''Ringo 2012'' is the seventeenth studio album by English singer-songwriter

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

, 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 UM^e.

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", from 1977's '' Ringo the 4th''. His cover of

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...

'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 port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, 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''. Early life Light grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attended Cincin ...

of ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'': "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

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, ''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 *

– lead and backing vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards, acoustic guitar *

Joe Walsh Joseph Fidler Walsh (born Joseph Woodward Fidler; November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Best known as a member of the rock band Eagles (band), Eagles, his five-decade career includes solo work and stints in other ...

– guitar *

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Kenny Wayne Shepherd (born Kenneth Wayne Brobst; June 12, 1977) is an American guitarist. He has released several studio albums and experienced significant commercial success as a blues rock artist. Early life Shepherd was born in Shrevepo ...

– guitar * David A. Stewart – guitar, keyboards * Steve Dudas – guitar, bass *

Don Was Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was (), is an American musician, record producer, music director, film composer, documentary filmmaker and radio host. Since 2011, he has also served as president of the ...

– bass * Michael Bradford – bass *

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 fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...

–

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

* Ann Marie Calhoun – violin * Matt Cartsonis –

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

* Bruce Sugar – keyboards, piano,

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

, organ,

synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

horns *

Van Dyke Parks Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, record producer, singer, and former Warner Bros. Records executive whose work encompasses orchestral pop, elaborate recording experiments, Ame ...

– keyboards,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

string arrangement The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...

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 M ...

– organ *

Edgar Winter Edgar Holland Winter (born December 28, 1946) is an American multi-instrumentalist, working as a vocalist along with playing keyboards, saxophone, and percussion. His success peaked in the 1970s with his band the Edgar Winter Group and their pop ...

–

Saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, organ * Amy Keys – backing vocals * Kelly Moneymaker – backing vocals *

Richard Page Richard Lewis Page (born 22 February 1941) is a former Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979, and from 1979 to 2005. Early life Born the so ...

– backing vocals ;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 Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...

* 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 Universal Music Enterprises albums