Sir Richard Starkey (b. 1940, known professionally as Ringo Starr) is a musician who achieved worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles. Starr mainly served as the group's drummer and backing vocalist but also achieved success as a songwriter with the songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus' Garden." He also generally sang lead vocals on at least one song on each of the group's studio albums, the most notable of which include "Yellow Submarine," "With a Little Help from My Friends," "What Goes On," and "Good Night."
Starr is also known on children's TV for having played the narrator of the series Thomas & Friends for CITV in the mid-1980s and Mr. Conductor for its 1989 spin-off, Shining Time Station.
He appeared in a February 2008 Disney Xtreme Digital video with Kermit the Frog and Pepe the King Prawn during the Muppets' coverage of the Grammy Awards ceremony.
In 2023, Starr provided the drums for The Muppets Mayhem song "We Are One." Floyd Pepper and Animal talked about the Electric Mayhem's collaboration with Ringo in an interview with Billboard. (YouTube)
References[]
- In The Muppet Show episode 517, Statler introduces "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," noting how they'd hoped to have the Beatles themselves perform it but hadn't heard back from any of them, when Waldorf rushes on stage with breaking news:
- In the first issue of the Muppet Show Fan Club newsletter, the "Frog's Log" news column reports: "Guess which 'star' sent a big bouquet to a certain pig...? (Hint — first name's 'Ringo'!) Will all this go to her head? Is there any doubt?"
- Ringo the Elephant, a guest on Episode 106 of The Animal Show, is named after and vocally based on Starr.
- When Nora tells Lips she wanted a Beatle in The Muppets Mayhem episode "Eight Days a Week," she clarifies, "as in I wanted a Ringo or a Paul."
Muppet Mentions[]
- In Starr’s 1970 single “Early 1970”, he comments on each of the ex-Beatles' personal lives and the likelihood of a possible reunion. When covering John Lennon, he describes how he is “Laying in bed, watching tv, cookie!”, sung in the manner of Cookie Monster. Starr also contributed drums to Lennon's song "Hold On", in which Cookie Monster is also referenced.