UK album release: Stop And Smell The Roses by Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr’s eighth solo album, Stop And Smell The Roses, was released in the United Kingdom on 20 November 1981, nearly a month after its US release.

The album was mostly recorded in the United States and the Bahamas from July 1980 to February 1981. It featured a number of collaborators, including Paul and Linda McCartney, George Harrison, Ronnie Wood, and Harry Nilsson.

The lead single, ‘Wrack My Brain’, was released in the UK on 13 November 1981, with the album following a week later. Neither charted in the UK. HMV’s flagship store on London’s Oxford Street sold just 30 copies of the album during the busy Christmas period.

A second single, Paul McCartney’s ‘Private Property’, was released on 13 January 1982, but failed to chart anywhere. Starr was dropped by RCA shortly afterwards.