Stop and Smell the Roses is the eighth studio album by English rock musician Ringo Starr.

The album includes the hit single "Wrack My Brain", written and produced by George Harrison, but otherwise failed to find commercial success.

John Lennon had been due to participate in the recording, having offered Starr the songs "Life Begins at 40" and "Nobody Told Me", but he was murdered in New York a month before the sessions were to have taken place.

The song has the characteristic country style that Starr loved so much, and was recorded on a cassette tape with Lennon's vocals, his acoustic guitar and a drum machine.

[1] Back in Hollywood two days later, Starr, Nilsson and engineer Paul Travis listened to playbacks of the July sessions[1] at Compass Point Studios.

[3] Harrison took the "All Those Years Ago" track, changed some of the lyrics and, with overdubs by Paul and Linda McCartney, it was released as a tribute to Lennon.

[4] Starr, with Wood, recorded for three days from the 14th, at Cherokee Studios, with a further final batch of sessions taking place from 20 January[3] until 12 February.

[14] Harrison's "Wrack My Brain", backed with "Drumming Is My Madness", was the first single, released on 27 October, the same day as the album in the US[14] by Boardwalk.

[nb 2][16] While it missed the UK charts, it managed to give Starr his final US Top 40 hit, reaching number 38.

With a re-sequenced running order and design change, the album was rechristened Stop and Smell the Roses, after Nilsson's donated song.

[1] On 13 January 1982, McCartney's "Private Property" was released as the second single, backed with "Stop and Take the Time to Smell the Roses", in the US,[20] but failed to chart anywhere.

[23] Stop and Smell the Roses was reissued on CD, on the same day as Old Wave, in the US by The Right Stuff on 22 August 1994[24] with bonus tracks.

[nb 5][12] "Wrack My Brain" was re-released, this time on red vinyl, with "Private Property" as the B-side, on The Right Stuff on 1 November.

[nb 6][25] Record World said of the single release of "Wrack My Brain" that "You can't help but love Ringo here, as he sings of a stifled romance.