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Ringo Starr enjoyed plenty of musical success with The Beatles. The Fab Four changed popular music forever with their iconic albums and chart-topping singles. Ringo had an intimate relationship with a drummer who wanted to take his place in The Beatles, but his solo career wasn’t quite as cozy with the charts. Still, Ringo’s songs found plenty of success during his solo career.

Ringo Starr, who had several of his solo songs reach the charts, during a 1989 concert.
Ringo Starr | Larry Busacca/WireImage

Ringo Starr wrote two songs that appeared on Beatles’ albums

Ringo was supremely talented on the drums but less musically inclined than his bandmates. Still, the other Beatles typically let Ringo sing at least one of their songs on each album.

The drummer wasn’t much of a songwriter, but Ringo wrote two Beatles songs on his own. “Don’t Pass Me By” appeared on The White Album. “Octopus’s Garden,” the song Ringo wants played at his funeral, landed on Abbey Road. Neither of them made the charts.

He also sang on several notable Fab Four songs (“Act Naturally,” “What Goes On,” and “With a Little Help From My Friends”).

Though he admitted he lacked songwriting skills, several Ringo songs landed on the charts during his solo career.

The best-performing Ringo songs in the United States

Ringo’s solo songs didn’t come close to matching The Beatles’ success. That’s not surprising considering the Fab Four had 20 No. 1 singles and 34 top-10 hits. Yet he placed 12 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States, including seven top-10 tunes and a pair of No. 1 hits.

“Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen,” both from his 1973 self-titled third solo record, landed at No. 1. The former spent 16 weeks on the charts and hit the top in November 1973. The latter lasted 15 weeks and took the top spot in January 1974.

Ringo’s other top-10 Billboard singles were:

  • “No-No Song/Snookeroo” (No. 3 in 1975)
  • “It Don’t Come Easy” (No. 4 in 1971, later appearing on Ringo)
  • “Oh My My” (No. 5 in 1974)
  • “Only You” (No. 6 in 1974)
  • “Back Off Boogaloo” (which reached No. 9 in 1972 when George Harrison made Ringo sound like a genius; it later appeared on the Goodnight Vienna album)

The Ringo songs “Beaucoups Of Blues,” “It’s All Down to Goodnight Vienna/Oo-Wee,” “A Dose of Rock ‘N’ Roll,” and “Hey Baby” landed on the Billboard charts in the 1970s. “Wrack My Brain” reached No. 38 in 1981.

The drummer found less frequent but more recent success on the charts in the United Kingdom.

The drummer charted in the U.K. in 2008

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Ringo never reached the top of the charts in the U.K. as he did in the U.S., per the Official Charts Company. Yet four Ringo songs made the top 10 there. Unlike in the U.S., he landed on the charts with later solo efforts in the 1990s and 2000s.

“Back Off Boogaloo” went to No. 2 in 1972. “It Don’t Come Easy” and “You’re Sixteen” both reached No. 4, and “Photograph” hit No. 8 in 1974. “Only You” charted in England (at No. 28) in 1974.

Two little-known Ringo songs made charts later in his solo career, albeit briefly.

“Weight of the World,” the lead single from the comeback album Time Takes Time, hit No. 74 in 1992. The album flopped, but the good-natured Ringo joked about it. His autobiographical “Liverpool 8” landed at No. 99 in 2008. That was the last time a Ringo Starr song made the charts.

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