Video: 'Ringo's Rotogravure' (11 tracks)

(Friday, May 21, 1976) — Former Beatle Ringo Starr began recording sessions today for his fifth solo studio album, Ringo’s Rotogravure, marking his first major project after signing a new recording deal with Polydor Records, with U.S. distribution handled by Atlantic Records.

The album is being produced by Arif Mardin, replacing Starr’s previous collaborator Richard Perry.

Sessions began at Cherokee Studios with the tracking of the (unreleased) song “Leave the Rest to Molly” and are expected to continue over the next several weeks in Los Angeles, with additional string and brass overdubs later planned in New York.

Starr and Mardin began gathering material for the project roughly two months before recording commenced, assembling about 30 possible songs. Fourteen were ultimately recorded during the sessions, although one track was quickly dropped from the running order after producers decided it did not fit the album.

The album’s title was inspired by a line from the Irving Berlin musical film Easter Parade, in which Judy Garland sings the lyric, “You’ll see your picture in the rotogravure.” An early working title, Ringo’s Rotogravure: A Passing Picture Show, was later shortened prior to release.

Continuing a formula used on several earlier Starr recordings, the project again features a wide circle of guest musicians and songwriting collaborators, including fellow former The Beatles members Paul McCartney, John Lennon — whose appearance marks his final performance on a Starr solo album and his last studio recording until 1980 — and George Harrison, who contributed a song to the album but did not perform on the track.

When released later this year, Ringo’s Rotogravure will become one of only two post-1970 solo projects to feature active contributions from all four former members of The Beatles, the other being Starr’s 1973 album Ringo.