The Beatles Had to Coax an ‘Insecure’ Ringo Starr to Sing ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’
Ringo Starr took the lead on The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends,” but he didn’t initially want to sing it. While his bandmates wrote the song with Starr’s vocal range in mind, he felt that the high note at the end was beyond his capabilities. His bandmates rallied around him to help him sing the song in its entirety.
The Beatles had to convince Ringo Starr to sing ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’
Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote “With a Little Help From My Friends” for Starr to sing. When it came time to record the vocals, though, he was hesitant. He attempted to leave the studio before he could record it.
“He was at the halfway point [of the stairs] when we heard Paul’s voice call out. ‘Where are you going, Ring?'” engineer Geoff Emerick wrote Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles, per Rolling Stone. “Ringo looked surprised. ‘Home, to bed.’ ‘Nah, let’s do the vocal now.’ Ringo looked to the others for support. ‘But I’m knackered,’ he protested. To his dismay, both John and George Harrison were taking Paul’s side. ‘No, come on back here and do some singing for us,’ John said with a grin.”
They rallied around him, and Starr sang the song. He was hesitant about the final note, though, which felt a bit high for him.
“It took a lot of coaxing from Paul to get me to sing that last note,” Starr said on The South Bank Show. “I just felt it was very high. I always worry about the vocals. I’m insecure when I do the vocals.”
Ringo Starr was the perfect person to sing the Beatles’ song
Starr was so concerned about hitting the note that he suggested speeding up his singing to make his voice sound higher. His bandmates pushed back against this, though.
‘No, Ring, you’ve got to do it properly,’ Paul finally concluded,” Emerick wrote. “‘It’s okay; just put your mind to it. You can do it,’ George Harrison said encouragingly. Even John added some helpful – if decidedly nontechnical – advice: ‘Just throw yer head back and let’er rip!'”
When he successfully hit the note, his bandmates cheered for him. He embodied the spirit of the song, only finishing the recording session with a little help from his bandmates.
The Beatles drummer has performed the song a number of times over the years
Since Starr recorded the song, he performed it several times. When he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2015, Starr performed “With a Little Help From My Friends” with various musician friends.
McCartney and many of the performers and presenters from the ceremony joined him on stage. Per Rolling Stone, Miley Cyrus, Green Day, Patti Smith, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Joan Jett, Dave Grohl, John Legend, Beck, Karen O, Joe Walsh, Gary Clarke Jr., Zac Brown joined Starr on stage for the song.
