I'm the Greatest

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"I'm The Greatest" is a song written by John Lennon for Ringo Starr; both former members of the music group The Beatles. It was released by Starr on the Ringo album and several compilation and live albums.

On this track, Starr is lead vocalist and plays drums, Lennon plays the piano and sings harmony vocals and George Harrison plays electric guitar; Billy Preston on organ and Klaus Voormann on bass. It's one of just a handful of non-Beatles songs to feature three members of the band. Richard Perry produced the recording.

At this point after the end of The Beatles as a band, three of them—Starr, Lennon and Harrison—in addition to Voormann and Preston (usually referred to as "Fifth Beatles"), appear on this record. It sounds very much like something off of Let It Be, with its texture, lyrics (using "Billy Shears", Ringo's alias on Sgt. Pepper) and public noises insinuating Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Not surprisingly, when word of that session hit the media, furious Beatles reunion rumours (the first of several) began spreading.

Parts of the lyrics, which hint at The Beatles:

I was in the greatest show on Earth,

For what it was worth.

Now I'm only thirty-two;

And all I wanna do, is boogaloo!

...

Yes, my name is Billy Shears,

You know it has been for so many years.

Now I'm only thirty-two;

And all I wanna do, is boogaloo!

...

I'm The Greatest is the only record which matches the line up of a post-Beatles Group "The Ladders", which George Harrison intended to install with his two former band mates and other fellow musicians like Voormann and Preston. The Traveling Wilburys in the late 1980s was another effort of Harrison to create a supergroup with friends.

Many Lennon bootlegs circulating include a version of this song with only piano, bass, drums and Lennon on lead vocals.