''Blast from Your Past'' is a compilation album by English rock musician Ringo Starr, released on

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 Ma ...

in 1975. It is both Starr's first compilation LP and his final release under his contract with

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

. It was also the last album to be released on

the 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 developmen ...

' Apple label until it was revived in the 1990s. The album provides an overview of Starr's most successful period as a solo artist. The songs include his RIAA gold-certified singles " It Don't Come Easy", " Photograph" and " You're Sixteen", and other international hits such as " Back Off Boogaloo" and " Only You". The album peaked at number 30 on the US '' Billboard'' pop LPs chart but failed to chart in the UK.

Content

''Blast from Your Past'' provides an overview of Starr's musical achievements as a solo artist during the first half of the 1970s. The album compiles eight singles, one B-side, and one album track, all released between 1970 and 1975. All eight of the singles charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the US; " Photograph" and " You're Sixteen" each hit number 1, while all of them but " Beaucoups of Blues" made the top ten. Five of the songs charted in the United Kingdom, where the non-album single " Back Off Boogaloo" was the highest placed, at number 2. " Early 1970" was the B-side to " It Don't Come Easy", another non-album single, and " I'm the Greatest" was taken from the album '' Ringo''. " Oh My My", "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen" were taken from ''Ringo'' also, and " No No Song" and "

Only You (And You Alone) "Only You (And You Alone)" (often shortened to "Only You") is a pop song composed by Buck Ram. It was originally recorded by The Platters with lead vocals by Tony Williams in 1955. The Platters versions The Platters first recorded the song for ...

" first appeared on '' Goodnight Vienna''.

Release and reception

The album was released in the US on 20 November 1975, and 12 December in the UK. The latter was issued with a red Apple label. The sleeve for the album was designed by Roy Kohara. In the UK, Apple issued "Oh My My", backed with "No No Song", as a single on 9 January 1976, to promote the compilation and also because both of the songs had appeared there only as album tracks. As with

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 ...

's recently released Apple compilation, ''

Shaved Fish ''Shaved Fish'' is a compilation album by English rock musician John Lennon with the Plastic Ono Band, issued in October 1975 on Apple Records. It contains all of the singles that he had issued up to that point in the United States as a solo art ...

'', the sales of ''Blast from Your Past'' were disappointing. The album failed to chart in the UK and peaked at number 30 in the US. In his review for the ''

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 ...

'',

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 ...

wrote that few observers would have expected Starr to have amassed enough hit songs for a greatest hits set five years after the Beatles' break-up, given that he had sung and written little during the band's career. Woffinden criticised the brevity of the album, however, and said that, since only four of the tracks had been significant chart successes in the UK, and many of the songs had not been issued as singles there, "why should

tarr ''Tarr'' is a modernist novel by Wyndham Lewis, written in 1909–11, revised and expanded in 1914–15 and first serialized in the magazine ''The Egoist'' from April 1916 until November 1917. The American version was published in 1918, with an ...

now consider an album of American 45s a going proposition in Britain?" Writing in their book '' The Beatles: An Illustrated Record'',

Roy Carr Roy Carr (1945 – 1 July 2018) was an English music journalist, covering pop, rock and jazz. He joined the '' New Musical Express (NME)'' in the late 1960s, and edited ''NME'', '' Vox'' and '' Melody Maker'' magazines. Biography Born in Bla ...

and

Tony Tyler James Edward Anthony Tyler (31 October 1943 in Bristol – 28 October 2006 in Hastings, East Sussex) was a British writer who authored several books and wrote for the ''NME'','' Macworld'', '' MacUser'', '' PC Pro'' and '' Computer Shopper''. ...

also commented on its "short weight" nature, saying: "the tracks total no more than half-an-hour. Both sides together, that is." ''Blast from Your Past'' was reissued in the US by Capitol Records in September 1981, while in the UK it was released by the budget label Music for Pleasure on 25 November 1981. The album was issued on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...

in the UK on 26 May 1987 and in the US on 18 January 1988. All the tracks from ''Blast from Your Past'' appear on Starr's 2007 career-spanning compilation album '' Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr''.

Track listing

Charts

References

; Footnotes ; Citations

External links