Blast from Your Past

Blast from Your Past is a compilation album by Ringo Starr, released on Apple Records in 1975. It is both his first compilation LP and his final release under his contract with EMI, It was also the last album to be released on The Beatles' Apple label until it was revived in the 1990s. In 1976, Starr would sign with Atlantic Records in the US and Polydor Records for the rest of the world.

The album compiles eight singles, one B-side, and one album track, released between 1970 and 1975. All eight charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with all but "Beaucoups of Blues" making the top ten. Both "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen" topped the chart, while five of the singles charted in the United Kingdom. "Early 1970" was the flipside to "It Don't Come Easy", and "I'm the Greatest" was taken from the album "Ringo". "Oh My My" and "You're Sixteen" were taken from Ringo as well, and "No No Song" and "Only You (And You Alone)" was taken from Goodnight Vienna; all other singles were released ahead of respective albums or as stand-alone issues.

Blast From Your Past provides a well-rounded overview to Starr's musical achievements and productivity as a solo artist during the first half of the 1970s. Although it failed to chart in the United Kingdom (even with releasing "Oh My My" from Ringo as a UK single in early 1976), it reached #30 in the United States. It was reissued on CD in 1987 and has not been upgraded or remastered. Nor is it likely to be, as all ten tracks were included on Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr, Starr's 2007 career retrospective.

Track listing

1. "You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful And You're Mine)" (Bob Sherman/Richard Sherman) – 2:47
2. "No No Song" (Hoyt Axton/David Jackson) – 2:29
3. "It Don't Come Easy" (George Harrison/Richard Starkey) – 3:02
   • Starr's first British and second American single, issued in April 1971
4. "Photograph" (Harrison/Starkey) – 3:55
5. "Back Off Boogaloo" (Starkey) – 3:18
   • Starr's second British and third American single, issued in March 1972
6. "Only You (And You Alone)" (Buck Ram/Ande Rand) – 3:23
7. "Beaucoups of Blues" (Buzz Rabin) – 2:32
   • Starr's first solo single in America issued as the lead single from the 1970 album of the same name
8. "Oh My My" (Vini Poncia/Starkey) – 4:17
9. "Early 1970" (Starkey) – 2:19
   • Previously the b-side to "It Don't Come Easy" in 1971
10. "I'm the Greatest" (John Lennon) – 3:22

The song "You're Sixteen" was the sole Ringo Starr track included in a promotional-only various artists compilation album entitled "The Greatest Music Ever Sold" (Capitol SPRO-8511/8512), that was distributed to record stores during the 1976 holiday season as part of Capitol's "Greatest Music Ever Sold" campaign that promoted 15 "Best Of" albums released by the record label. It is not the only Starr song to be included on a various artists title, however, as "It Don't Come Easy" was included in a six-disc boxed set commemorating Capitol Record's sixtieth anniversary that was issued in 2002.

External links

• JPGR's Blast from Your Past site