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November 10th, 2026 · 1:00am GMT
While The Beatles supposedly fell apart in 1970 as far as the public were concerned, the rot had begun to set in a long time before their actual split.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney spent many of the years after their grisly separation at each other’s throats, taking every opportunity to besmirch the names of one another. George Harrison didn’t have many particularly nice things to say about either of them, although he tended to prefer not to discuss his relationship with them at length. To put it simply, there seemed to be little chance of a full-scale reunion, at least for the time being.
Ringo Starr on the other hand, proved himself to be the most amicable Beatle, given how he was still in close contact with all of his former bandmates. Not long after their breakup, he even worked alongside Lennon on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and alongside Harrison on some of his solo material.
However, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that Starr was the least talented songwriter in the band, and while there were a couple of songs credited solely to him from his time in the band, he did require a few helping hands here and there such as on ‘Octopus’ Garden’, which he received minor assistance from Harrison on. This relationship would continue into his solo career where Harrison aided him on more than a few occasions, and on one that means a lot to Starr to this day.
Arguably one of his most beloved solo songs is the 1973 single ‘Photograph’, which reached number one in the US and took him into the top 10 in the UK, but he couldn’t have possibly done it without the help of Harrison. They initially began writing the song together while sailing on a yacht off the coast of France in 1971, and even if it took them almost two years to get it over the line from its original conception, it proved to be one of Starr’s most enduring solo hits.
With lyrics that cover standard ground on themes of lost love and having to use a photographic reference in order to remember the face of the person he’s trying to conjure up memories of, Starr’s performance has always had a certain sadness to it, but in the liner notes for his 2007 compilation, Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr, he stated that the song had taken on a much darker and more emotionally resonant tone from around 2002 onwards.
“I love the sentiment of ‘Photograph’,” the drummer wrote, adding that it brings back memories of working with Harrison following his tragic passing in 2001. “When we did The Concert for George [in 2002], I told the audience that ‘Photograph’ now has a different meaning just because of the fact that George has left. But ‘Photograph’ is a song that fits into the universe.”
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Despite this, Starr clearly hadn’t lost his love for the song, ending the note by saying: “I still do it a hundred years later, and I still enjoy singing it.”
Of course he loves it, but then again, Starr has never really been one for making things he doesn’t enjoy. It’s rare that he’ll ever talk about a song he’s contributed to in a negative way, and it’s clear that he’s still in it for the love of the game to this day, even if his dearest friend and collaborator is no longer there to share the memories with him.
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