Bad Boy (Ringo Starr album)

Bad Boy
Studio album by Ringo Starr
Released	21 April 1978 (UK) 16 June 1978 (US)
Recorded	November 1977[1]
Genre	Rock
Length	34:27
Label	Polydor (UK) Portrait/Sony Music (US)
Producer	Vini Poncia
Ringo Starr chronology
Ringo the 4th (1977) Bad Boy (1978) Stop and Smell the Roses (1981)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Galeria Musical	[3]
Rolling Stone	(not rated)[4]

Bad Boy is the seventh album by Ringo Starr, released in 1978 during a period where his musical career was sliding into freefall after several years of solo success. Although Bad Boy was meant to reverse this trend, Starr's fortunes dwindled further.

After the critical and commercial disaster of Ringo the 4th (1977), Starr and his musical partner, Vini Poncia, decided to create a less campy album and streamline the sound to lose the disco qualities and excesses that marred the previous release. With Poncia taking the production reins, Starr mostly relies on other people's songs, with no celebrity guests to be found. The album was recorded, for tax purposes, in Vancouver, Toronto, and The Bahamas. It was completed within ten days of sessions in November 1977, with the exception of some orchestral overdubs done on March 8, 1978 under the direction of James Newton Howard.^[1]

The results, while comparatively an improvement, were still below par for Starr, resulting in another flop album, with Bad Boy only reaching #129 in the US, despite the airing of a prime time TV special entitled Ringo: With A Little Help From His Friends. Polydor Records, after three consecutive non-charters in the UK, promptly dropped Starr, while his new US label, Portrait Records (who picked him up after Atlantic Records had dropped him) would eventually cancel his contract in 1981 during the making of his next album.

Of the 45's pulled from Bad Boy, neither "Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)" nor "Heart On My Sleeve" charted. In the UK, the lone single was "Tonight / Heart On My Sleeve" and did not chart. It is now a sought after collector's item.

Rather cheekily, "A Man Like Me" is simply Scouse the Mouse's "A Mouse Like Me" with all the words "Mouse" substituted by "Man".

Bad Boy was reissued on CD in the US by Epic Records in 1991 (after Portrait Records' shelving), now its only source of availability.

Track listing

Side 1

1. "Who Needs a Heart" (Richard Starkey, Vini Poncia) – 3:48
2. "Bad Boy" (Lil Armstrong, Avon Long) – 3:14
3. "Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)" (Naomi Neville) – 3:01
4. "Heart on My Sleeve" (Benny Gallagher, Graham Lyle) – 3:20
5. "Where Did Our Love Go" (Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland) – 3:15

Side 2

1. "Hard Times" (Peter Skellern) – 3:31
2. "Tonight" (Ian McLagan, John Pidgeon) – 2:56
3. "Monkey See - Monkey Do" (Michael Franks) – 3:36
4. "Old Time Relovin'" (Vini Poncia, Richard Starkey) – 4:16
5. "A Man Like Me" (Ruan O'Lochlainn) – 3:08

Personnel

• Ringo Starr - drums, lead vocals
• Lon "Push-A-Tone" Van Eaton - guitar
• Git-tar - rhythm guitar
• Diesel - bass
• Hamish Bissonnette - synthesizer

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium (Chesterfield, MO: 44.1 Productions, 2000), 514.
2. ^ Bad Boy (Ringo Starr album) at Allmusic
3. ^ Galeria Musical review
4. ^ Rolling Stone review

External links

• JPGR's Bad Boy site