The old hit making team of Harrison and Starr was reunited for the first time in seven years to record this bouncy Harrison composition. Ringo Starr, like Harrison, was having problems with his record company. His record sales had been in steady decline since hitting the high spot with his Ringo album in 1973. In an attempt to revitalize his career and boost record sales, he returned to the hit formula of yesteryear and enlisted the help of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison to write and produce songs for his latest album. Lennon’s contribution to the album was terminated by an assassin’s bullet only days before the scheduled recording session was due to take place.
Ironically, ‘Wrack My Brain’ is exactly what the Warner Bros. bigwigs wanted. They must have been more than a little miffed when Starr rather than Harrison took it into the American top forty singles chart. It’s upbeat melody and novelty production nevertheless obscure what is a typically humorous but downbeat admission by Harrison that he was not only out of touch but incapable of delivering what had been asked of him. ‘Wrack My Brain’ is a desperate admission of defeat that companions the equally barbed ‘Blood From A Clone’.
Two alternative mixes of the song appeared on bootlegs in the 1990s. Take one has the acoustic guitars placed low in the mix, while take two features them prominently. A third mix, which places Flower’s tuba to the fore, was issued as a single in Canada.
Harrison also produced Starr’s recording of ‘You Belong To Me’ for his Stop And Smell The Roses album. Like ‘Wrack My Brain’ the production features Ray Cooper’s vocoder backing vocals mixed well to the fore and a pub piano played by Al Kooper. Having just recorded a couple of ‘oldies’ himself Harrison may well have suggested that Starr tackle this rave from the grave. Unlike the brace of Hoagy Carmichael songs he’d produced for himself, Harrison treated Starr’s reading of ‘You Belong To Me’ as if it were a good humoured pub singalong, albeit with Sparky’s magic piano providing backing vocals.
Issued by RCA (UK) and Broadwalk (US) in a picture sleeve, ‘Wrack My Brain’ peaked at 38 in Billboard, 37 in Cash Box and 40 in Record World charts. The single did not chart in Britain.
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