Angel in disguise

Paul McCartney wrote the song and Ringo added a verse.

An unheard track by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr is heading for auction.

Angel In Disguise was recorded as a demo for Ringo’s 1992 solo album «Time Takes Time» but it did not make the cut.

Former Radio Luxembourg DJ Tony Prince is selling the cassette, which is expected to fetch up to £20,000.

He was asked to find artists to record alternative versions of «Angel In Disguise» in the 1990s, after Ringo rejected the track. Before rejecting the song, Ringo composed an extra verse, effectively making it a McCartney-Starkey composition.

The actual cassette

The cassette features two versions of the song, Paul’s sparse demo and Ringo’s professional treatment. It also has a bonus in the form of a demo for «Everybody Wins» aka «Everyone Wins».

From Wikipedia:

Angel in Disguise is a song co-written by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr that has never been released. The song was intended for Ringo’s 1992 Time Takes Time album;however, it did not make it onto the album, and therefore remains an intriguing, publicly unheard song.

Had it been released in 1992 it would have been the first McCartney-Starkey composition on record, although there were Beatles songs that were credited to Lennon–McCartney–Starkey and Lennon–McCartney–Harrison–Starkey.

McCartney sent Starr an unfinished demo of the song, to which Starr added an extra verse.

Backing tracks for the song were recorded on 9 September 1991 at Conway Studios, in Los Angeles, produced by Peter Asher.

From Rolling Stone, 1992: “Working with (Peter) Asher, Starr recorded a cover of The Posies’ “Golden Blunders” and a version of a previously unfinished Paul McCartney composition, “Angel In Disguise”, to which Starr added a new verse.”

It appears that the song written by Rick Suchow (“What Goes Around”) was the last song picked for the album, and as a result the McCartney–Starkey song was shelved, and not subsequently released.

From the Ringo Starr interview in Beatlefan, 1992: “You see, they expected that because it’s McCartney and Starr, anyone in their right mind would put that on. It just didn’t fit the space we needed on the album… this is my best shot, in my opinion, of my album.”

The lot description: The cassette contains a lo-fi version of the track, with Paul McCartney performing the lyrics over piano and drum machine and then a ‘full’ or studio version with vocals sung by Ringo Starr, a full backing track, backing singers, increased instrumentation inc harmonica, guitar and more, lastly to include a demo version of ‘Everyone Wins’ again sung by Ringo Star. Included with the tape are original mailing envelope with MPL logo, a typed note on MPL stationary requesting that Tony Prince make a “pop/rap” version of the demo cassette and to suggest some ‘names’ who may be interested in taking the song on, also printed lyrics and notation for the track, with ‘McCartney’ credited as songwriter. This item is sold as an artefact only, no copyright (s) included.

The cassette tape will be auctioned off by Omega Auctions later in May with 25% of the proceeds donated to the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal.

Direct link to the lot: Angel in disguise