"Goodnight Vienna" by Ringo Starr – ****

First released: 1974

Though most prefer "Ringo" over this album, I prefer this as Ringo had achieved a sort of confidence that was missing in all of his subsequent work until the 1990s. This album also sported four hits like Ringo, but of somewhat lesser success ("Goodnight Vienna", "Snookeroo", "No No Song" and "Only You"). There are also some great album tracks like "Oo-Wee" and "All By Myself". Perhaps the only week spot is the ballad "Easy for Me", but I still enjoy this album. When issued to CD in 1992 "Back Off Boogaloo", "Blindman" and the extended version of "Six O’Clock" were added to the mix. To this day, I don’t know why Richard Perry didn’t continue working with Ringo, or resume working with him at a later time, as Perry was one of the few producers that actually understood Ringo’s character and let it shine on his albums.