Ringo Drums Up Digital Downloads

Mon., Jun. 18, 2007 1:20 PM PDT by Marcus Errico

Two down, the Fab Four to go...

Ringo Starr announced Monday that his early solo albums on Capitol/EMI would finally be released online this summer, joining old pal Paul McCartney as the latest Beatle to embrace digital downloads.

Beginning Aug. 28, Starr's first post-Beatles albums—Sentimental Journey (1970), Beaucoups of Blues (1970), Ringo (1973) and Goodnight Vienna (1974)—will be available for the first time via iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Zune Marketplace and other major music services.

EMI will also release a new career-spanning greatest hits compilation, Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr, as well as a half-dozen ringtones. Photograph, which will include such signature Ringo solo hits as “It Don’t Come Easy" and "Back Off Boogaloo," will also be available as a CD release and a special-edition CD/DVD two-pack containing seven never before released film and video clips.

News of the digital offerings arrives with word that Starr has rejoined the EMI fold and will release a new album, Liverpool 8, next January.

“It’s good to be back,” Starr said in a statement. “It feels like home.”

All the Beatles remained on EMI/Capitol after the band split in 1970, with Starr sticking around until 1975. Many of his lesser post-EMI albums have been available for download for years.

Starr's announcement comes two weeks after McCartney's latest solo album, Memory Almost Full, debuted in stores and online. The rest of McCartney's post-Beatles oeuvre is also now available for download.

Last fall, John Lennon and George Harrison's solo work was cleared for release on all major digital distributors except the biggest, Apple's iTunes—the computer company was embroiled in a legal battle with the Beatles' Apple Corps at the time. With that spat now resolved, Lennon and Harrison's solo albums are expected to come to iTunes soon. (Harrison's Traveling Wilburys music debuted last week.)

Additionally, McCartney and EMI have confirmed that the entire Beatles catalog is getting digitally remastered. Sources say the Beatles' tracks could be available on iTunes by the end of the year, although the launch may be pushed back to early 2008.