"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",[1] the song features a prominent slide guitar part by Harrison and contributions from musicians Gary Wright and Klaus Voormann.

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".

Ringo Starr identified his initial inspiration for "Back Off Boogaloo" as having come from Marc Bolan,[2] the singer and guitarist with the English glam rock band T.

[21] Starr had publicly criticised McCartney and its 1971 follow-up, Ram,[5] and author Bruce Spizer paraphrases the message of the middle eight as "a plea for Paul to produce better music".

[1][5] This rumour circulated during September and October of that year while McCartney hid away on his Scottish farm,[25] disconsolate after John Lennon had told him and Starr that he wanted a "divorce" from the Beatles.

[6] While acknowledging that in subsequent years Starr might have chosen to minimise any ill-feeling towards McCartney, Rodriguez remarks that the lyrics "just happened to fit perfectly into the 'us vs. Paul' mindset" following the Beatles' break-up, to the extent that "Back Off Boogaloo" was "as damning as 'Early 1970' had been conciliatory".

[20] When tailoring his 1970 composition "I'm the Greatest" for Starr to record on the 1973 album Ringo,[28] Lennon referenced the song title with the lines "Now I'm only thirty-two / And all I want to do is boogaloo".

[31] The recording reflects the influence of glam rock on Starr through what authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter term "its big drum sound and repetitious nature".

[8] It was intended to be the theme song for the Ferdinando Baldi-directed Spaghetti Western Blindman,[37] filming for which Starr had interrupted in order to perform at the Concert for Bangladesh.

[42] By contrast, director and author Alex Cox believes that the song "works well, in the context of the film" compared to Cipriani's score, which he considers "lazy".

[10] The clip shows Starr walking around an outdoor structure and followed by a Frankenstein-like monster; it was directed by Tom Taylor and financed by Caravel Films.

[10][nb 6] Referring to the film clip, Jackson writes: "the Frankenstein monster stalks Starr but in the end the two hug and dance together, as thankfully, he and McCartney eventually did, leading to many more collaborations over the next forty years.

"[60] Alan Clayson writes of reviewers criticising "Back Off Boogaloo" for being repetitious, leading Starr to respond in a 1973 interview: "Play me a pop song that isn't.

"[61] Writing in 1981, NME critic Bob Woffinden commented on Starr's success in establishing himself in the first two years after the Beatles' break-up, and said that the single "confirmed that he and Harrison, dark horses both, were the ones who had managed their solo careers more purposefully and intelligently" compared with McCartney and Lennon.

[62] Woffinden described "Back Off Boogaloo" as "every bit as ebullient" as "It Don't Come Easy", although "slightly inferior",[62] while Mike DeGagne of AllMusic views it as a song where "[t]he jovial spirit of Ringo Starr shines through".

[29] Among Beatle biographers, Simon Leng terms it "a rocking, soccer crowd chant that suited Starr's talents well",[34] and Bruce Spizer praises the track as a "high-energy in-your-face rocker propelled by Ringo's thundering drums and George's stinging slide guitar".

[66] He says that Starr's mood on the track, while short of the rage that American rapper Tupac Shakur vented against his rival Biggie Smalls in "Hit 'Em Up", "no doubt helped make the tune a staple of football and soccer matches".

He comments that the song has "been appropriated" by several artists, including the glam-metal band Warrant, in their hit single "Cherry Pie", and Franz Ferdinand, in "Take Me Out".

[68] In a further reference to his past, the 1981 version of "Back Off Boogaloo" opens with the same guitar riff that Harrison had played on "It Don't Come Easy" ten years before.

[74] Among the large cast of musicians supporting Starr were Nilsson (vocals), Jim Keltner (drums), Jane Getz (piano), Dennis Budimir and Richie Zito (guitars), and a four-piece horn section led by saxophonist Jerry Jumonville.

[91] The latter version was recorded during a US tour in August 2001, at which point the All-Starr line-up was Starr (vocals), Mark Rivera (saxophone), Ian Hunter (guitar), Roger Hodgson and Howard Jones (keyboards), Greg Lake (bass) and Sheila E.

[94] A version recorded on 13 May that year at Sony Music Studios, New York,[94] appeared on Starr's VH1 Storytellers live album and video, released in October 1998.