Bad Boy

Leaving Atlantic Records after the sales disaster of Ringo the 4th, Ringo Starr signed to CBS’s Portrait label and returned to the record racks after only seven months with Bad Boy. Working again with Vini Poncia and a largely pseudonymous band (lead guitar by “Push-alone” and bass by “Diesel”), Starr turned out a competent effort with a few interesting song choices, notably the old Benny Spellman tune “Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)” (bet it was a favorite back in Liverpool) and Gallagher & Lyle’s “Heart on My Sleeve,” along with some that were beyond him, such as the Supremes’ “Where Did Our Love Go.” But Starr needed more than competence to reverse his career decline, and Bad Boy sold only to the same hardcore Beatles collectors who had pushed Ringo the 4th into the lower reaches of the charts for half-a-dozen weeks. – William Ruhlmann