Without This Man, The Beatles Would Have “Vanished,” According to Ringo Starr

Over the course of their career as a band, The Beatles released twelve albums that went on to define not only the rock ‘n’ roll genre but the entire decade of the 1960s as a whole—an undeniably impressive feat. When one considers that their career only lasted eight years, this accomplishment seems next to impossible. But as drummer Ringo Starr would explain over fifty years later, this productivity was all thanks to one person in particular.

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“We loved to work,” Starr reflected in a 2024 interview with AARP. Then, he clarified. “Paul loved to work more than all of us,” referring to Paul McCartney, the bassist and founding member of The Beatles.

“John and I would be hanging out in the garden, and the phone would ring. We knew it was him. It was like psychic. It was so far out. ‘Hey lads, should we go into the studio?’ ‘All right, yeah,’” Starr recalled.

Paul McCartney’s Work Ethic Made It All Happen

Although twelve albums might not seem like a lot compared to other musicians with upwards of 30 or 40 albums, the fact that The Beatles accomplished what they did in under a decade is remarkable. Some bands will take eight years to make one album. The Fab Four crammed in highly influential, highly respected records in that same amount of time.

“I’ve always thanked him for being that guy,” Ringo Starr told AARP. “Because otherwise, we’d have put, like, three albums out and vanished.”

In their native United Kingdom, The Beatles debuted with Please Please Me in late March 1963. Later that year, the band released With The Beatles. A Hard Day’s Night (the title of which was inspired by Starr) came out in the summer of 1964, and Beatles For Sale came out that December.

1965 saw The Beatles release Help! and Rubber Soul. From there, the band’s output slowed to around one album a year, likely coinciding with their decision not to tour and become a studio band instead. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band came out in 1967, The Beatles in 1968, and Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road in January and September of 1969, respectively.

Finally, the band’s last album was Let It Be in 1970.

George Martin Helped Quite a Bit, Too

In The Beatles’ early years, the band spent incredibly arduous days in the studio, sometimes recording for twelve hours straight. This was partially a financial decision, as producer George Martin attempted to record as much music as possible for as little money as possible. This was also a way to saturate the market, helping spur the waves of Beatlemania that washed over the globe in the mid-1960s. And while Ringo Starr was quick to give the glory to Paul McCartney, the band’s productivity was also largely dependent, of course, on the rest of the band’s willingness to stay in the studio.

There have been many “lightning in a bottle” moments throughout rock ‘n’ roll history, but there are few that shone as brightly, strongly, and with greater influence than the four lads from Liverpool who shaped rock music forever.

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