Sentimental Journey (Ringo Starr album)

The recording for Sentimental Journey was initially sporadic, as Starr was involved in other musical activities through to the end of 1969.[19] These included participating in sessions for Leon Russell with George Harrison in October.[20] He also played drums on Harrison's productions for Apple Records artists Doris Troy[21][22] and Billy Preston.[23]

The session musicians on the album were credited as the George Martin Orchestra.[24] Although many of the arrangements incorporated drums and other rock instruments, Starr's role was confined to that of lead vocalist.[25] Preston played keyboards on some of the songs.[21] Aspinall recalled inviting some of the arrangers to create the backing tracks themselves, with their chosen musicians, and that the tapes were then sent to London for Starr to add his vocals.[26] EMI engineer Phil McDonald was the main recording engineer in London,[3] and Geoff Emerick prepared some of the mixes for the album.[27] Sessions began on 27 October,[28] when Starr, backed by an orchestra, recorded "Night and Day" at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios).[29] Martin conducted the orchestra from an arrangement by Chico O'Farrill.[5] The track was mixed the same day.[30][nb 3]

The next session took place on 6 November at Wessex Sound Studios.[29] Starr and the orchestra, conducted by Martin, recorded "Stormy Weather", although the song was omitted from the album.[34] The following day, they recorded the backing track for the McCartney-arranged "Stardust",[35] which nearly earned the album the title of Ringo Stardust.[18] On 14 November, Starr added his vocal to "Stardust" and began recording "Dream".[36] Arranged by Martin,[37] the latter was finished on 18 November at Trident Studios.[38] The backing track for "Blue, Turning Grey Over You", from an arrangement by jazz bandleader Oliver Nelson,[39] was taped on 28 November and completed on 4 December, although Starr did not record his vocal until early in 1970.[40]

Returning to other projects, Starr spent time promoting The Magic Christian, a film in which he co-starred with Peter Sellers.[41] This included being filmed at several London locations for a BBC2 documentary devoted to him, for the show Late Night Line-Up.[36] He also appeared on With a Little Help from My Friends, an all-star television tribute to Martin that was first broadcast on the ITV network on 24 December.[42][43] For the latter, Starr lip-synched to his Abbey Road composition "Octopus's Garden" in a Yorkshire Television studio on 14 December,[42] after recording a new vocal at EMI on 8 December.[44][nb 4] On 3 January 1970, he joined Harrison and McCartney to record "I Me Mine" and add overdubs to "Let It Be", for their inclusion on the album accompanying the documentary film from the Get Back sessions, now titled Let It Be.[45]

On 14 January, at Olympic Sound Studios, Starr recorded his vocals for "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" and "Sentimental Journey".[46][47] The backing track for "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" had been taped at A&M Studios in Los Angeles on 26 December, when Jones conducted a 27-piece orchestra playing his arrangement.[27][48] The Perry-arranged "Sentimental Journey" was also recorded in the US late the previous year;[49] the backing featured an unusual mix of instruments, including a "talking guitar" solo.[50] On 26 January, Starr and his wife Maureen Starkey left for the US to attend the premiere of The Magic Christian[51] and promote the film.[52][nb 5]

Authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter write that after the intermittent recording since October the previous year, work on Starr's debut album began "in earnest" in early February 1970.[27] From this point, EMI's Studio 2 became the main location.[27] A 3 February session was devoted to a remake of "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing", since Jones and Martin were unhappy with the previous recording.[56] Jones flew to London to work on the new version;[56] Starr recorded a vocal that day, only to replace it on 5 February.[57][nb 6] More time was spent on "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" than on any other song, as strings were then added to the remake on 17 February, followed by backing vocals and further instrumentation on the 19th.[59]

On 9 February, Starr added his vocal to Bernstein's arrangement of "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?",[60][49] which had been taped at A&M on 3 February.[61] At Martin's urging, Starr recorded an improved vocal part on 18 February.[61] "I'm a Fool to Care" was recorded at EMI on 11 February.[60] Voormann, the song's arranger,[62] conducted a 15-piece jazz orchestra[63] and Starr added his vocal track.[60] On 12 February, a 31-piece orchestra and a chorus of nine singers recorded Les Reed's arrangement of "Let the Rest of the World Go By". Starr added his vocal that day but then replaced it on 18 February.[60][64] On 17 February, Francis Shaw conducted a 15-piece string section as a final addition to "I'm a Fool to Care".[48] Following the 18 February overdubbing session, Starr taped an early version of his rock song "It Don't Come Easy" (then titled "You Gotta Pay Your Dues"), with Harrison directing the musicians.[60][nb 7]

On 20 February, final mixing took place on "I'm a Fool to Care", "Let the Rest of the World Go By", "Sentimental Journey"[66] and "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?"[67] Starr recorded his vocal for "Blue, Turning Grey Over You" on 24 February.[54] At De Lane Lea Studios the following day, Johnny Dankworth conducted a 20-piece orchestra on his arrangement of "You Always Hurt the One You Love";[56] Starr then added his vocal to the track.[54] The songs "Autumn Leaves" and "I'll Be Looking at the Moon" were thought to be outtakes from the February 1970 sessions and were subsequently sought out by collectors.[68] According to Madinger and Easter, however, studio documentation does not support their existence, and the two songs were merely listed as candidates for inclusion in a contemporaneous magazine article.[67][nb 8]

Starr and Martin moved to Morgan Sound Studios on 5 March, at McCartney's suggestion.[54] They taped the basic tracks, with a 36-piece orchestra, for "Whispering Grass (Don't Tell the Trees)", arranged by Ron Goodwin,[69] and the Gibb-arranged "Bye Bye Blackbird".[54] Goodwin and Gibb each conducted the orchestra and Starr added vocals to both songs.[70] On 6 March, recording for the album was completed at Morgan,[54] with the addition of saxophone (played by Dankworth), drums and piano on "You Always Hurt the One You Love".[56][71] This and four other tracks[54] were mixed that evening at EMI Studios.[71]

Sentimental Journey received an unenthusiastic response from music critics.[111] According to Beatles biographer Nicholas Schaffner, the reaction from critics and fans was "one of embarrassed silence",[112] while journalist John Blake said it was the subject of derision.[113] In his review for Rolling Stone, Greil Marcus called the album "horrendous" but added, "at least it's classy." He also wrote: "There is a certain thrill to hearing Ringo swing immediately and finally flat on 'Stardust', reportedly Judy Agnew's favorite song. She won't like this version, which just might keep Ringo from being presented with an invitation to sing one of the nominated songs on next year's Academy Awards show. But a Grammy seems inevitable."[114]

In a review that Alan Clayson highlights as especially kind,[115] Andy Gray of the NME said that Starr's singing might surprise listeners, as it was not instantly recognisable as him, and was "mostly ... on the beat and on the melody line". Gray described the arrangements as "top-class" and predicted "healthy sales" for the LP.[116]

John Gabree of High Fidelity considered that the impressive cast of musical arrangers was merely "compensating for the fact that Ringo can't sing" and dismissed most of the material as "some of the tiredest junk ever written".[117] Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said the album's appeal was confined to "over-fifties and Ringomaniacs".[118] In Stereo Review, Don Heckman wrote that Sentimental Journey suggested that Starr had long hidden "the heart of a determined romantic" behind his Charlie Chaplin-like acceptance of his standing as the Beatles' "comic relief". Heckman criticised the selection of standards as "unbelievably hoary" but said the contrast in arrangements was stranger still, from O'Farrill's "pseudo-Basie" contribution to Bernstein's "Hollywood Bowl rock".[119]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[120]
Christgau's Record Guide	C−[118]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[121]
The Essential Rock Discography	5/10[122]
MusicHound	3/5[123]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[124]

Writing in the late 1970s, NME critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler called the record "a gawky, badly sung, overly sentimental selection of moribund mambos" and "the most embarrassing (to date) of all Beatles solo excursions".[125] Bob Woffinden described it as a project that "begged failure" due to the material and the unsuitability of Starr's voice, and because, even if Starr had sung them "perfectly", the Beatles had "revolutionised popular music" and provided a "fresh set of classics" that made such sentimental songs redundant. He also rued that, after fans had bought the album out of loyalty, they were then wary of Starr's far more worthy follow-up, Beaucoups of Blues.[126][nb 15]

NPR music critic Tim Riley reacted more favourably: "Backed by full jazz band and occasional strings, Ringo poses as a Liverpudlian Jack Jones, with surprisingly good results." Riley added that the album had "a deceptively easy feel, and the strongest moments ... ('Dream' and 'Blue, Turning Grey Over You' ...) confirm his fundamental appeal as a personality."[128]

Sentimental Journey predated standards collections by other rock artists, including Harry Nilsson's A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, Linda Ronstadt's What's New and Rod Stewart's It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook.[97] On this point, William Ruhlmann of AllMusic writes: "Coming more than a decade before the fad for standards albums by rock-era pop stars like Linda Ronstadt, the album was taken not as a career move, but as a highly eccentric and expensive novelty of a kind only Beatles could afford to indulge. In retrospect, it remains harmlessly charming, if unexceptional."[120]

Bruce Spizer comments that Starr's album was "indeed novel" for a rock musician, particularly as he was yet to turn 30 and big band music was highly unfashionable in 1970. In addition to citing Ronstadt's 1980s albums with arranger Nelson Riddle and Stewart's series of Great American Songbook releases, Spizer views it as a precursor for "aging rockers" such as Bryan Ferry with As Time Goes By and Boz Scaggs with But Beautiful to "belatedly [jump] on the big band wagon" over subsequent decades.[3][nb 16] In 2017, following Bob Dylan's recent albums exploring the Great American Songbook, Pitchfork included Sentimental Journey in its list of eight recommended standards collections that "surprise" and "involve artists finding themselves within songs meant for all". The writer admired Martin's production and said that Starr's "everyman charm" bypassed his vocal limitations and ensured that the selections became "his own".[131]