Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr – ****

First released: 1970

This was the title track from Ringo’s first solo album that should have been released as a single, or at least placed on his "Blast From Your Past" collection. Starr also performed this “live” on Frost on Sunday, by cutting a different vocal on top of the existing track. That version has never been commercially released to record, but it also aired in the US on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Bud Green, Les Brown and Bon Holmer originally wrote this for Doris Day in 1945. This song marked Ringo’s first pairing with Richard Perry, who went on to produce Ringo’s two most popular albums, "Ringo" and "Goodnight Vienna".

When I first purchased this album, I was unfamiliar with many of the album’s tunes, so over the years as I discovered the original versions, I was surprised at how different some of the originals sounded in comparison to Ringo’s, and I’m not just talking about vocals. I picked this up at a local Goodwill originally as I was leery about it due to Roy Carr’s and Tony Tyler’s dismissal of it in their book "The Beatles on Record". I have discovered that I like Ringo a lot better than most Beatle fans do.