Buck Owens. After Russell played "Act Naturally" for Morrison, she thought it would be a natural for Owens, and she told Russell that she could get him to record it. Because no one had yet recorded it, and Russell had an agreement with Morrison to share songwriting credits, he gave her partial credit, though her only role in the song was submitting it to Owens. Owens did not like "Act Naturally" at first. But Buckaroo band leader Don Rich heard Russell's demo version and liked it, and eventually, the song grew on Owens. One night, Russell got a phone call from Owens asking if he could record the song, and he said yes. "I later found out that he had already recorded the song that day and just wanted the publishing rights," Russell said. "I was more than pleased to give him the rights in order to get the song recorded." Owens recorded "Act Naturally" at the Capitol Studios in Hollywood on February 12, 1963, and the song was released on March 11 as a non-album single. It entered the Billboard country charts on April 13, 1963. On June 15, it spent the first of four non-consecutive weeks at number one. In all, it spent 28 weeks on the country charts. The song helped to make him a superstar; before the 1960s were over, Owens had placed 19 singles atop the Billboard country charts. The song also helped establish Russell as a songwriter, and in the 1970s he was modestly successful as a singer as well. Chart performance The Beatles version The Beatles recorded the song in 1965 for the United Kingdom version of their album Help!, with drummer Ringo Starr on vocals – his fifth with the band. It was released as the B-side of "Yesterday" in the United States. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it "an ideal showcase for Ringo's amiable vocals." Recording Recorded on June 17, 1965, in 13 takes. The first 12 were evidently used to work out the arrangement; the master was take 13, the only one with vocals. It was mixed the following day. The Beatles almost recorded a song by their engineer Norman Smith, but realized that Starr did not yet have a vocal on Help! They originally recorded the song "If You've Got Trouble" earlier in 1965 as Starr's intended song for the album, but were dissatisfied with the results and