CD on side,

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on the other), with the DVD component featuring bonus features on the making of the album.

Reception

''Choose Love'' failed to chart in both the UK and US, where both ''Vertical Man'' and ''Ringo Rama'' had seen of commercial success. The album received strong reviews upon its release and preceded another promotional tour with Starr and his studio band, called "The Roundheads".

Track listing

Personnel

Personnel per booklet. ;Musicians *

– drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, vocals, intro/outro demo tape on "Oh My Lord", organ,

loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

on "Free Drinks" * Mark Hudson –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, electric guitar,

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

, keyboards, sax

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

Gary Burr Gary Burr, born in Meriden, Connecticut, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, primarily in the country music genre. Many of the songs he has written have become Top-10 hits, the first of which was "Love's Been A Little Bit ...

– acoustic guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals, bass, slide guitar *Mark Mirando – electric guitar, backing vocals *

Dan Higgins Dan Higgins (born January 28, 1957 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American saxophone and woodwind player. He has worked with such artists as John Williams, Seth MacFarlane, Aerosmith, Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, Al Jarreau, Maroon 5, Kenny Loggin ...

– horns, saxes, woodwinds * Gary Grant – horns *Jim Cox – horn arrangement, piano, sax arrangement, woodwind arrangement * Robert Randolph – lead guitar *Steve Dudas – electric guitar, acoustic guitar *

– piano,

B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

, backing vocals on "Hard to Be True" *The Rose Stone Choir – backing vocals on "Oh My Lord" *Rose Stone –

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which s ...

arrangement on "Oh My Lord" *Ringo Starr, Mark Hudson, Gary Burr – uboo drum band on "Hard to Be True" * John Amato – saxes *

– lead vocals on "Don't Hang Up" *

Barbara Bach Barbara Bach, Lady Starkey (born Barbara Goldbach in 1947) is an American actress and model. She played the Bond girl Anya Amasova in ''The Spy Who Loved Me''. She is married to former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Early life Bach is a nat ...

– devil voice on "The Turnaround" *Dean Grakal – background vocals on "The Turnaround" ;Production *Ringo Starr, Mark Hudson –

producers Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations * Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does n ...

*Bruce Sugar – recording *

Kevin Churko Kevin Gregory Churko (born 19 January 1968) is a Canadian record producer, sound engineer and musician best known for his work with artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Papa Roach, Hinder, Modern Science, Five Finger Death Punch, Disturbed, In This ...

, Gary Burr, Steve Dudas – additional recording * Dave Way – mixing * Lior Goldenberg,

Ghian Wright Ghian Wright, known under the pseudonym G, is an American music producer, mixer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist currently based in Los Angeles, California. Career He has worked on projects for Paul McCartney, Oasis, Foo Fighters, Colbie ...

, Andy Brohard – assistant engineers *George Marino – mastering *Tyrone Drake –

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

, design *Barbara Starkey – cover photo *Ringo Starr, Barbara Starkey, Mark Hudson, Gary Burr, Edward AJAJ, Teness Herman – additional photos

References

; Footnotes ; Citations

External links

* {{Authority control 2005 albums Ringo Starr albums Albums produced by Mark Hudson (musician) Albums produced by Ringo Starr