Ringo Star: “Octopus’s Garden”

Written by Ringo Starr for The Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road, the idea for this song came when Ringo was on a boating trip with his family in Sardinia in 1968. He was offered an octopus lunch, but turned it down. Then the boat’s captain told Ringo about how octopuses travel along the sea bed picking up stones and shiny objects to create decorative “gardens.” Starr said that hearing about octopuses spending their days collecting shiny objects at the bottom of the sea was one of the happiest things he had ever heard - and it inspired him to write this song. Close friend George Harrison said, “ ‘Octopus’s Garden’ is only the second song Ringo has ever written, mind you, and it’s lovely.”