Ringo Starr - Ringo the 4th

In 1977, at the height of the British punk movement, the former drummer of England's greatest band released Ringo the 4th, a dinosaur-rock artifact if there ever was one. "Drowning in the Sea of Love" was the album's lead-off single, but drowning in a sea of L.A. session cats is more like it. Severely overproduced by Arif Mardin, the album pits Ringo's old brown shoe of a voice against a phalanx of backing singers (including Bette Midler, Luther Vandross, and Melissa Manchester) and a hyperactive horn section. Without any Beatle mates to bail him out, the songs are almost uniformly dire, though the cover of "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley" almost works. The album (which failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic) produced no hits whatsoever; at this point, Ringo's career and personal life were rapidly spiraling out of control, and the glory days of the Fab Four seemed very far away, indeed. --Dan Epstein Amazon.com

Not That Bad

This album has a poor reputation, and I'm not going to defend it too much. There are a lot of terrible and cheesy moments throughout (the lead track, Tango All Night, Can She Do It Like She Dances; Out on the Streets is the worst), but Ringo is actually in a good vocal form throughout, and the songwriting isn't too bad.

the ballads all work really well, especially. Wings, Gave It All Up, It's No Secret, and Gypsies in Flight are all nice songs.
True, this album won't ever be classic, but it is a little bit better than camp. Maybe I'm just hopelessly endeared to Ringo's music, but this ain't so bad. November 18, 2008

CAN SHE DO IT LIKE SHE DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like this cd or lp. It did not sell great when it came out . I don't why I just liked the way it moved very up beat drumming was great a little dated now, put still a good cd. March 13, 2008

Drowning in the Sea of Bombs

Let me just say first and foremost: I think Ringo is very underappreciated but this album does not do Ringo justice. Ringo the 4th was the 2nd album in his triple threat of bombs before he released the excellent Stop and Smell the Roses in 1981.

I bought this album bundled with Ringo's Rotogravure and I can say about the only song on the 4th that I actually liked was "Drowning in the Sea of Love". Other than that, every other song is worse than the last one.

It almost hurts to give a Ringo album one star because he is a truly talented musician...but like I said, this album does Ringo no justice and should be avoided like the plague.

Pick up "Ringo", "Goodnight Vienna" or "Stop and Smell the Roses" instead. June 17, 2006

I like this album, rounded up from 3.5 stars

This album is slick soul-pop and it's also very sophisticated. RIngo's marriage was falling apart, and it was the source of some inspirational lyrics. With this album Ringo kind of turned the corner from making fun pop relying heavily on his superstar friends to help him to trying be more of an innovator. Of-course, the major fault of this album is the fact that Ringo's vocals are in the background. They should be louder and more prominent. The material he wrote with Vini Poncia, however, is brilliant. I do honestly think 'It's no secret' is one of the best songs he ever did. It's a gentle acoustic ballad that has a disco touch and a sprinkling of psychedelia. Plus, it has a wonderful melody and some nice chord changes. Plus, I love the backing vocals. I love that song. Most of the songs are divided between entertaining, slightly amusing covers, like 'Sneaking Sally through the Alley' and 'Can she do it like she dances' that have a strogn R&B leaning. However, my favourite sogns are the originals which are serious, plaintive and sophisticated fusions of disco, pop, rock, soul and country. Wings is another brilliant song. Gypsies in flight is a gorgeous little C&W ballad. However, the other masterpiece was a dramatic disco number with a ghostly melody callad 'Drowning in the sea of love'. I think the world of that song adn Ringo's vocal performance is as good as John's take of 'Twist and shout'.

This album and it's follow up, Bad Boy, were both commercial failures. What I don't understand with both this album and Bad Boy is when the first single flopped why they didn't release a second one? They released two singles from Ringo's Rotogravure and the second one charted, or at least according to 'allmusic.com'. September 24, 2004

Not a masterpiece, but sure better than most of the '77 LPs

Is "Ringo The Fouth" one of Ringo's best albums? Not at all,I agree. But if you compare it with all the albums released at its time you'll certainly be sure that this album IS really good. When Ringo recorded it, he certainly was not wanting to make a masterpiece, a new "Sgt Pepper" or "Rubber Soul". He was just having fun. This album was produced by Arif Mardin, one of the "kings" of disco music. Arif convinced Ringo to try new sounds. I think that Ringo (with his then partner Vinnie Poncia, later producer for Kiss) bothered so much with the instrumentation (excellent) and forgot the melodies. Some of the songs are "not whistful" and forgettable, although perfectly performed, but there are good moments. But the most interesting thing about "Ringo The Fourth" is that the best song Ringo recorded for the album was not included in it!...The song was called "Just a Dream" and appeared only as the b-side of "Wings" (and later as the b-side of "Drowning in the sea of love"). If you listened to this song you'd love it and I'm sure that if "Just a Dream" was released on the album and as the A-side of the single, the history of this album would be different. It has a great melody and the taste of the disco era. It could be a serious hit, but how could we understand the artists' mind??? Atlantic, please re-release "Ringo the Fourth" with "Just a Dream" as a bonus track! July 11, 2003

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