''Ringo 2012'' is the 17th studio album by
Ringo Starr, released on 30 January 2012 in the United Kingdom and 31 January 2012 in the United States. It was released on CD, LP and digitally by
Hip-O Records and
UMe.
History
Starr had considered calling the album ''Motel California'', then ''Another #9'', and finally ''Wings'', before settling on ''Ringo 2012''. The album was recorded in Los Angeles, and mixed in England, produced by Starr and Bruce Sugar. The title is a reference to Starr's most successful solo album, ''
Ringo'', which was released in 1973. At less than 29 minutes in length, it was his shortest album to date.
''Ringo 2012'' includes new recordings of two songs that Starr had issued on previous albums: "Step Lightly", from ''Ringo'', and "
Wings
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...
", from 1977's ''
Ringo the 4th''. His cover of
Buddy Holly's "
Think It Over" was released on the ''
Listen to Me: Buddy Holly'' tribute album before its appearance on ''Ringo 2012''. The new version of "Wings" was released as a single a few weeks in advance of the album.
The inclusion of the track "In Liverpool" meant that ''Ringo 2012'' was Starr's third consecutive album to include a song about
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, his hometown. Asked why this was, he told
Alan Light
Alan Light (born August 4, 1966) is an American journalist who has been a rock critic for ''Rolling Stone'' and the editor-in-chief for ''Vibe,'' ''Spin,'' and ''Tracks''.http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2003/11/18/new_music_ ...
of ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'': "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."
The cover photograph and as well as other photographs within the album's artwork were taken by rock photographer
Rob Shanahan, who had worked closely with Starr for seven years.
Reception
At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, ''Ringo 2012'' holds an average Metascore of 59 out of 100, based on five professional reviews, indicating a "mixed or average" reception. The album debuted at numbers 80 and 181 in the US and UK, selling 6,348 and 752 copies respectively, as of February 2012.
Track listing
;CD
;DVD edition
Personnel
Personnel per booklet.
;Musicians
*
Ringo Starr –
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. Ex ...
,
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
,
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
,
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 ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
* Steve Dudas – guitar,
bass
* Bruce Sugar – keyboards,
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
,
horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
,
arrangement,
organ,
synth
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
horns
*
Amy Keys
Amy Keys (born September 15, 1967) is an American singer and vocal artist. She was signed to the Epic Records label and a solo album and several singles were released in 1989. She worked on Walt Disney movie soundtracks and as backing vocalist on ...
– backing vocals
*
Kelly Moneymaker
Kelly Susan Moneymaker (born June 4, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. She was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Early career
As a teenager, Moneymaker moved to Seattle to co-found the band BoyToy with Michele Rundgren ...
– backing vocals
*
Joe Walsh
Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: the James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr ...
– guitar
*
Benmont Tench
Benjamin Montmorency "Benmont" Tench III (born September 7, 1953) is an American musician and singer, and a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Early years
Tench was born in Gainesville, Florida, the second child of Benjamin ...
– organ
*
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...
– bass
*
Richard Page
Richard Lewis Page (born 22 February 1941) is a former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and from December 1979 to 2005.
Early life
Born the son of Victor Charles Page, he went to the independent H ...
– backing vocals
*
Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer who has composed various film and television soundtracks. He is best known for his 1967 album ''Song Cycle'' and for his collaborations with ...
– keyboards,
accordion,
string arrangement
* Matt Cartsonis –
mandolin
*
Don Was
Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was, is an American musician, record producer and record executive. Primarily a bass player, Was co-founded the funk-rock band Was (Not Was). In later years he produced so ...
– bass
*
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd (born Kenny Wayne Brobst; June 12, 1977) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released several studio albums and experienced significant commercial success as a blues artist.
Life and career
Shepherd wa ...
– guitar
*
Edgar Winter
Edgar Holland Winter (born December 28, 1946) is an American musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing keyboards, guitar, saxophone, and percussion, as well as singing. His success peaked in the 1970s with his band the Edgar Winter Group ...
–
sax, organ
*
David A. Stewart
David Allan Stewart (born 9 September 1952) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for Eurythmics, his successful professional partnership with Annie Lennox. Sometimes credited as David A. Stewart, he won Best British ...
– guitar, keyboards
*
Michael Bradford
Michael Bradford (born 1961) is an American musician. A native of Detroit, Michigan he is known mainly as a bass guitarist but also plays guitar and keyboards, and has done extensive work in music production and engineering. Among others, Brad ...
– bass
*
Ann Marie Calhoun – violin
;Production
* Ringo Starr –
producer
* Bruce Sugar – recording
* Ned Douglas – recording assistant
* Ringo Starr, Bruce Sugar –
mixing
* Chris Bellman –
mastering
* Barry Korkin – UM
e A&R coordination
* Christine Telleck – production manager
* David Tashman – legal
* Adam Starr – product manager
* Vartan –
art direction
*
Rob Shanahan – photos
* Mike Fink, Philip Manning, Meire Murakami – design
Charts
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2012 albums
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr albums
Hip-O Records albums