Ringo Beat

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"Ringo Beat"
Single by Ella Fitzgerald
B-side "I'm Falling in Love"
Released1965
RecordedOctober 23, 1964 [1]
Genre R&B
Length1:52
Label Verve
103440 [2]
Songwriter(s) Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald singles chronology
"Can't Buy Me Love"
(1965)		"Ringo Beat"
(1965)		"Get Ready"
(1969)

"Ringo Beat" is a 1965 novelty single written and recorded by American singer/songwriter Ella Fitzgerald. It was inspired by the popularity of Ringo Starr, the drummer of The Beatles. [3] [4] Fitzgerald had described the rock drumming style of her 16-year-old son, Ray Brown, Jr. as the "Ringo beat...cause that's where it all started". [5] The guitarist Barney Kessel also appears on the song. [1]

The Billboard magazine review from December 12, 1964, commented that "Swinging' Fitzgerald takes off on that all too famous beat. Great opportunity for the WNEW's to recognize The Beatles". [4] Fitzgerald had complained in a November 1965 interview for Downbeat magazine that disc jockeys were refusing to play the song. [5] It was released on CD as part of the 2003 album Jukebox Ella , a compilation of Fitzgerald's singles recorded for Verve Records. [6]

Reviewing Jukebox Ella for Allmusic, John Bush described "Ringo Beat" as the only one of Fitzgerald's Verve singles to acknowledge rock and roll and felt that it was "mostly unembarrassed". [6] In his biography of Fitzgerald, Stuart Nicholson described the song as "awful" and placed in the context of Fitzgerald's constant search for an elusive hit record. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Stuart Nicholson (22 July 2014). Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz, Updated Edition. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-136-78814-7.
  2. ↑ "Ella Fitzgerald - Ringo Beat/I'm Falling In Love at Discogs". discogs.com. 1964. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  3. ↑ Nicholas Schaffner (1978). The Beatles Forever . McGraw-Hill. p.  215. ISBN   978-0-07-055087-2.
  4. 1 2 "Middle Road Spotlights". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 12 December 1964. p. 31. ISSN   0006-2510.
  5. 1 2 Frank Alkyer (1 November 2009). DownBeat - The Great Jazz Interviews: A 75th Anniversary Anthology. Hal Leonard. p. 339. ISBN   978-1-4768-5503-5.
  6. 1 2 Jukebox Ella: The Complete Verve Singles, Vol. 1 at AllMusic
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