Fans of The Beatles’ soundtrack album, A Hard Day’s Night, say the lack of a Ringo Starr-led song is disappointing.
Though George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon each received at least one song with lead vocal work on A Hard Day’s Night, Starr did not have any. A post to the r/Beatles subreddit saw fans share their thoughts on why Starr may not have been given any work to do on the album. One user shared: “It’s a shame that Ringo didn’t get a lead vocal song in A Hard Day’s Night. I recently noticed that while John, Paul, and George have lead vocals in a lot of the tracks, only Ringo didn’t have any. I wonder why.”
Fans are now speculating on why Starr had not been given a lead vocal role on The Beatles‘ 1964 album. One suggested that while it may be disappointing he did not receive any vocal work on the album, his work on the film led to him becoming the main star of the follow-up film. The user wrote: “Ringo did get a scene that was so well received he became the focal point for the film Help!”
Another added: “The camera definitely loved Ringo the most. John always had the good lines and Paul is Paul, but Ringo is a true ham and the best, most natural actor of the four.” A third suggested another release from the band around the same time may be the reason Starr does not feature on vocals. They wrote: “The Long Tall Sally EP which was released around the same time gave him Matchbox.”
Though Starr may not have had any vocal leads on A Hard Day’s Night, he would later cover the Lennon-led I Call Your Name alongside The Traveling Wilburys. The supergroup, which featured fellow Beatles member Harrison, as well as Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison, released two albums under The Traveling Wilburys moniker.
Not all members backed Starr in his cover, though Lynne, Petty, Joe Walsh and Jim Keltner provided instrumental work for Starr’s cover, which can be found below.
Fans were full of praise for his version of the song, with one writing: “Love this version and also the original Beatles version. Ringo is in top form here. Love the backup band too.” A Hard Day’s Night remains the only album in The Beatles’ discography to be comprised entirely of Lennon and McCartney-penned releases.
