Ringo the 4th (1977)
1. Drowning in the Sea of Love 2. Tango All Night 3. Wings 4. Gave it All Up 5. Out in the Streets 6. Can She Do it Like She Dances 7. Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley 8. It's No Secret 9. Gypsies in Flight 10.Simple Love Song
This was actually the sixth solo album by Ringo Starr, but only his fourth containing new, mostly original material. I bring this up mostly because talking about the album title is actually more exciting than talking about the album itself. It really shouldn't be a surprise that this album is "Disco Ringo". Even though that type of music is an ugly blemish on the history of popular music, it was well appreciated by many for a short time, and since Ringo doesn't really have the talent to create, develop and/or deliver that many original ideas, it seems somewhat predictable that he would embrace something like this.
Strangely, this is one genre where covering other people's material probably could have helped somewhat, but this is mostly original compositions - most co written by Ringo. The disco theme is overbearing. You almost wonder if he had a mirrored ball in the recording studio. When he takes a break from the dance floor and gets more introspected, things only get worse. Witness the "story about growing up" song on Gave it All Up. Ideas were obviously thin. It's No Secret is actually nice in a tenderly way, and the synthesized sounds definitely knock the song down a notch, but you can still kinda like it.
Most artists, after releasing something like this, would have their fan
base get seriously mad at them, but Ringo being Ringo, you almost
have to take pity on the poor sod. People didn't like it when it came
out, and it sounds a lot worse now. Not surprisingly, he was booted
from his record label.