Blast from Your Past

Blast from Your Past
Compilation album by
Ringo Starr
Released25 November 1975
Recorded1970–1974
GenreRock
Length31:51
LabelApple
Producer
Ringo Starr chronology
Goodnight Vienna
(1974) 		Blast from Your Past
(1975) 		Ringo's Rotogravure
(1976)
Singles from Blast from Your Past
  1. "Oh My My"
    Released: 9 January 1976
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [1]
Christgau's Record GuideB+[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[3]
The Essential Rock Discography6/10[4]
MusicHound3/5[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[6]

Blast from Your Past is a compilation album by English rock musician Ringo Starr, released on Apple Records in 1975. It is both Starr's 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[7] until it was revived in the 1990s.

The album provides an overview of Starr's most successful period as a solo artist. The songs include his RIAA gold-certified singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen", and other international hits such as "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Only You". The album peaked at number 30 on the US Billboard pop LPs chart but failed to chart in the UK.

Content

Blast from Your Past provides an overview of Starr's musical achievements as a solo artist during the first half of the 1970s. The album compiles eight singles, one B-side, and one album track, all released between 1970 and 1975.[8] All eight of the singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US; "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen" each hit number 1, while all of them but "Beaucoups of Blues" made the top ten. Five of the songs charted in the United Kingdom, where the non-album single "Back Off Boogaloo" was the highest placed, at number 2. "Early 1970" was the B-side to "It Don't Come Easy", another non-album single, and "I'm the Greatest" was taken from the album Ringo. "Oh My My", "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen" were taken from Ringo also, and "No No Song" and "Only You (And You Alone)" first appeared on Goodnight Vienna.

Release and reception

The album was released in the US on 20 November 1975,[nb 1] and 12 December in the UK.[nb 2][10][11] The latter was issued with a red Apple label.[12] The sleeve for the album was designed by Roy Kohara.[7] In the UK, Apple issued "Oh My My", backed with "No No Song", as a single on 9 January 1976,[13] to promote the compilation and also because both of the songs had appeared there only as album tracks.[14] As with John Lennon's recently released Apple compilation, Shaved Fish,[8] the sales of Blast from Your Past were disappointing.[11] The album failed to chart in the UK and peaked at number 30 in the US.[9]

In his review for the NME, Bob Woffinden wrote that few observers would have expected Starr to have amassed enough hit songs for a greatest hits set five years after the Beatles' break-up, given that he had sung and written little during the band's career. Woffinden criticised the brevity of the album, however, and said that, since only four of the tracks had been significant chart successes in the UK, and many of the songs had not been issued as singles there, "why should [Starr] now consider an album of American 45s a going proposition in Britain?"[15] Writing in their book The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler also commented on its "short weight" nature, saying: "the tracks total no more than half-an-hour. Both sides together, that is."[16]

Blast from Your Past was reissued in the US by Capitol Records in September 1981, while in the UK it was released by the budget label Music for Pleasure on 25 November 1981.[9] The album was issued on compact disc in the UK on 26 May 1987[17] and in the US on 18 January 1988.[18][19]

All the tracks from Blast from Your Past appear on Starr's 2007 career-spanning compilation album Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr.

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleOriginal AlbumLength
1."You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful and You're Mine)" (Bob Sherman, Richard Sherman)Ringo2:47
2."No No Song" (Hoyt Axton, David Jackson)Goodnight Vienna2:29
3."It Don't Come Easy" (Richard Starkey)Non album single3:02
4."Photograph" (Starkey, George Harrison)Ringo3:55
5."Back Off Boogaloo" (Starkey)Non album single3:18
Side two
No.TitleOriginal AlbumLength
6."Only You (And You Alone)" (Buck Ram)Goodnight Vienna3:23
7."Beaucoups of Blues" (Buzz Rabin)Beaucoups of Blues2:32
8."Oh My My" (Starkey, Vini Poncia)Ringo4:17
9."Early 1970" (Starkey)B-side of "It Don't Come Easy"2:19
10."I'm the Greatest" (John Lennon)Ringo3:22

Charts

Chart (1975/76) Position
Australian Kent Music Report[20] 95
US Billboard 200[21] 30

See also

References

Footnotes
  1. ^ US Apple SW 3422[9]
  2. ^ UK Apple PCS 7170[9]
Citations
  1. ^ Blast from Your Past at AllMusic
  2. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: S". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved 13 March 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  3. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th edn). London: Omnibus Press. p. 1984. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  4. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2006). The Essential Rock Discography. Edinburgh, UK: Canongate. p. 1028. ISBN 978-1-84195-827-9.
  5. ^ Gary Graff & Daniel Durchholz (eds), MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press (Farmington Hills, MI, 1999; ISBN 1-57859-061-2), p. 1082.
  6. ^ Brackett, Nathan; with Hoard, Christian (eds) (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th edn). New York, NY: Fireside. p. 777. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  7. ^ a b Harry, Bill (2004). The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia. London: Virgin Books. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-7535-0843-5.
  8. ^ a b Schaffner, Nicholas (1978). The Beatles Forever. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. p. 182. ISBN 0-07-055087-5.
  9. ^ a b c d Harry, Bill (2004). The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia. London: Virgin Books. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-7535-0843-5.
  10. ^ Madinger, Chip; Easter, Mark (2000). Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium. Chesterfield, MO: 44.1 Productions. p. 646. ISBN 0-615-11724-4.
  11. ^ a b Spizer, Bruce (2005). The Beatles Solo on Apple Records. New Orleans, LA: 498 Productions. p. 335. ISBN 0-9662649-5-9.
  12. ^ Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001. London: Omnibus Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7119-8307-6.
  13. ^ Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001. London: Omnibus Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-7119-8307-6.
  14. ^ Madinger, Chip; Easter, Mark (2000). Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium. Chesterfield, MO: 44.1 Productions. pp. 506–07, 644. ISBN 0-615-11724-4.
  15. ^ Woffinden, Bob (3 January 1976). "Ringo Starr: Blast From Your Past". NME. Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).
  16. ^ Carr, Roy; Tyler, Tony (1978). The Beatles: An Illustrated Record. London: Trewin Copplestone Publishing. p. 118. ISBN 0-450-04170-0.
  17. ^ Harry, Bill (2004). The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia. London: Virgin Books. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-7535-0843-5.
  18. ^ Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001. London: Omnibus Press. p. 401. ISBN 978-0-7119-8307-6.
  19. ^ Harry, Bill (2004). The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia. London: Virgin Books. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-7535-0843-5.
  20. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  21. ^ "allmusic (((Ringo – Charts & Awards – Billboard Albums)))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 12 February 2012.