Video: 'Photograph'

(Friday, June 29, 1973, 2:00-6:00 p.m. PDT) — Orchestral overdubs for Ringo Starr’s “Photograph” were realized today at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California.

Jack Nitzsche, Phil Spector’s musical arranger for much of the 1960s, provided the song’s string and choral arrangements, which were overdubbed this afternoon.

Orchestral overdubs were also recorded for the track “You and Me (Babe),” although that song received additional overdubs on July 10, 1973.

Starr and fellow ex-Beatle George Harrison began writing “Photograph” on a luxury yacht in the South of France in May 1971.

Starr had hired a yacht, the Marala, for the duration of the Cannes Film Festival, after attending Mick Jagger’s wedding in St Tropez with his wife, Maureen Starkey.

Another guest on the Marala was Cilla Black, a singer and a friend of the Beatles since the 1960s. She recalled Starr and Harrison playing “Photograph” during an evening get-together, with “everyone on board” contributing ideas for the lyrics.

As with Starr’s two singles over 1971–72, “It Don’t Come Easy” and “Back Off Boogaloo,” Harrison helped write the melody, although “Photograph” marked the first time that he was credited as a co-writer with Starr.

Starr tracked the song on March 9, 1973, while working at Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles on the album Ringo, his first solo album in the rock or contemporary pop style. Harrison provided 12-string acoustic guitar and backing vocals.

Apple Records released the single on Sept. 24, 1973, in America and on Oct. 19, 1973, in Britain.