Just before The Beatles broke up in 1970 all members made solo albums, either alone or with other members from The Beatles. Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr was released March 27 and later same year came Beaucoups Of Blues.

On Sentimental Journey Ringo Starr performs the vocals, all instruments are played by the George Martin Orchestra. The songs are written and arranged by different musicians, among them McCartney, Richard Perry, Maurice Gibb (Bee Gees) and Quincy Jones.

The album is recorded over a period from October to short time before the release. It was pressed even more forward to an early release, since they wanted it in the shops in good time, before the release of Let It Be (Beatles) on May 8, 6 weeks later.

I chose to add Sentimental Journey here only because of it’s relationship with The Beatles. This kind of Cooner/swing style music is far away from my taste, and I have to admit that I stopped it after listening a few songs. The story about an, soon to become ex-Beatle, creating this kind of album differs, but here I will bring a citat from Wikipedia with a kind of explanation:

The idea for a solo album first came from the rest of the Beatles, who said that Starr should do a solo record, despite his minimal songwriting abilities, and later from his mother Elsie Starkey and step-dad Harry, during one day at their Liverpool home. His mother said that Starr had good vocals. The plan was to create an album of standards that would reflect his mother’s favourite songs, even asking them and other members of his family to choose the tracks.

Ringo Starr – vocals
Instruments performed by the George Martin Orchestra