I have long known that Ringo came up with the clever phrases “A Hard Days Night” and “Eight Days a Week”, both describing how hard the guys were working during 1963 and 1964. I just discovered that he also uttered the phrase “Tomorrow Never Knows” in an interview. All three phrases were used as song titles by Paul and John, but Ringo isn’t listed as a song writer. I think he probably should have been given writing credits and royalties on those songs.
I actually think The Beatles were reasonably fair in sharing money, and including all members on records, etc., so this isn’t an anti-Paul or anti-John rant. But when you use a phrase by a fellow band member that is clever as a song title, I would think that some legal credit (and royalties) should be included. I suppose the argument against this is when a songwriter hears a stranger say something unique or interesting and writes a song. In that case, he wouldn’t be expected to included Joe Blow as a co-writer.
I believe that bands like U2, Van Halen, Rush, Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers share all or most writing credits. I can certainly see positives and negatives no matter how it’s handled.
The Wikipedia article on Northern Songs indicates that, when it was founded in 1963, Lennon and McCartney each owned 20%, while Brian Epstein owned 10%, and music publishers Dick James and Charles Silver controlled the remaining 50%.
When the company was taken public in 1965, and shares were sold publicly, the ownership percentages became:
Lennon and McCartney 15% each
Starr and Harrison sharing a 1.6% ownership between them
I attribute McCartney’s misrecollection about Ringo coining the phrase to how much drugs they were doing.
A few years ago, Rolling Stone published a special edition with “The 100 Greatest Beatles Songs,” and each entry included some background on the song and its composition. It seemed like every other song’s background started out with one of them saying, “So, we were smoking some pot one day, and then…”
If Ringo deserves songwriting credit for Hard Days Night, Shakespeare would deserve a hell of a lot of songwriting credit.
My understanding is that it was something he said, not even a suggestion for a song title.
Is he asking for song credit? In “Beware of Mr. Baker,” Ginger Baker complains about not getting credit (and money) for White Room because he suggested something used in it. But he is 100 x the jerk that Ringo is.
It’s worse than we thought. I just checked the writing credits on my Ringo collection and learned that some asshole named Richard Starkey is taking credit for all his songs!
McCartney once talked about a guy he knew who used the phrase 'life goes on" a lot. McCartney took the phrase and wrote the song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”.
The guy hinted that maybe he deserved a share of the credit. McCartney essentially said that anyone can come up with a phrase like “life goes on”. The hard work is taking three words and writing a hit song.
The remark wasn’t directed at Ringo but it’s still true. If Ringo had the skill to turn his phrases into full songs, he would have written them.
He can be just a little sparing on the praise for his contemporaries ;). Rolling Stones, The Who( including Keith Moon ) - they all suck. At least he does like Charlie Watt.
Minor: contribute a title, or a few words. No credit given.
Medium: add a significant hook or some kind of musical content that becomes part of the song. Credit is a possibility.
Major: Paul Simon
An example of medium is Rick Wakeman’s piano obbligato to Cat Steven’s “Morning Has Broken” - he probably should have got credit for that.
As for Paul Simon. He would bring in a group and ask them what they were working on. Listen to a composition that’s essentially completed and add some words and then take full credit.
- Ginger Baker is the ur-lord of asshole rock drummers.