Vertical Man is the eleventh studio album by Ringo Starr, issued in 1998. The album served as Starr's attempt at a commercial comeback following the success of The Beatles Anthology project. Starr enlisted the help of many of his musician friends in making Vertical Man, including Scott Weiland, Brian Wilson, Alanis Morissette, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Steven Tyler, and his former Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick mixed the tracks, Starr spoke of the writing process in an interview with Billboard magazine: "This is the first time I've really been involved [in my record]. Whereas before, I'd just sort of pick out other people's songs or songs other people had written that I thought were vaguely trying to say what I would have liked to say, on this, we're really trying to say what I want to say, thank you."
In February 1997, Hudson and Grakal visited Starr in his Beverly Hills residence for a songwriting session. after Starr commented that McCartney had already used the title. The song was demoed under that name by Starr, Hudson, Grakal, and guitarist Steve Dudas. There the musicians recorded two tracks: "Mr. Double-It-Up" and "One", the latter of which, per Grakal's lyric sheet, was originally called "All It Takes Is One". Starr added vocals to "What in the... World" on 28 July, and two days later to "Without Understanding". This session was filmed by Grakal, and excerpts were later featured in the music video for the song. Wilson dubbed several backing vocal tracks at Hudson's request. Upon hearing the solos, Starr exclaimed "You're killing me, George. You've got me crying, you bugger!". Later that day, Hudson and Grakal met with Mercury's Danny Goldberg, with whom they made a deal to release the album.
| rev2 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
| rev2Score =
| rev4 = The Essential Rock Discography
| rev4Score = 5/10
|rev5 = Galeria Musical
|rev5score =
|rev6 = NME
|rev6score = 2/10
|rev7 = MusicHound
|rev7score = 2.5/5
| rev8 = Q
| rev8score =
With the recent Beatles Anthology having introduced the group to newer and younger fans, it was reasoned that Starr would benefit from the exposure; With Starr newly signed to a worldwide major label deal with Mercury, On the latter day, a photograph of Starr was taken for the album booklet by Henry Diltz. though when the scheduled day arrived, filming was disrupted due to rain. On 18 May, Entertainment Tonight aired an interview with McCartney and Starr that was filmed during the sessions at McCartney's home studio.|group="nb"|group="nb" before being withdrawn a week later. Those who pre-ordered the album with Best Buy were given a three-track bonus CD of material not included on the album. Attendees at the Beatlefest convention who had pre-ordered the album were given a 7" single of "La De Da", which included a non-album track "Everyday" as the B-side.
Vertical Man received average reviews and reached No. 61 in the US. The album was then released in the UK on 3 August, where it bubbled below the official Top 75, reaching No. 85 there, after having sold 2,000 copies.
Within the album's week of release, Starr held an online chat with fans. Nearly a month later, on 4 July, the single edit aired for the first time on British airwaves, thanks to The Chart Show.
Track listing
All tracks written by Steve Dudas, Mark Hudson, Dean Grakal and Richard Starkey except where noted.
Personnel
- Ringo Starr – lead and backing vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards, rhythm guitar, artwork
- Mark Hudson – guitars, keyboards, bass guitar, percussion, banjo, backing vocals, artwork
- George Harrison – slide guitar on "King of Broken Hearts" and "I'll Be Fine Anywhere"
- Paul McCartney – bass guitar and backing vocals on "What in the... World" and "La De Da", backing vocals on "I Was Walking"
- Jeff Baxter – pedal steel guitar
- Joe Walsh – guitars, backing vocals
- Steve Cropper – electric guitar
- Mark Nevin – acoustic guitar
- Jim Cox – keyboards
- Steve Dudas – bass guitar, guitars
- Scott Gordon – percussion, harmonica, synthesizer
- John Bergamo – tabla
- Dean Grakal – percussion
- Eric Greedy – percussion, backing vocals
- David Greedy – percussion
- Joel Peskin – saxophone
- Nina Piaseckyj – cello
- Steven Tyler – harmonica, backing vocals, percussion
- Alanis Morissette – vocals
- Tom Petty – vocals
- Barbara Bach – backing vocals, artwork
- Scott Weiland, Ozzy Osbourne, Brian Wilson, Sarah Hudson, Barbara Vander Linde, Rose Stone, Lisa Banks, Ollie Woodson, Howard McCray, Christina Rasch, Keith Allison, Astrid Barber, James Barber, Blake V. Brown, Scott Brown, Vincent Brown, Joie Calio, Jim Cushinery, Doug Fieger, Eric Gardner, Scott Gordon, Bruce Grakal, Christopher Grakal, Ronni Grakal, Steve Greenberg, Michael Gurley, Kay Harrison, Tommy Harrison, Dawn Hoenie, Daniel Lanois, Phil Leavitt, Stuart Lerner, Nils Lofgren, Gabriella Paglia, Van Dyke Parks, Sally Parks, Elizabeth Parks, Marjorie Rufus-Isaacs, Jean Schmit, Timothy B. Schmit, Lee Starkey, Tina Stem, Jennifer Sylvor, Barbara Vander Linde, Tatiana Von Furstenberg, Christian Phillippe Quilici, Alfie Silas-Durio, Carolyn Perry, Darlene Perry, Sharon Perry, Leon McCray, James McCray, Dave Gibbs – backing vocals
Charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Chart (1998)
! Peak<br/>position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| align="center"| 90
|-
|-
|-
|}
References
Footnotes
Citations