With the announcement that Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band have added new fall dates to their tour schedule, fans of the Beatles’ drummer may be wondering if there will be any surprises in the band’s setlist during the latter half of 2026. The answer is…probably not.

The way the show is set up, the lead vocals are split between Starr and a few of his band members, most of whom were (and sometimes still are) significant members of other popular bands. This year, thus far, each show has featured an identical 21-song setlist, with Ringo taking the lead vocal on 12 of those, seven from the Beatles’ catalog and five from his solo years.

Just out of curiosity, we compared the current setlist to one from the same month 10 years ago, and found that the songs fronted by the now-86-year-old bandleader were largely the same, with two Beatles songs in the show (“Don’t Pass Me By” and “What Goes On”) performed in 2016 that are no longer included.

That made us wonder, though, how much room for alteration in Starr’s portion of the show even exists, particularly when it comes to Beatles material? Just how many songs recorded by the group featured him on lead vocals?

Officially, the Beatles recorded 213 songs between 1962 and their dissolution, from “Love Me Do” to “The End.” Of those, dozens featured lead vocals by John Lennon or Paul McCartney, many others were sung in tandem by the chief songwriting pair and yet others also featured George Harrison sharing the lead with Lennon and McCartney. Harrison sang lead vocals on 28 official Beatles songs, including such great ones as “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” “Taxman,” “Something” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

But what of Ringo Starr? The drummer, it seems, sang lead on just 11 Beatles songs, nearly all of which have been reprised by him in All-Starr Band performances since he formed the band (whose membership often revolved during its early years but no longer veers much from tour to tour) in 1989.

In fact, the only song Starr sang on an official Beatles album that he has seemingly never sung with his own bands is “Good Night,” written by Lennon-McCartney and placed at the very end of 1968’s The Beatles, better known as “The White Album.” Most likely, that is because the song features an orchestral arrangement that would be impossible to reproduce naturally onstage with a rock band, but perhaps Ringo has his own reason.

The 11 songs sung by Ringo during his tenure with the Beatles are:

“Boys”—Written by Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell, the song was a cover of the B-side of a 1960 #1 hit by the Shirelles, Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.” Starr did not change the gender in the chorus (“Don’t you know I mean boys?”), although he did change it in the verses (“My girl says when I kiss her lips…”), and from the time the Beatles released their version in 1963 on their debut LP Please Please Me, some fans have wondered why they didn’t.

“I Wanna Be Your Man”—The song was partially written when, in 1963, the Rolling Stones asked Lennon and McCartney if they might have any stray material their band might record. John and Paul polished off this rocker and gave it to the Stones, who cut it first. The Beatles then included it on their second album, With the Beatles, handing the lead over to Starr.

“Matchbox”—The Beatles loved Carl Perkins. Not only did Harrison base much of his early guitar style on the rockabilly’s, but they covered three of his songs officially: “Honey Don’t,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” and this one (as well as a few others that did not make their albums or singles). Perkins wrote the song in 1957 (based on a 1927 Blind Lemon Jefferson blues) and released it as a single on Sun Records. The Beatles began performing the song live as early as 1961 (with Ringo’s predecessor Pete Best singing), included it on their U.K. EP Long Tall Sally in 1964 and released it in the States on the cobbled-together Something New album. “Matchbox” serves as the show opener on all U.S. concerts by Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band in 2026.

“Honey Don’t”—Another written and first recorded by Carl Perkins, this time as the B-side to his 1956 Sun single “Blue Suede Shoes.” The Beatles cut the cover in 1964 and issued it on Beatles for Sale in the U.K. and Beatles ’65 in America. The All Starr Band opened shows with it in the summer and fall of 2025, instead of “Matchbox.”

“Act Naturally”—Another cover, mostly written by Johnny Russell and originally recorded for Capitol Records by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. Ringo has always loved country music, and this is about as country as he got with the Beatles. In the song, the singer professes his desire to star in a movie, where “they’re gonna make a big star out of me” and all he has to do is be himself, i.e., a fool. It appeared in the U.S. first as the B-side to the “Yesterday” single and then on another patch job, the compilation album Yesterday and Today, in 1966.

“What Goes On”—Like the last few songs on this list, “What Goes On” has a decidedly country-ish feel to it, but this time it’s not a cover: The song is credited to Lennon, McCartney and Starkey—although Lennon is said to have written the framework for it as early as 1959—and was recorded in November 1965. It appeared on the U.K. release of Rubber Soul and in the U.S. as the B-side to the “Nowhere Man” single and as a track on Yesterday and Today.

Related: Our Album Rewind of RIngo’s 1973 self-titled solo album

“Yellow Submarine”—One of the two most popular songs recorded by the Beatles with a Starr lead vocal, this novelty ditty started out with significantly different lyrics and a Lennon lead vocal before morphing into the classic we now all know. The band recorded it in May 1966 with the other three Beatles joining Starr on the choruses. It was released as a single in the U.S. that August (peaking at #2 in Billboard), with “Eleanor Rigby” on the flip side, and on the Revolver album. It’s safe to say that Starr has never performed a full set without including the song.

“With a Little Help from My Friends”—This was the other most popular track with a Ringo lead, appearing as the second track on the renowned 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Written by Lennon-McCartney, it became intrinsically associated with Starr, and like “Yellow Submarine,” he is virtually required to sing it at every show he does. Trivia note: Ringo has said that the original first line was “What would you think if I sang out of tune? Would you throw ripe tomatoes at me?”

“Don’t Pass Me By”—Unlike all of the songs preceding it on this list, “Don’t Pass Me By” has the distinction of having been written solely by Starr. Its origin goes all the way back to 1962, the year he joined the Beatles, but it didn’t turn up on a Beatles release until the 1968 self-titled double album forevermore known as “The White Album.”

“Good Night”—Unlike any song Starr had sung previously—or any the Beatles had recorded—“Good Night” was a sweet, classic lullaby. Written by Lennon (although, as always, co-credited to McCartney), the ballad featured no other members of the Beatles. Ringo was backed by an orchestra, with George Martin adding celesta, and as noted above, was used as the closing song on “The White Album.”

“Octopus’s Garden”—Like “Don’t Pass Me By,” this one gets a full Starkey credit, and was the last song he would write and sing with the Beatles. A whimsical number, it was written while Starr was out sailing in Sardinia, having a conversation with the ship’s captain about octopuses. The track, pieced together during various sessions in the spring and summer of 1969, became Starr’s sole vocal entry on Abbey Road.

Assuming the setlist for the All-Starr Band’s shows during the latter half of 2026 echoes that of the first half, fans can expect to hear “Matchbox,” “Boys,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “Act Naturally” and “With a Little Help from My Friends” from the Beatles’ catalog. In addition, unless he switches things up, Starr will probably sing, from his solo works, “It Don’t Come Easy,” “I’m the Greatest,” “No No Song,” “Choose Love” and “Photograph.” Additionally, other band members—Colin Hay, Hamish Stuart and Steve Lukather—will undoubtedly continue to fill out the sets with their own hit songs.

In any case, a splendid time is guaranteed for all!

Bonus Video: Ringo and His All Starr Band perform “Octopus’s Garden” live in 2025

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