Ringo Starr VH1 Storytellers
On the most famousBeatlessong that John Lennon and Paul McCartney deigned to let him sing, Ringo Starr asked the musical question, "What would you do if I sang out of tune / Would you stand up and walk out on me?" Decades later, most of us are still keeping our options open. Yet Starr remains the most accessible Beatle, and the most pragmatic--even he wouldn't try to claim that he could get by without a little help from his friends. OnVH1 Storytellers, his friends include his backing band the Roundheads--classic-rock vets Joe Walsh, Mark Hudson, Jack Blades, Simon Kirke, and others. The set samples the best of his solo career ("Photograph," "It Don't Come Easy," "Back Off Boogaloo") and tosses in some Beatles tunes ("Octopus's Garden," "Don't Pass Me By," "With a Little Help...," "Love Me Do"). But it devotes too much time--fully a third of the disc--to his recent and mostly weak album,Vertical Man. Through it all, though, Starr is charmingly self-deprecating, a little proud (referring to the Beatles as "that other band"), and a pretty good storyteller, revealing (not for the first time) how the fourth Beatle often felt like a fifth wheel. A little something to tide you over until his next All-Starr extravaganza.--Daniel Durchholz