‘Good Night’: The greatest Ringo Starr vocal performance

Don’t be mean, alright? We all know what the obvious joke is. We all know how some snarky prick might answer the question “what is Ringo Starr’s greatest vocal performance?” and it’s a needlessly cruel and unfair one. Was Ringo Starr a natural singer? Absolutely not, and he’d be the first person to tell you as much. Would any Beatles fan outside of the die-hard Ringo-maniacs actually prefer to hear him sing over the other Fabs? Almost certainly not; it’s why he only has a few vocal credits.

However, when he does take the mic, it’s for some of the most endearing, lovable songs in their back catalogue. One where his thick baritone and down-to-earth demeanour give the music a relatability that the likes of ‘Norwegian Wood’ or ‘Helter Skelter’ just don’t have, no matter how magical those songs may be. There’s a reason that Ringo was singing numbers with the band from the very beginning, with his first sojourn behind the mic coming in the form of their cover of The Shirelles’ ‘Boys’ from their debut album.

From then on, Starr has had a pretty admirable track record of Beatles songs, depending on your tolerance for whimsy. ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘Octopus’s Garden‘ (sic) are the school choir favourites, the latter of which I actually think is a far better Beatles song than anyone gives it credit for. ‘What Goes On’ and ‘Act Naturally’ are solid mid-career Beatles jams. Then, there’s the big one. The one that even I can’t quite believe is the focus of the article.

Not only is ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ a top-tier Beatles song, it’s also one that none of the Fabs could have sung and made work in quite the same way that it lives on today. After all, Harrison, McCartney and Lennon are each musical geniuses, where Harrison was, in fact, completely convinced that he needed no help from his friends to be a great songwriter. Yet, coming from Ringo Starr, the song actually works, becoming one of the great moments from one of the greatest rock albums ever made.

So, why is ‘Good Night’ the best Ringo Starr vocal performance?

Yet, that’s not the song I think of when I think of great Ringo vocal performances. ‘With a Little Help…’ is a very close second, a photo finish one might say, yet when I think of Ringo at his most Ringo, I think of The White Album‘s closing number, ‘Good Night’. To me, that’s his greatest vocal performance because, quite simply, no other Ringo vocal has had as much to do as ‘Good Night’.

Famously, this is the song that follows ‘Revolution 9’, an eight-minute-long musique concrète nightmare that’s still, nearly 60 years after its release, one of the most disturbing works of art released by a mainstream pop act. ‘Revolution 9‘ being followed by one of the most genuinely innocent songs in the entire Beatles back catalogue is a baffling tonal whiplash, but one that, due to Ringo’s sweet, cooing vocals, works like a charm.

It goes beyond that, though. ‘Good Night’ isn’t just following up ‘Revolution 9’, it’s ending The White Album. An absolute headspin of a record that veers from rock to proto-punk to country to music hall to folk and everywhere in between. The record as a whole is a woolly, unfocused, overlong storm of bad vibes. While ending on ‘Revolution 9’ would have reflected the fragmented, uncomfortable way the record was made, it also would have left the audience on one hell of a downer.

Thus, ‘Good Night’ is the perfect choice of closer and Ringo is the perfect choice of singer. His vocal embraces the corniness and sentimentality by playing it utterly straight. That, combined with George Martin’s wonderful string arrangement, gives the song a disarming power that sends the listener off, if not on a high, then on a calm note. One that, because of Ringo’s vocal performance, is meant entirely from the heart.