The Story of Ringo Starr’s First Composition Credit on a Beatles Song

During their time together, the Beatles released over 200 studio-recorded songs. Out of all of those, Ringo Starr was officially credited with helping to write just five of them.

"I started writing songs and I would, like, tell John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney] and George [Harrison], 'I've got this song I've written,'" Starr recalled in a 2025 interview for SiriusXM. "And they'd be rolling on the floor laughing because — I didn't know I was doing it — I would just rewrite someone else's song."

That's not to say the others didn't want to include Starr at all — in fact, Lennon and McCartney wrote several songs over the years meant specifically for Starr to sing, and the drummer had at least one lead vocal on most of their albums.

“When you think about it, how many people in rock and roll can sing?" McCartney said to Rolling Stone in 2015. "But Ringo can deliver a song.”

Starr had to start somewhere as far as songwriting went. The very first Beatles song he landed a composition credit on was "What Goes On," which appeared on 1965's Rubber Soul.

The Earlier Origins of 'What Goes On'

"What Goes On" actually dated back a few years in the Beatles' recording career.

"That was an early Lennon written before the Beatles when we were the Quarrymen, or something like that," Lennon explained to David Sheff in 1980. "And resurrected with a middle eight thrown in, probably with Paul's help, to give Ringo Starr a song and also to use the bits, because I never like to waste anything."

In March of 1963, during sessions for Please Please Me, the Beatles did intend to record "What Goes On" with Starr on lead vocals, but there simply wasn't enough time. So, it was shelved and brought back around in '65 for the Rubber Soul sessions.

Listen to the Beatles' 'What Goes On'

It's true that Lennon and McCartney wrote the majority of "What Goes On," and it's also not exactly clear what parts Starr contributed. What we do know is that McCartney showed Starr what he had, and things progressed from there.

"When Paul wanted to show Ringo how 'What Goes On' sounded he made up a multi-track tape," Neil Aspinall, road manager and assistant to the Beatles, wrote in a 1966 edition of Beatles Monthly. "Onto this went Paul singing, Paul playing lead guitar, Paul playing bass and Paul playing drums. Then Ringo listened to the finished tape and added his own ideas before the recording session."

According to Starr himself, it really wasn't much.

"[I wrote] about five words to 'What Goes On' and I haven't done a thing since," he said at a 1966 press conference.

That, of course, did not turn out to be true as Starr went on to contribute writing to "Octopus's Garden," "Don't Pass Me By" and a few others. But Starr's approach to songwriting, for the most part, always focused on the idea of collaboration, not control.

"I'd like to say I do this, I do that, and we get a song, but it depends on who's got the line," he said to Billboard in 2017, speaking about his newest album at the time, Give More Love. "What usually happens is — it doesn't matter what people are doing. I direct it to the place I want it to be. Which is usually peace and love."