Ringo Starr has claimed that The Beatles would not have made as many albums, had it not been for “workaholic” Paul McCartney.
Starr made these comments when speaking to reporter Dan Rather, which touched on how The Beatles did not get along, and how they would not have made as many records only for Paul McCartney.
For instance, in 1963, the Fab Four released two albums, ‘Please Please Me’, and ‘With The Beatles’.
In 1964, they released, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, and ‘Beatles For Sale’, with ‘Help’ and ‘Rubber Soul’ arriving a year later.
“we all gave our best”
Speaking about how they did not always get along, Ringo Starr said, “No no, we didn’t get along. We were four guys, we had rouse. It never got in the way of the music no matter how bad the row was. Once the count in, we all gave our best. And that was a little later too which I think it was a natural thing, you know”.
It was at this point that Ringo Starr paid homage to the “workaholic of the band” Paul McCartney.
“Suddenly, we’ve got lives and I’ve got children and you know, the effort that we put in cause we worked really hard was starting to pale a little and we always thank Paul to this day”, Starr stated.
“Because of Paul, who was the workaholic of our band, we made a lot more records than John and I would’ve made. We liked to sit around a little more and then Paul would call ‘Alright lads’, and we’d go in”.
Starr On Staying Humble
Elsewhere, Ringo Starr also spoke about how the Beatles were always able to show humility. He also mentioned a time when the band met music legend Elvis Presley.
“I think its all part of where we came from. I always give credit that there was four of us all from the same city and we would look at each other, you know one of us would be freaking out or being a big shot and three other people would go ‘Excuse me’ and that kept us straight”, Starr explained.
He also added, “You know it’s interesting because the time we met Elvis, I really thought ‘How sad that he’s on his own’. He had all those people around but he was on his own. I had three great mates”.
Overall, The Beatles are the biggest selling band of all time, boasting a sale of over 500 million records to their name.
Releasing 12 studio albums (17 in the US), The Beatles also released 5 live albums, 51 compilation albums, 36 extended plays (EPs), 63 singles, 22 video albums, 17 box sets, and 53 music albums.
As mentioned, The Fab Four released two albums per year for three years straight, and either one or two for every year between 1965 and 1970.
In other news, Ringo Starr recently spoke about returning to his roots and a genre which defined his career with The Beatles and as solo artist. Find out more here.
Last month, the sons of Paul McCartney and John Lennon collaborated to release new song, ‘Primrose Hill’. Check it out here.