Ringo Starr Recalls How The Beatles Came to Record the Buck Owens Classic “Act Naturally”

2024 saw some major pop acts crossing over into country music. Many fans were cynical about new genre additions such as Post Malone and Beyoncé believing that the megastars were only attempting to capitalize on country’s commercial success. Some held the same belief when former Beatle Ringo Starr announced his new roots music offering Look Up. However, those who doubted his country cred don’t know Starr’s deep connections with the genre.

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Look Up isn’t Starr’s first foray into the genre. His sophomore solo album Beaucoups of Blues (1970) was a country-leaning collection that featured some of the hottest musicians in Nashville. Charlie Daniels, Jerry Reed, Ben Keith, Pete Drake, and Charlie McCoy all appeared on the album.

[RELATED: Ringo Starr Discusses His “Emotional” Connection to Country Music, Reveals Favorite Country Artists at Nashville Press Event]

However, Starr’s connection to country music goes deeper than that. He also convinced the Beatles to record a cover of Buck Owens’ hit song “Act Naturally” for Help! (1965). He talked about how the recording came to be in a recent conversation with Rodney Crowell and producer/songwriter T Bone Burnett on SiriusXM’s The Beatles Channel.

Ringo Starr Recalls Pitching “Act Naturally” to the Beatles

“My imagination was that I don’t know if anybody would have pitched that song to The Beatles,” Rodney Crowell began.

“Nobody pitched it,” Ringo Starr said. “I heard it and I used to get one track a record. I loved Buck anyway and I just loved that song,” he explained. “I thought it had a lot of fun and emotion in it and that’s why I did it,” he added.

As Starr pointed out, he sang lead vocals on one song for each Beatles album. “Act Naturally” was his pick for Help!. However, it didn’t appear on the United States version of the album. Instead, the US pressings of the album only contained music from the 1965 film of the same name.

Capitol Records released “Act Naturally” as the B-Side of “Yesterday” in the United States. Both songs were omitted from the stateside versions of the album. The tracks wouldn’t appear on an album in the United States until the band released Yesterday and Today in 1966.

Years later, Apple Records reissued “Yesterday” and “Act Naturally” as a two-sided single. This time, though, the Buck Owens cover was the A-side.

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