Matchbox

Once the Beatles finally conquered America, they not only garnered a new set of fans for the group as a whole, but subsets of fans developed, as well, for each individual member of the band.  And, in 1964 in the USA, no other Beatle was as popular as Ringo.  Though he would only be allotted one lead vocal on an official UK single during the group's career, Capitol Records here in the US took multiple opportunities to showcase the fan favorite drummer on singles, including this A-side released in August of '64.

On June 1st of that year, the group met at EMI Studios to record a batch of songs necessary to complete the non-soundtrack side of the album A Hard Day's Night.  While Ringo was not seen singing in any sequence in the film, it was already becoming customary for him to have one vocal spotlight on each British album, and he knew what he wanted to sing.

Just a few days earlier, the group had met one of their rock and roll idols, Carl Perkins, at a reception.  And it was Ringo who had the nerve to approach Perkins and ask if he would give them permission to record one of his songs.  Perkins smartly and graciously offered his entire catalog of compositions to the Beatles.  In return, they invited him to attend the session on the day of the recording.  Unfortunately, he was witness to one of the most slapdash recordings they ever made.

With producer George Martin on piano, the boys rushed through five takes of Matchbox, and just three of those takes were complete.  Ringo's voice was not in the best shape (he would be hospitalized two days later with tonsillitis), so he actually triple-tracked his vocals.  Furthermore, Dave Rybaczewski, in his in depth look at the song, states that John, not George, played lead guitar on the track.  This strikes me as odd since George was probably the biggest fan of Perkins and the rockabilly style.  In any case, the lead guitar solo was double-tracked, but both guitar lines tend to meander at the end.

The band was certainly familiar with the song, as it had served as drummer Pete Best's vocal spotlight right from their first engagement in Hamburg in 1960.  At roughly the same time, Ringo was singing the song as a member of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.  Yet once Ringo joined the Beatles, John took over the lead vocal on Matchbox.  He can be heard (though not very well) on the Star Club tapes from December of 1962, in a performance which also features an extended lead guitar solo.

Ringo finally got his shot at the number on a BBC recording for the program Pop Go the Beatles in July of 1963.  This recording is available on the album Live at the BBC.  Before the instrumental break, does he call out "Alright, George" or "Alright, John?"  I'm not sure, but it is the extended guitar solo once again.

The official version from the June 1964 session was left off of A Hard Day's Night, making it one of the only albums in the UK catalog without a lead vocal from Ringo.  Instead, the song was added to the EP Long Tall Sally, quickly released on June 19th.

In the US, the song appeared on the Capitol album Something New on July 20th.  Then, surprisingly, on August 24th, came the single.  But even though the song had already been available on the album for over a month, Ringo's popularity helped propel the record to a respectable number 17 on the Billboard chart.