Sentimental Journey (1970)


 
1. Sentimental Journey 2. Night and Day 3. Whispering Grass 4. Bye Bye Blackbird 5. I'm a Fool To Care 6. Stardust 7. Blue Turning Grey Over You 8. Love is a Many Splendid Thing 9. Dream 10.You Always Hurt the One You Love 11.Have I Told You Lately 12.Let the Rest of the World Go By

 

When The Beatles lovefest was slowly declining in the late 1960's, it wasn't really surprising that they would all be working on solo projects. Being that Ringo was the least musical of the four, expectations probably weren't that high. He rarely would sing lead on a Beatle album, and he only wrote two songs when he was in the group. Having said all that, this record was still a peculiar choice.

It's a essentially an homage to the big band era where he covers songs that he grew up listening to in the early forties. Being that the album cover is a picture of the house where he was born, and even the title of the record itself, it's easy to see what he was trying to do. Sadly, this record never really appealed to anybody, and hindsight really hasn't done it any favors either. The fact that Ringo was still in his twenties when he made this album makes you wonder exactly who would buy this album to begin with. It certainly wouldn't be anyone from his generation - they were still enamored in the hippie movement of free love and Woodstock. The last thing any of them wanted to hear was music that their square parents might find appealing.

Sadly, the older generation weren't interested either. It's not that they scoffed at the fact that this long haired ragamuffin that their kids strangely adored would somehow dare try to appease them, it's just that - well Ringo just never really was that great of a singer. This is the main problem of the record. The songs are so well known, the arrangements so familiar, that the only way anyone could do justice to these songs is for a true professional to be behind the microphone. Yes, Ringo's singing was appealing on many records, but this definitely wasn't the style he was cut out to sing.

Apart from the strange version of the opening title cut, most of the songs are immediately recognizable, and the arrangements on the songs would have been the same for anyone recording these tunes. In other words, the session musicians that are used may have never known who would do the singing, and therefore it probably didn't even matter.

So the album sounds as good as it can possibly sound. The only thing you can find fault with, is why Ringo chose this in the first place. Interesting? Maybe. Memorable? Not really.


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