Ринго IV: Провал в эпоху диско

Ringo the 4th is the sixth studio album by English musician Ringo Starr, released on 20 September 1977. Its title is sometimes ascribed to him being the fourth member of the Beatles. Others have suggested that it is his fourth mainstream album, which excludes his Great American Songbook homage, Sentimental Journey, and his country western foray, Beaucoups of Blues. However, Ringo the 4th is a dance oriented record, crafted for him by his Atlantic Records producer, Arif Mardin.

After the commercial disappointment of Ringo's Rotogravure (1976), Starr abandoned his usual formula of using his well known musician friends (notably his fellow ex Beatles) to write songs and provide instrumentation on his albums. Instead, he intensified his partnership with songwriter and close friend Vini Poncia; for his next album, Starr and Poncia decided to write most of the songs themselves while using the input of different musicians. Starr also wanted to keep his sound up to date and attempted to partially reinvent himself as a disco singer to capitalize on the genre's growing popularity. Sessions began on 5 February 1977, at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, with production overseen by Arif Mardin. The first songs recorded were two unreleased tracks, "Lover Please" and "Wild Shining Stars". On 5 September Starr promoted the single by having an interview with Los Angeles DJ Dave Herman.|group="nb" and 10 days later in the US. The album was a failure upon its release, both commercially and critically. Never touching the UK charts, the album managed to make it to No. 162 in the US. Neither of the two singles pulled from Ringo the 4th, "Wings" and "Drowning in the Sea of Love" charted in the US. In foreign countries, other songs were released as singles: "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley", backed with "Tango All Night" (Australia) and "Tango All Night", backed with "It's No Secret" (Argentina). Ringo the 4th was reissued on CD, on the same day as Ringo's Rotogravure, in the US on 16 August 1992, by Atlantic. The song "Wings" was re recorded years later, and released on Ringo's Ringo 2012 album and again as a lead single in 2012. The album was re issued on Valentine's Day in 2020 as two different colored vinyl variants (gold and red) by Friday Music. The album saw another reissue as part of Record Store Day in 2022 with a translucent orange vinyl along with Starr's 1983 album Old Wave.

Music webzine Drowned in Sound contributor Hayden Woolley commented in 2015 that the disco flavored album "sees Ringo climb aboard the booty shaking bandwagon with all the grace of a rhinoceros mounting a swan." Wooley adds that Starr is no "Donna Summer" and that even though the album was a "critical and commercial disaster," it provides "an absolute treasure trove of unintentional comedy." Wooley draws particular attention to "Drowning in the Sea of Love," saying it "bubbles into life with synthesised stabs and a slinky funk bassline, before Ringo falls repeatedly on his face like a drunken man trying to climb down from a trampoline." PopDose contributor David Allen Jones commented in 2017 that the album's considerable failure did not "seem to bother our boy very much—this was at the height of his LA party animal phase, and he was always seen out and about and drinking copiously and generally loving life." Jones highlighted "Can She Do It Like She Dances?," calling it one of the album's better moments: "the arrangement reminds me a lot of can can dancing or something, appropriate given the subject matter, in which Ringo drunkenly (and I do mean drunkenly) seems to slobber all over the mike as he wonders if the object of his affection can 'do it' like she dances." Jones adds that Starr sounds "guttural and horny as hell." In drawing comparisons to Starr's fellow Beatles, Rhino commented that "the idea of a Beatle doing disco didn't pan out nearly as well for Ringo as it did for Paul with 'Goodnight Tonight'."

All tracks written by Ringo Starr and Vini Poncia, except where noted.