Why Ringo Starr Hated Working on The Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’

TL;DR:

Ringo Starr didn’t enjoy playing drums on The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.”
Ringo felt the song was inspired by a certain genre of music.
The tune appeared on an extremely popular album.

The Beatles' Ringo Starr and George Harrison in black-and-white — The Beatles’ Ringo Starr and George Harrison | Cummings Archives / Contributor

Ringo Starr didn’t enjoy playing on The Beatles‘ “Here Comes the Sun.” Subsequently, he discussed his feelings about the song and its success. Notably, the tune did not chart highly in the United Kingdom.

A sound engineer discussed Ringo Starr’s contributions to The Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’

Geoff Emerick worked as a sound engineer on The Beatles’ Abbey Road, as well as other classic albums such as Paul McCartney & Wings’ Band on the Run and Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedrooms. During a 2022 interview with MusicRadar, he discussed his feelings regarding “Here Comes the Sun.” “Another George winner, and again, he knew it — his confidence was growing each day,” Emerick recalled.

Emerick discussed how “Here Comes the Sun” evolved. “We added some orchestration to it, but nothing that overwhelmed,” he remembered. “I think George was starting to like the idea of ‘bigness’ at that point, something he obviously carried over when he made All Things Must Pass with Phil Spector.”

Emerick recalled Ringo’s contributions to the track. “Ringo’s tom fills really make the song, but funnily enough, he hated doing them because he could never remember what he did one take to the next,” Emerick said. “I think that’s why his fills are so spectacular — he felt that he would never reproduce them, so he’d better get ’em right.”

Ringo Starr reacted to the song becoming The Beatles’ most popular song on streaming

During a 2021 interview with Esquire, Ringo had nothing but positive things to say about the track. “What was great was in the intro to that song, before we did it, George said, ‘Hey, Ringo, I’ve got this song, it’s in 7/4 time,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘What are you telling me for? I’m 4/4 or 3/4, you know that.’” Ringo said the time signature was inspired by Indian music.

In that interview, Ringo learned “Here Comes the Sun” was The Beatles’ most popular song on streaming. He said the song deserved to be that popular because it was beautiful and had a good arrangement. He also praised the drumming on the track before laughing.

How ‘Here Comes the Sun’ performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Here Comes the Sun” never hit the Billboard Hot 100. However, it reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Recurrents Chart. The tune appeared on The Beatles’ Abbey Road. The album reached No. 1 for 11 of its 484 weeks on the Billboard 200.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Here Comes the Sun” reached No. 58 in the United Kingdom and remained on the chart for four weeks. On the other hand, Abbey Road reached No. 1 for 17 weeks. It stayed on the chart for a total of 97 weeks.

“Here Comes the Sun” is popular even if Ringo didn’t enjoy playing on it.