Ringo Starr



Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey July 7, 1940) was the more notable of the two drummers for The Beatles, replacing Pete Best. And he is awesome. Following his career with the Fab Four, he has had a very successful solo career.

Aside from his musical career, he's also a pretty accomplished actor, starring in the prehistoric comedy film Caveman, and had a co-starring role with Peter Sellers in The Magic Christian, and has appeared in many other films over the years.

Some see him as the the Beatles' Garfunkel, having only been credited for writing two Beatles songs which are mostly viewed as Album Filler (although "Octopus' Garden" appeared on a Greatest Hits Album). Ringo himself is often very Self Deprecating about this. The other Beatles tried to avoid this, however, by giving him at least one song to sing on every album, and have repeatedly declared his importance for the band in interviews. John Lennon, who often hired Ringo as his drummer after the breakup because he had gotten used to his groove, noted in an interview that "Ringo's a damn good drummer. He always was a good drummer. He's not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way as Paul's bass playing is underrated."

Oh, and did we mention he provided narration for a large number of episodes in the Thomas the Tank Engine series, and also played the Conductor?

Solo Discography:
 * Sentimental Journey - 1970 (A Cover Album of Tin Pan Alley standards, decades before Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart and other singers did the same thing)
 * Beaucoups of Blues - 1970 (Another Cover Album, this time of Country Music songs)
 * Ringo -1973
 * Goodnight Vienna - 1974
 * Ringo's Rotogravure - 1976
 * Ringo the 4th - 1977
 * Bad Boy - 1978
 * Stop and Smell the Roses - 1981
 * Old Wave - 1983
 * Time Takes Time - 1992
 * Vertical Man - 1998
 * Ringo Rama - 2003
 * Choose Love - 2005
 * Liverpool 8 - 2008
 * Y Not - 2010
 * Ringo 2012 - 2012

Ringo Starr provides examples of:

 * All Drummers Are Animals: Generally averted, though he was often seen as the most offbeat Beatle.
 * Badass Beard
 * Badass Grandpa
 * Blinding Bangs: No more than the other three, but anime dubbing companies often turn characters with Blinding Bangs into parodies of him, riddling their dialogue with Beatles references. This is shown in Kinnikuman with Geronimo/"Beatlebomb" (one of the most criticized aspects of the dub) and Nihiru/Ringo from Bobobo Bobobobo.
 * Blue Eyes
 * Boring but Practical: As noted in the Lennon quote above, he's not a great drummer technically - because he was a left-handed boy who only had access to a right-handed drum kit. Lennon also joked that "[Ringo]'s not even the best drummer in the Beatles!" However, he contributed stylistically creative drum parts to the Beatles' songs, displaying a talent for moulding his drumming style to whatever the other Beatles needed. He is also very, very good at keeping time.
 * Catch Phrase: "PEACE and LOVE!"
 * The Chick / The Heart: Many fans and critics considered him the most expendable Beatle, but the band always stated he was the one who mostly kept them together. Once he tried to leave... and the other three sent him flowers to convince him otherwise!
 * Classically Trained Extra: "You're Sixteen" features a guest appearance by Paul McCartney... on kazoo!
 * Cool Old Guy: Of course.
 * The Garfunkel: When it comes to songwriting, Ringo doesn't get as much credit compared with the other Beatles. Understandable, as while the Beatles were together, he wrote only two songs by himself. But to be fair, he was a great drummer.
 * Grandpa What Massive Hotness You Have: The man looks damn good for being in his seventies.
 * The Heart: The other Beatles recognized Ringo as helping keep them together during the most tense of times. After they broke up, he was the only one to maintain friendly relations with the other three.
 * Ill Boy: Ringo was extremely prone to illness as a child. When he was six years old, he developed appendicitis. Complications of the appendicitis caused an infection that put him into a coma for two months. At thirteen years of age, he was hospitalized again for chronic pleurisy. The next two years of his life were spent in a sanatorium to aid his recovery, but during his second year, he fell ill with tuberculosis. And that's just his childhood. He contracted tonsillitis in 1964, and in 1979 had to have parts of his intestines removed. He also copes with allergies and sensitivities to food.
 * Its Pronounced Tropay: Saying "Ringo" without putting the emphasis on "go" is a crime.
 * I Was Quite a Looker: Observable in the bottom half of this image. Him having been a feminine-looking, Moe Moe Bishonen back then, time hasn't been kind to him. Though he looks okay for 70.
 * Japandering: There's this, but in Ringo's defense the ad is actually quite clever.
 * Malaproper: Ringo was noted for this; he is generally credited with coining the phrases "a hard day's night", "eight days a week", and "tomorrow never knows".
 * Meaningful Name: His nickname, which dates back to his pre-Beatle days with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, comes from his affinity for rings.
 * Older Than They Look: He's 72, but he looks like he could be in his 40s (and with a little face cream, even late 30s. Seriously.), and doesn't look a day over 50.
 * Notice that this is a trope that applies to almost every celebrity (what with the use of make up and/or plastic surgery)
 * Self Deprecating Humor: He is very fond of it.
 * The Southpaw: Initially caused him some difficulty, as his drum kit was right-handed.
 * Step Up to The Microphone: To make the Beatles a full Vocal Tag Team, Ringo had a song in every album but A Hard Day's Night. John and Paul even joked that their version of the song they gave to The Rolling Stones was sung by Ringo...