44 years ago Ringo Starr released ''Sentimental Journey''

Sentimental Journey is the debut solo album by former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, released in 1970, as the band was splintering apart. Although Starr was the third member of the group to issue solo work (after George Harrison and John Lennon), Sentimental Journey is notable for being the first non-avant-garde studio album by a member of the band, in light of the experimental, soundtrack or live releases his aforementioned bandmates had already released. Paul McCartney's debut, McCartney, would follow three weeks after Sentimental Journey's release. Recording of the album was completed in early March 1970, with Sentimental Journey being rushed out a few weeks later to avoid clashing in the shops with the Beatles' impending final album Let It Be in May.

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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 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. Starr engaged the services of Beatles producer George Martin to helm his solo debut, shortly after the Beatles' Abbey Road (1969) came out.

“ I wondered, what shall I do with my life now that it's over? I was brought up with all those songs, you know, my family used to sing those songs, my mother and my dad, my aunties and uncles. They were my first musical influences on me. So I went to see George Martin and said: 'Let's do an album of standards, and to make it interesting we'll have all the arrangements done by different people". ”

—Ringo Starr