Act Naturally by The Beatles - ***

First released: 1965

Poor Ringo. At the time of this release, he couldn’t write a tune and the other Beatles didn’t always offer him their best stuff for him to record. So once again Ringo was forced to dig through his record collection and pulled out this Buck Owens country hit. It is a very well-performed track though quite odd as The Beatles rarely did a straight country song. It did become the b-side of "Yesterday" and later became a semi-regular standard in Ringo’s live repertoire. In the UK, "Act Naturally" was just another album track on the non-soundtrack side of "Help!" The song eventually found an album home in the US on "Yesterday and Today".

He even recorded a studio version again in 1989 sharing lead vocals with Owens. This duet was also included on 2007’s "Photograph" compilation. It was also included as part of Ringo’s 1978 TV special and has achieved status for Ringo as one of his all-time hits.

The Beatles performed this live, but to date an official live version has not been released to disc. There was a live performance by The Beatles in the "Anthology" TV series.

Different live versions by Ringo appear on the bonus disc from 1990’s "Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band", 2000’s "The Anthology…So Far", 2002’s "Ringo & His New All-Starr Band", 2003’s "Extended Versions", 2007's "Live at Soundstage" and the "Live 2006" album from 2008.