"Six O'Clock" is a song by English rock musician
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 ...
from his 1973 album ''
Ringo
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 ...
''. It was written by Starr's former
Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...
bandmate
Paul McCartney and the latter's wife,
Linda, who also participated in the recording of the song. It was the first time McCartney and Starr had worked together since the Beatles' break-up in 1970. Their collaboration reflected an easing of the tensions that had existed between the two musicians for much of that period.
Produced by
Richard Perry, "Six O'Clock" was recorded mainly at
Apple Studios in London in April 1973. Following Starr's recent collaborations with
George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...
and
John Lennon in Los Angeles, the session with McCartney added to speculation in the press that the Beatles were about to reunite. An extended version of the song appeared as a bonus track on the 1992 CD release of Starr's ''
Goodnight Vienna
''Goodnight Vienna'' is the fourth studio album by Ringo Starr. It was recorded in the summer of 1974 in Los Angeles, and released later that year. ''Goodnight Vienna'' followed the commercially successful predecessor '' Ringo'', and Starr used ...
'' album.
Background and composition
Paul McCartney wrote "Six O'Clock" in response to a request from
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 ...
, his former bandmate in
the Beatles, for a contribution to his first rock solo album, titled ''
Ringo
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 ...
''.
[Woffinden, pp. 75, 77.][Nick DeRiso]
"40 Years Ago: Ringo Starr's 'Ringo' Features (Sort-Of) Beatles Reunion"
Ultimate Classic Rock, 23 November 2013 (retrieved 30 August 2016). Having agreed to attend the
Grammy Awards ceremony in Nashville on 3 March 1973, Starr had begun compiling possible material for the album with
Richard Perry, his producer, with a plan to record in Los Angeles during the same visit to the United States. Although Starr's relationship with McCartney had been strained by the effects of
the Beatles' break-up in 1970, and by McCartney's subsequent lawsuit against his three former bandmates, Starr said in late 1972 that relations among the ex-Beatles were "a lot better now … we're together as people
f not as a band and that's more important really." Once
George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...
and
John Lennon had each agreed to contribute songs for ''Ringo'', Starr was able to persuade McCartney by telling him: "You don't want to be left out, do you?"
The song was credited to McCartney and his wife
Linda. The composition is a
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
piano ballad
[Schaffner, pp. 160–61.] in a style that author
Bruce Spizer views as typical of the contemporary music of the McCartneys' new group,
Wings,
[Spizer, p. 308.] whose album ''
Red Rose Speedway'' they had just completed. In a 2001 interview, Starr nevertheless cited "Six O'Clock" as an example of how his former bandmates always supplied him with material that suited his personality.
[Timothy White]
"Music To My Ears: Ringo's All Starrs Play And Act Naturally"
''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'', 26 May 2001, p. 4 (retrieved 31 August 2016). The song's lyrics address a friend or lover whom the singer confesses to not showing enough attention towards. The repeated refrain "I don't treat you like I should" serves as an extended
coda
Coda or CODA may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
* ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television
*''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
, anticipating a similar reprise in McCartney and Starr's 1997 collaboration "
Beautiful Night".
Recording
Starr recorded eight of the ten rhythm tracks for ''Ringo'' in Los Angeles during March 1973,
[Madinger & Easter, p. 501.][Spizer, p. 306.] with guest musicians including Harrison, Lennon,
Harry Nilsson,
the Band,
Marc Bolan,
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 ba ...
and
Nicky Hopkins. Among the recordings was "
I'm the Greatest
"I'm the Greatest" is a song written by English musician John Lennon that was released as the opening track of the 1973 album '' Ringo'' by Ringo Starr. With Starr, Lennon and George Harrison appearing on the track, it marks the only time th ...
", which featured both Lennon and Harrison; a highly publicised session at the time,
[Harry, p. 118.] it marked the first occasion that three former Beatles had worked together since the band's break-up. Recognising the importance of this, Starr decided to record "Six O'Clock" in London to ensure McCartney's participation on the album. The session was arranged to coincide with Starr's return to the UK for the world premiere
of ''
That'll Be the Day'', a film in which he had a starring role. In addition, Perry was due to advise on the music soundtrack for the Wings television special ''
James Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. ...
'',
[John Tobler & Stuart Grundy, "Richard Perry", ''The Record Producers'', BBC Books (London, 1982); excerpt available a]
Rock's Backpages
(subscription required). which McCartney had agreed to do to appease music publisher
Lew Grade's concerns about the legitimacy of Linda's songwriting credits.
[Woffinden, p. 67.][Sounes, pp. 303–04.]
Starr attended the premiere of ''That'll Be the Day'' on 12 April, with the McCartneys,
[Madinger & Easter, p. 182.] and then recorded the song's rhythm track on 16 April at the Beatles'
Apple Studios. Besides Starr, on drums and lead vocals, McCartney played piano and
synthesizer
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 ...
, and sang backing vocals with Linda.
[Rodriguez, p. 36.] The other musicians on the track were bassist
Klaus Voormann[Album credits, '']Ringo
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 ...
'' CD (Apple/Capitol, 1991; produced by Richard Perry). – whose presence on "I'm the Greatest" had reignited rumours that he was to stand in for McCartney in a partial Beatles reunion
– and
Vince Poncia
Vincent "Vini" Poncia Jr. (born April 29, 1942) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer.
Life and career The 1960s
In the 1960s, Poncia formed a songwriting team with Peter Anders (née Peter Andreoli). An album of songs co-writt ...
, who played acoustic guitar and percussion. Fifteen takes of the song were taped, with recording finishing at 6 am. Late in the session, Perry played back some of the Los Angeles recordings;
McCartney then vocalised a
kazoo-like solo (credited as "mouth sax")
on Starr's cover of the 1960
Johnny Burnette hit "
You're Sixteen", and Starr
overdubbed the sound of his own
tap-dancing onto his composition "Step Lightly". Further work was carried out on "Six O'Clock" at
EMI's
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...
,
as part of what Perry later described as "two or three wonderful nights" of recording in London.
Flutes and strings were added to the song, with McCartney providing the arrangement.
News of Starr and McCartney recording together added to the media speculation that the Beatles might re-form.
While filming ''James Paul McCartney'' at
Elstree Studios, McCartney had said that he saw "no real reason why we shouldn't get together again" once Lennon, Harrison and Starr had removed
Allen Klein from his position as manager of
Apple Corps, which they did on 31 March.
[Hunt, p. 69.] When fending off the reunion rumours during Wings'
UK tour
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, in May 1973, McCartney said that writing the song and recording with Starr had merely been an act of friendship, adding: "I would do it for any friend."
Release
Apple Records released ''Ringo'' on 2 November 1973, with "Six O'Clock" appearing as the album's eighth track, between "Step Lightly" and the Starr–Poncia composition "
Devil Woman". Helped by news of Starr having recorded with each of his former bandmates,
and the popularity of the single "
Photograph
A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
", written by Starr and Harrison, the album was a commercial and critical success. The release was closely followed by that of Wings' ''
Band on the Run
''Band on the Run'' is the third studio album by the British–American rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, released in December 1973. It was McCartney's fifth album after leaving the Beatles in April 1970. Although sales were modest initially ...
'' album, which gained critical acclaim for McCartney for the first time as a solo artist.
The original mix of "Six O'Clock" extended to 5:26 due to the inclusion of the reprise-like coda, yet this portion was subsequently cut,
reducing the track length to 4:05.
While the
LP face label for the US commercial release mistakenly gave the pre-edit length, the extended version of the song appeared only on promotional copies of ''Ringo'' and on some pressings in the
cassette and
8-track cartridge formats.
This full version of the song was included as a bonus track on the CD release of Starr's 1974 album ''
Goodnight Vienna
''Goodnight Vienna'' is the fourth studio album by Ringo Starr. It was recorded in the summer of 1974 in Los Angeles, and released later that year. ''Goodnight Vienna'' followed the commercially successful predecessor '' Ringo'', and Starr used ...
'', issued in November 1992.
Critical reception
In his album review for ''
Rolling Stone'', Ben Gerson wrote of "Six O'Clock" having "a certain slight charm" but rued its lack of "collaborative feeling" next to the contributions from Harrison and Lennon. Gerson concluded that Starr was "merely grafted onto a typical McCartney confection".
[Ben Gerson]
"Ringo Starr ''Ringo''"
'' Rolling Stone'', 20 December 1973, p. 73 (retrieved 31 August 2016). In the ''
NME'',
Charles Shaar Murray derided ''Ringo'' as "an album that should be purchased only by those who wish to go to extraordinary lengths to indulge their nostalgia for the Beatles", and he dismissed McCartney's composition as "well below form". More impressed,
Alan Betrock of ''
Phonograph Record
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...
'' wrote: "Paul McCartney's 'Six O'Clock' would have been a perfect chart-topper for himself and Wings, possibly rivaling 'Yesterday' in worldwide stature. McCartney's patented string arrangement is refreshing to hear, offering a nice counterpart to Richard Perry's often overdone backgrounds. Perhaps 'Six O'Clock' is a bit too drawn out, but it still comes off quite nicely." In his review for ''
Disc'' magazine, Michael Benton described the song as "a mixture of sugar sweet lyrics and gentle music".
In his 1977 book ''The Beatles Forever'',
Nicholas Schaffner admired Starr for bringing out the best in his collaborators, which in McCartney's case "produce
the strongest, most lyrical pop ballad he had composed since '
The Long and Winding Road'".
Writing in 1981, ''NME'' critic
Bob Woffinden similarly opined that Starr's strength of character had ensured that the Beatles' past differences were forgotten, resulting in his three former bandmates providing "excellent compositions", with "Six O'Clock" "distinguished by a lovely melody".
Among more recent commentators, former ''
Mojo'' editor
Mat Snow considers that whereas Harrison and Lennon "did their old buddy proud" on ''Ringo'', McCartney's offering was "so weak that Ringo's rumbustious 'Devil Woman' beat it for intrigue and excitement".
Alan Clayson identifies the "snotty synthesiser ostinato" as the song's most salient feature, adding: "'Six O'Clock' could have been made up by McCartney in his sleep. It was certainly commensurate with the wispy lyrics and syrupy jingles that comprised ''Red Rose Speedway'', Wings' 1973 album."
[Clayson, p. 243.] Conversely,
Tim Riley describes the song as "a standout track", while Robert Rodriguez views it as "a catchy ballad" that would have been "unremarkable" if issued by McCartney, yet it became a "stellar" track in Starr's version.
[Rodriguez, p. 158.]
In 1975, London-based recording engineer
David Hentschel covered "Six O'Clock", along with all the other tracks on ''Ringo'', for his album ''Sta*rtling Music''.
[Bob Woffinden, "Ringo Starr: Everyone One of Us Has All We Need …", '' NME'', 12 April 1975; available a]
Rock's Backpages
(subscription required). An experimental work featuring Hentschel on
ARP synthesizer, the album was one of the first releases on Starr's short-lived record label,
Ring O' Records.
[Woffinden, p. 78.]
Personnel
According to
Bruce Spizer:
*
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 ...
– vocals, drums
*
Paul McCartney – piano,
synthesizer
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 ...
, backing vocal, flute and string arrangements
*
Vini Poncia – acoustic guitar, percussion
*
Klaus Voormann – bass
*
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney ( Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, animal rights activist, vegetarian cookbook author and advocate, and entrepreneur. She was the keyboardist in th ...
– backing vocal
Notes
References
Sources
* Keith Badman, ''The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001'', Omnibus Press (London, 2001; ).
* Harry Castleman & Walter J. Podrazik, ''All Together Now: The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975'', Ballantine Books (New York, NY, 1976; ).
* Alan Clayson, ''Ringo Starr'', Sanctuary (London, 2003; ).
* Peter Doggett, ''You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup'', It Books (New York, NY, 2011; ).
* Bill Harry, ''The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia'', Virgin Books (London, 2004; ).
* Chris Hunt (ed.), ''
NME Originals The NME Originals is a collection of articles and reviews from the ''NME'' and '' Melody Maker'' magazines about one band or genre. The first issue was about the Beatles, published on 3 April 2002. Many issues in the series were produced by ''NME'' ...
: Beatles – The Solo Years 1970–1980'', IPC Ignite! (London, 2005).
* Chris Ingham, ''The Rough Guide to the Beatles'', Rough Guides/Penguin (London, 2006; 2nd edn; ).
* Andrew Grant Jackson, ''Still the Greatest: The Essential Solo Beatles Songs'', Scarecrow Press (Lanham, MD, 2012; ).
* Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, ''Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium'', 44.1 Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; ).
* Tim Riley, ''Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music – The Definitive Life'', Random House (London, 2011; ).
* Robert Rodriguez, ''Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980'', Backbeat Books (Milwaukee, WI, 2010; ).
* Nicholas Schaffner, ''The Beatles Forever'', McGraw-Hill (New York, NY, 1978; ).
* Mat Snow, ''The Beatles Solo: The Illustrated Chronicles of John, Paul, George, and Ringo After The Beatles'' (Volume 4: ''Ringo''), Race Point Publishing (New York, NY, 2013; ).
* Howard Sounes, ''Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney'', HarperCollins (London, 2010; ).
* Bruce Spizer, ''The Beatles Solo on Apple Records'', 498 Productions (New Orleans, LA, 2005; ).
* Bob Woffinden, ''The Beatles Apart'', Proteus (London, 1981; ).
{{refend
1970s ballads
1973 songs
Pop ballads
Ringo Starr songs
Songs written by Paul McCartney
Songs written by Linda McCartney
Song recordings produced by Richard Perry