The 1980s were a good time for 1960s music. So many groups from the 1960s had hit songs in the 1980s — including most of The Beatles. However, one member of the Fab Four was an embarrassing outlier.

1 of The Beatles had 3 hit songs in the 1980s that were collaborations with other stars

Everyone from the 1960s managed to have at least one big single in the 1980s. The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Barbra Streisand, The Beach Boys, and many more retro acts found their way back to the radio in the Reagan years. It’s only natural that The Beatles would too.

Of all the former Beatles, Paul McCartney did the best commercially at that time. He collaborated with other legends like Stevie Wonder on the ballad “Ebony and Ivory” and Michael Jackson on the songs “The Girl Is Mine” and “Say Say Say.” He also managed to have some solo hits like “Coming Up” and “Spies Like Us.”

John Lennon died in 1980, but he had several posthumous hits. The most famous was “(Just Like) Starting Over,” but “Woman,” “Watching the Wheels,” and “Nobody Told Me” were also popular. George Harrison had a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Got My Mind Set on You.” “All Those Years Ago” and also reached the top 10.

Ringo Starr, sadly, wasn’t as prominent. It’s not that he didn’t have any Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits at the time. Or any top 10 hits. He didn’t have any hits at all for the entirety of the 1980s. The closest he had was “Wrack My Brain,” which reached No. 38. That doesn’t really count as a popular song — especially for a former member of the biggest band of all time!

Ringo Starr admitted he stopped trying years after The Beatles broke up

Why did Ringo do so poorly? Well, the quality of his music really declined in the 1970s. After releasing the popular albums Ringo and Goodnight Vienna, his single “A Dose of Rock ‘n’ Roll” underperformed, and so did its parent album, Ringo’s Rotogravure. The “Photograph” singer went disco for his album Ringo the 4th — and the world stopped paying attention to him. 

During a 1992 interview with Rolling Stone, Ringo conceded that he wasn’t putting enough effort into his music after the mid-1970s. “After Ringo and maybe Goodnight Vienna, I started tearing it up and turning up less and less,” he said. “That’s going to show in anyone’s art. 

“For a lot of those albums, I was just in a hurry to get home — or, more often, someone else’s home,” he added. “The other thing is that — unless you’re interviewing Paul or George — you’re talking to a guy who’s been in the business longer than most. When you’re around this long, you’re going to have ups and downs. In my case, after the Ringo record, it was downhill.”

Ringo Starr remained a legend after he stopped having hit songs

Ringo never stopped being a legend. His time as a pop star came to an end, but he’s still recognizable the world over. He even got into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

The 1980s weren’t kind to Ringo — but the arc of history has been.