Clapton, Willie Join Ringo

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Ringo Starr will release a new solo album, Ringo Rama, in March. The record features guest spots by Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Willie Nelson, Van Dyke Parks, Shawn Colvin, the Eagles' Timothy B. Schmit and legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden.

Starr recorded most of the album, his first collection of new material since 1998's Vertical Man, in his own studio in England with producer Mark Hudson, with a few tracks done at Hudson's Los Angeles' studio. Among the songs included is "Never Without You," Starr's tribute (written with Gary Nicholson and Hudson) to his former Beatles band mate George Harrison. The track is one of two that features Clapton, a friend of Harrison.

"There's a lot of me in these songs," Starr said. "As time goes on, my personality is coming out more and more in the music. That's just what happens. On this album my drumming is more dynamic, I'm more to the front, I think I'm singing better and I believe we're writing better songs."

Starr and his All-Starr Band will tour behind Ringo Rama this summer.

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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