{"id":347855,"date":"2026-01-02T09:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T09:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/347855\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T09:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T09:41:14","slug":"the-only-beatles-song-with-a-ringo-starr-drum-solo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/347855\/","title":{"rendered":"The only Beatles song with a Ringo Starr drum solo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Thu 1 January 2026 16:25, UK <\/p>\n

When the curtain was coming down on The Beatles, Paul McCartney<\/a> knew they had to go out with a bang.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Let It Be was the last album completed before the quartet broke up in April 1970, the final album they recorded was 1969\u2019s Abbey Road. Notably, the second side of Abbey Road is comprised of an extended medley of songs that affirmed that the group still had it, whatever magic \u2018it\u2019 was, despite things seemingly winding down in despair.<\/p>\n

Composed by Paul McCartney, the conclusive song of this medley is the aptly titled \u2018The End\u2019. Credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership, the song arrived at a significant moment, given that it was the final song all four band members recorded collectively. As is well-known, the time spent together in the studio became increasingly diminished as the interpersonal relationships started to fray, and their energy levels finally waned.<\/p>\n

In frontman John Lennon\u2019s final interview before he was killed in December 1980, compiled into David Sheff\u2019s book All We Are Saying, he unfalteringly reflected on \u2018The End\u2019, explaining, \u201cThat\u2019s Paul again, the unfinished song, right? We\u2019re on Abbey Road. Just a piece at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before ever so slightly more poignantly adding, \u201cHe had a line in it [sings], \u2018And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give [sic],\u2019 which is a very cosmic, philosophical line. Which again proves that if he wants to, he can think.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ringo<\/a>Cheers. Ringo Starr and The Beatles. (Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

In the 2021 project The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, McCartney also looked back on the couplets his old songwriting partner<\/a> backhandedly praised, when he said: \u201cThis is one of those couplets that can keep you thinking for a long time. It may be about good karma. What goes around comes around, as they say in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from the candid sentiment McCartney imbues in the track, it is also consequential for another reason. \u2018The End\u2019 features the only drum solo recorded by Ringo Starr with the band, in what McCartney has since described as a \u201ctoken\u201d feature, given the drummer\u2019s well-recorded aversion to such creative turns.<\/p>\n

In Mark Lewisohn\u2019s 1988 reference book, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, McCartney explained how the Ringo solo materialised. He said: \u201cRingo would never do drum solos. He hated drummers who did lengthy drum solos. We all did.\u201d <\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cAnd when he joined The Beatles, we said, \u2018Ah, what about drum solos then?\u2019, thinking he might say, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ll have a five-hour one in the middle of your set,\u2019 and he said, \u2018I hate\u2019 em!\u2019 We said, \u2018Great! We love you!\u2019 And so he would never do them. But because of this medley, I said, \u2018Well, a token solo?\u2019 and he really dug his heels in and didn\u2019t want to do it.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, the point of the medley, in part, was to reflect all aspects of the band in a single flourish, and a drumming solo was the most perfunctory way to bring Ringo to the fore. So, McCartney proved persistent. \u201cAfter a little bit of gentle persuasion, I said, \u2018Yeah, just do that, it wouldn\u2019t be Buddy Rich gone mad,\u2019 because I think that\u2019s what he didn\u2019t want to do,\u201d he recalled. <\/p>\n

Interestingly, Starr\u2019s solo on \u2018The End\u2019 was recorded with 12 microphones placed around the drum kit \u2013 when he went for it, he really went for it. In Kenneth Womack\u2019s The Beatles Encyclopedia, it is reported that the drummer copied a section of Ron Bushy\u2019s performance on Iron Butterfly\u2019s proto-metal classic, \u2018In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida\u2019<\/a> for the recording, holding no punches over how ambitious he should pitch his only solo in the Fab Four.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The take that Starr performed the solo on also had guitar and tambourine as the accompaniment, but they were muted during the mixing stage, thus giving the effect of a solo cut in isolation. This means that even by giving in to McCartney\u2019s request, Ringo still just about had it his way.<\/p>\n

Why was Ringo so reluctant to solo?<\/p>\n

In short, Ringo\u2019s attitude was, \u2018Why should I\u2019? As he once said himself, \u201cAt the beginning, because of the songwriters, which is a very powerful force in The Beatles and John and Paul mainly as the singers and I was just playing the drums and nodding my head so I didn\u2019t get noticed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing: \u201cYou look at Charlie Watts in the Stones, and there is nothing really said, and he\u2019s an amazing drummer, but the drummers tended not to get the writing. The drummer is the driving force, but when you have songwriters of that calibre and singers who much prefer to talk about the songs and the writers.\u201d After all, why would you want someone to thrash their way through \u2018Blackbird\u2019?One of his finest assets as a drummer is that he recognised his key place in the composition. And that\u2019s even aptly displayed in the subtle way he does eventually solo in a manner that complements the mix rather than showing off in \u2018The End\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n

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Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Thu 1 January 2026 16:25, UK When the curtain was coming down on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,24566,10447,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-347855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-ringo-starr","11":"tag-the-beatles","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}