"You and Me (Babe)" is a song by English 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 ...

, released as the final track on his 1973 album '' Ringo''. Starr's fellow ex-

Beatle 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 development ...

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 ...

wrote the song along with

Mal Evans Malcolm Frederick Evans (27 May 1935 – 5 January 1976) was an English road manager and personal assistant employed by the Beatles from 1963 until their break-up in 1970. In the early 1960s, Evans was employed as a telephone engineer, and a ...

, the Beatles' longtime aide and a personal assistant to Starr during the making of ''Ringo''. The track serves as a farewell from Starr to his audience in the manner of a show-closing finale, by lyrically referring to the completion of the album. During the extended fadeout, Starr delivers a spoken message in which he thanks the musicians and studio personnel who helped with the recording of ''Ringo'' – among them, Harrison,

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

and

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. One ...

, and his producer,

Richard Perry Richard Van Perry (born June 18, 1942) is an American record producer. He began as a performer in his adolescence while attending Poly Prep, his high school in Brooklyn. After graduating from college he rose through the late 1960s and early 1970 ...

. The recording of "You and Me (Babe)" features a series of well-regarded guitar solos from Harrison, and backing from musicians such as

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...

and

Klaus Voormann Klaus Otto Wilhelm Voormann (born 29 April 1938) is a German artist, musician, and record producer. Voormann was the bassist for Manfred Mann from 1966 to 1969, and performed as a session musician on a host of recordings, including "You're So V ...

Jack Nitzsche Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...

and Tom Scott contributed the song's musical arrangements.

Background

A friend of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

since 1960, German musician and artist

has suggested that

's first rock solo album, '' Ringo'', elicited a

Concert for Bangladesh The Concert for Bangladesh (or Bangla Desh, as the country's name was originally spelt)Harry, p. 135. was a pair of benefit concerts organised by former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. The shows were ...

-style spirit of goodwill from Starr's key collaborators on the project.Leng, pp. 138–39. In addition to Starr's former Beatles bandmates and Voormann, the participants included

, originally a roadie for the group and, by the late 1960s, an occasional lyricist,

Apple Records Apple Records is a record label founded by the Beatles in 1968 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mar ...

A&R scout, and music producer. Evans also managed

Splinter A splinter (also known as a sliver) is a fragment of a larger object, or a foreign body that penetrates or is purposely injected into a body. The foreign body must be lodged inside tissue to be considered a splinter. Splinters may cause initia ...

, a South Shields duo who began working with

in early 1973, initially on the soundtrack for

Apple Films Apple Corps Limited (informally known as Apple) is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in London in January 1968 by the members of the Beatles to replace their earlier company (Beatles Ltd.) and to form a conglomerate. Its name (pro ...

' '' Little Malcolm''. In March that year, when sessions for ''Ringo'' were under way in Hollywood, Harrison and Evans shared a house in Los Angeles and co-wrote a song for Starr's album, titled "You and Me (Babe)". Evans had some lyrics for what he termed "a meditation song", and asked Harrison for help with the melody,Rodriguez, p. 35. after which Harrison reworked the composition on a piano.Spizer, p. 308. Author Robert Rodriguez views Harrison's role in finishing "You and Me (Babe)" as " sisting the nascent songwriting career" of Evans, who co-wrote Splinter's "Lonely Man" around this time. Evans had also provided uncredited assistance to

in 1967 on song lyrics for the Beatles' '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' album.

Composition

Beatles biographer

Nicholas Schaffner Nicholas Schaffner (January 28, 1953 – August 28, 1991) was an American non-fiction author, journalist, and singer-songwriter. Biography Schaffner was born in Manhattan to John V. Schaffner (1913–1983), a literary agent whose clients includ ...

describes the song as "a showbizzy send-off".Schaffner, p. 161. The lyrics allow Starr to farewell the listener, as he sings of having enjoyed entertaining them, "But it's getting late and it's time to leave."Inglis, p. 56. Author Ian Inglis comments on the similarity between "You and Me (Babe)" and the Beatles songs " Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "

Good Night Good Night or Goodnight may refer to: Film and television * ''Good Night'' (film), a 2008 short film from India * '' The Good Night'', a 2007 film * ''Good Night, and Good Luck'', a 2005 film * ''Good Night'', one of five mini-episodes from th ...

", through its incorporation of a songwriting device whereby the performer directly addresses his audience. Musicologist Thomas MacFarlane similarly recognises the song as a musical example of

breaking the fourth wall Breaking or breakin' may refer to: Arts * Breakdancing (also breaking), an athletic style of street dance * ''Breakin, a 1984 American breakdancing-themed musical film * "Breakin, a twelfth-season episode of the American animated television se ...

, particularly during the long

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 ...

.MacFarlane, p. 89. In the two

middle eight The 32-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. A ...

s, the lyrics refer to the convivial atmosphere that was a feature of the Los Angeles sessions for ''Ringo''. Starr concludes the second middle eight with a message to LP listeners, saying that despite the performance being over, he remains "Right here on this record spinning round, with the sound …" Another reference to the album comes in Starr's spoken line during the coda: "Well, it's the end of the night and I'd just like to say thank you to everyone involved in this piece of plastic we're making ..." He then names three of the main session musicians on ''Ringo'' – fellow drummer

Jim Keltner James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America".Howard Sounes. ''Down ...

, Voormann and keyboard player

– before similarly thanking Harrison, ex-Beatles

and McCartney, producer

, sound engineer Bill Schnee, and songwriter

Vini 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 ...

. He concludes the list by signing off as Ringo Starr. In MacFarlane's description, these closing acknowledgments provide the sonic equivalent of credits rolling on screen at the end of a "classic Hollywood film".

Recording

After arriving in Los Angeles from London for a Beatles-related business meeting on 10 March 1973, Harrison admitted to being "knocked out" by the quality of the

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

Starr had recorded at

Sunset Sound Recorders Sunset Sound Recorders is a recording studio in Hollywood, California, United States located at 6650 Sunset Boulevard. Background The Sunset Sound Recorders complex was created by Walt Disney's Director of Recording, Tutti Camarata, from a collec ...

over the previous week. Harrison played on Lennon's contribution, "

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 ...

", and participated in the recording of two songs he himself had written or co-written for Starr's album: "

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 ...

" and " Sunshine Life for Me". The basic track for "You and Me (Babe)" was also taped during these sessions, which lasted until 27 March. The line-up of musicians included Starr (drums), Harrison (electric guitar), Hopkins (electric piano), Poncia (acoustic guitar) and Voormann (bass). Harrison's soloing provides what author

Alan Clayson Alan Clayson (born 3 May 1951, Dover, Kent) is an English singer-songwriter, author and music journalist. He gained popularity in the late 1970s as leader of the band Clayson and the Argonauts. In addition to contributing to publications such as ...

terms "a deft fretboard

obligato In Western classical music, ''obbligato'' (, also spelled ''obligato'') usually describes a musical line that is in some way indispensable in performance. Its opposite is the marking ''ad libitum''. It can also be used, more specifically, to indica ...

" throughout the recording, encouraged by Starr's spoken "Come on, lads – play it for me, boys" at the start of the playout.

Overdubs Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

on the basic track included a

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

part, played by percussionist

Milt Holland Milton Holland (born Milton Olshansky; February 7, 1917 – November 4, 2005) was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian percu ...

. Underlining the song's role as a show finale,Woffinden, p. 77. "You and Me (Babe)" also received orchestral string and horn overdubs. The horn parts, played and arranged by Tom Scott, were recorded at Sunset Sound on 12 May, while

added orchestration to the song on 29 June, at

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

' Burbank studio.

Release

Apple Records released ''Ringo'' in November 1973, with "You and Me (Babe)" sequenced as the final track, following the Starr–Poncia composition " Devil Woman". Combined with the album opener, "I'm the Greatest", in which Starr reprised his Billy Shears persona from ''Sgt. Pepper'', the song suggested a loose conceptual framework for ''Ringo'' in the manner of the Beatles' 1967 LP. According to authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, "You and Me (Babe)" was briefly considered for release as a single. The album was a commercial and critical success, as reviewers praised Starr's achievement in coaxing quality contributions from his former bandmates without his personality being lost in the process. The closing monologue in "You and Me (Babe)" conveyed the spirit of collaboration among the former Beatles, nearly four years after their break-up, although on no single track did they all participate. In 1975, London-based recording engineer

David Hentschel David Hentschel (born 18 December 1952) is an English recording engineer, film score composer and music producer who engineered on George Harrison's ''All Things Must Pass'' and Elton John's ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'', as well as for such a ...

covered "You and Me (Babe)", 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 ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', 12 April 1975; available a
Rock's Backpages
(subscription required). An experimental work featuring Hentschel on

ARP synthesizer ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before de ...

, the album was one of the first releases on Starr's short-lived record label,

Ring O' Records Ring O' Records was a record label founded by former Beatle Ringo Starr in 1975. The label's formation coincided with the winding down of the Beatles' Apple Records and allowed Starr to continue supporting other artists' projects while maintai ...

Critical reception

In his contemporaneous review for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', Ben Gerson wrote of the song: "It is the infectious 'You and Me (Babe),' ''Ringo''s final song, into which all the bittersweet eatlesreunion sentiments pour. George on this cut plays better than he has in years; his uncanny knack for peeling away the harmonies and realigning them is fully with him here. He keeps cooking well into the fade-out." Gerson listed the track among the album's "three most wonderful songs", along with "I'm the Greatest" and "Photograph".Ben Gerson, , ''

'', 20 December 1973, p. 73 (retrieved 22 January 2014). ''

'' critic

Bob Woffinden Robert Woffinden (31 January 1948 – 1 May 2018) was a British investigative journalist. Formerly a reporter with the '' New Musical Express'', he later specialised in investigating miscarriages of justice. He wrote about a number of high-profi ...

remarked on the album's loose concept as a

stage show A theatrical production is any work of theatre, such as a staged play, musical, comedy or drama produced from a written book or script. Theatrical productions also extend to other performance designations such as Dramatic and Nondramatic theatre, a ...

, due to "I'm the Greatest" and "You and Me (Babe)" "effectively open ngand clos ngproceedings" together with the inclusion of "Ringo's name in lights" on the ''Sgt. Pepper''-like LP cover.

Alan Betrock Alan Betrock (1950 – April 9, 2000) was an American music critic, publisher, editor, author and record producer. Initially a music critic, Betrock founded the influential '' New York Rocker'' magazine in 1976 and the publishing house Sh ...

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 ...

'' described "You and Me (Babe)" as a "fine" song and a "suitable finish", saying that it combined "Good Night" with elements from

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

' " Something Happened to Me Yesterday". He welcomed these and other "throwbacks" on ''Ringo'' as a sign that the former Beatles had "learned to live with their past" and were now free of the negativity and resentment that had occasionally surfaced in their lyrics, artwork and legal actions. Beatles historian

Bruce Spizer David "Bruce" Spizer (born July 2, 1955) is a tax attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana, who is also recognized as an expert on the Beatles. He has published thirteen books, and is frequently quoted as an authority on the history of the band an ...

views the song as "the perfect closer" for ''Ringo'' and compares it with the similarly effective "Good Night", sung by Starr in 1968 to close the Beatles'

White Album White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

. Robert Rodriguez describes it as "slick" and "a rather syrupy lounge band impression", redeemed by "one of arrison'ssharper post-Beatles solos". Among Harrison biographers, Elliot Huntley dismisses the song for its

show tune A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context. ...

qualities, describing it as "syrupy", while Simon Leng views the composition as a "corny effort" that "trades on Starr's chummy stage persona" and pales alongside the "effortless pop craft" of "Photograph".Leng, pp. 139, 140. Leng concludes of "You and Me (Babe)": "Here Harrison was writing with a specific singer in mind, and the song reveals nothing other than his ability to write to order."Leng, p. 140. Ian Inglis welcomes the song's "warm and positive message" and views its reprise of the Beatles' technique of directly addressing the listener as a "great success".

Personnel

– vocals, drums, percussion *

– electric guitars *

– electric piano *

– acoustic guitar *

– bass *

–

* Tom Scott – saxophones, horn arrangement *

– string arrangement

Notes

References

Sources

* Keith Badman, ''The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001'', Omnibus Press (London, 2001; ). * Roy Carr & Tony Tyler, ''The Beatles: An Illustrated Record'', Trewin Copplestone Publishing (London, 1978; ). * 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; ). * Michael Frontani, "The Solo Years", in

Kenneth Womack Kenneth Womack (born January 24, 1966) is an American writer, literary critic, public speaker, and music historian, particularly focusing on the cultural influence of the Beatles. He is the author of the bestselling ''Solid State: The Story of A ...

(ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles'', Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, UK, 2009; ), pp. 153–82. * Elliot J. Huntley, ''Mystical One: George Harrison – After the Break-up of the Beatles'', Guernica Editions (Toronto, ON, 2006; ). * Ian Inglis, ''The Words and Music of George Harrison'', Praeger (Santa Barbara, CA, 2010; ). * Simon Leng, ''While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison'', Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006; ). * Ian MacDonald, ''Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties'', Pimlico (London, 1998; ). * Thomas MacFarlane, ''The Music of George Harrison'', Routledge (Abingdon, UK, 2019; ). * Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, ''Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium'', 44.1 Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; ). * Chris O'Dell (with Katherine Ketcham), ''Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved'', Touchstone (New York, NY, 2009; ). * 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; ). * Bruce Spizer, ''The Beatles Solo on Apple Records'', 498 Productions (New Orleans, LA, 2005; ). * Bob Woffinden, ''The Beatles Apart'', Proteus (London, 1981; ). {{Ringo Starr 1973 songs Ringo Starr songs Songs written by George Harrison Song recordings produced by Richard Perry Music published by Harrisongs