"Back Off Boogaloo" is a song by English rock musician Ringo Starr that was released as a non-album single in March 1972. Starr's former Beatles bandmate George Harrison produced the recording and helped Starr write the song, although he remained uncredited as a co-writer until 2017. Recording took place in London shortly after the pair had appeared together at Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh shows in August 1971. The single was a follow-up to Starr's 1971 hit song "It Don't Come Easy" and continued his successful run as a solo artist. "Back Off Boogaloo" peaked at number 2 in Britain and Canada, and number 9 on America's Billboard Hot 100. It remains Starr's highest-charting single in the United Kingdom.
The title for the song was inspired by English singer-songwriter Marc Bolan. Several commentators have interpreted the lyrics as an attack on Paul McCartney, reflecting Starr's disdain for the music McCartney had made as a solo artist over the previous two years. "Back Off Boogaloo" demonstrates the influence of glam rock on Starr, who directed the documentary film Born to Boogie about Bolan's band T. Rex around this time. Described by one biographer as a "high-energy in-your-face rocker", the song features a prominent slide guitar part by Harrison and contributions from musicians Gary Wright and Klaus Voormann. Starr made a promotional film for the single in which he is followed around the grounds of John Lennon's Tittenhurst Park property by a Frankenstein-like monster. The single's B-side, "Blindman", was originally intended as the theme song to the 1971 film of the same name, a Spaghetti Western in which Starr had a starring role.
Starr re-recorded "Back Off Boogaloo" for both his 1981 album Stop and Smell the Roses and his 2017 album Give More Love. A collaboration with American singer Harry Nilsson, the 1981 version incorporates lyrics from Beatles songs such as "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Good Day Sunshine" and "Baby, You're a Rich Man". The original recording has appeared on Starr's compilation albums Blast from Your Past and Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr, and as a bonus track on his remastered 1974 studio album Goodnight Vienna. After his return to touring in 1989, Starr performed "Back Off Boogaloo" regularly in concert with the various incarnations of his All-Starr Band.
Background and inspiration
Ringo Starr identified his initial inspiration for "Back Off Boogaloo" as having come from Marc Bolan, the singer and guitarist with the English glam rock band T. Rex. In a 2001 interview with Mojo editor Paul Du Noyer, Starr described Bolan as "a dear friend who used to come into the office when I was running Apple Movies, a big office in town, and the hang-out for myself, Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon". Over dinner one evening at Starr's home outside London, in 1971, Bolan had used the word "boogaloo" so often that it stuck in Starr's mind, after which the beat and melody for the song came to him overnight. When discussing the composition on VH1 Storytellers in May 1998, Starr explained: "[Bolan] was an energised guy. He used to speak: 'Back off, boogaloo ... ooh you, boogaloo.' 'Do you want some potatoes?' 'Ooh you, boogaloo!'" Starr also recalled having to take the batteries out of his children's toys that night, in order to power a tape recorder and make a recording of the new song.
The lyrics to the middle eight of "Back Off Boogaloo" came to Starr while watching London Weekend Television's football show, The Big Match. The program's host, Jimmy Hill, often referred to a footballer's playing as "tasty", a catchphrase that Starr incorporated into his song lyrics.
According to Starr biographer Alan Clayson, "T Rex devotees" claimed that Bolan had ghost-written "Back Off Boogaloo". Starr later acknowledged that George Harrison co-wrote the song by adding some chords and finishing the melody. As on Starr's 1971 hit single "It Don't Come Easy", Harrison was not credited for his songwriting contribution. Starr originally offered "Back Off Boogaloo" to his fellow Liverpudlian Cilla Black to record, but she declined, hoping instead to record another new Starr–Harrison composition, "Photograph".
Composition
Commentators have regularly interpreted the song as an attack by Starr on his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney. Starr denied any such interpretation, instead "claiming that the song was inspired by Bolan and nothing more", Beatles biographer Robert Rodriguez writes. The lyrics to the middle eight, especially, have been interpreted in this way: