THE BEATLES' FIRST FEATURING TONY SHERIDAN
Studio-recordings from when The Beatles were backing singer Tony Sheridan in Hamburg in 1961. Two of the songs are just The Beatles themselves. Pete Best was the drummer, and the recordings were originally made for the german branch of Polydor record company. Since then, this LP/CD has been released on several other smaller labels, and some of the tracks are also included on Anthology 1. Standard practise has been to fill out this LP/CD with other Tony Sheridan tracks featuring another backing group, but The Beatles are at least featured on the following tracks:
My
Bonnie (Charles Pratt)
Cry
For A Shadow (Lennon/Harrison) JUST THE BEATLES
Ain't
She Sweet (Yellen/Ager) JUST THE BEATLES
Why
(Sheridan/Crompton)
Take
Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby (Singleton/Hall)
Sweet
Georgia Brown (Bernie/Pinkard/Casey)
The
Saints (trad.arr: Sheridan)
Nobody's
Child (Foree/Cohen)
"My Bonnie" exists in two versions, one with an english spoken intro and another with a german one. "Sweet Georgia Brown" exists in two versions, on the original from 1961 The Beatles are not mentioned in the lyrics. In 1964 Sheridan recorded his vocals again and added a referance to the Beatles in the lyrics. It's still the Beatles' backingtrack on both versions. "Take Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby" sometimes appears as "If You Love Me, Baby". A new 2 CD version of these recordings are to released by the record company Bear Family in late october 2001. The 2 CD's (stereo and mono, respectively) gather together all different variations of the songs, including some american releases that were overdubbed by another drummer and echo-fied by the record companies, as well as some songs that only perhaps were recorded by The Beatles.
1977: THE BEATLES LIVE AT STAR CLUB, HAMBURG 1962
This double album (2 LP's) contains a recording of terrible quality from when The Beatles were playing in Hamburg, in the Christmas of 1962. Ted "Kingsize" Taylor recorded some of the shows, and together with Allen Williams he sold the tape to the record company Bellaphon in Germany. The album has since been released on several other small companies, and the number of songs and running order varies. Very often, some of the songs are listed with the wrong title (and composer(s)). The following list should be complete:
I
Saw Her Standing There (McCartney/Lennon)
I'm
Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You) (Thomas/Biggs)
Roll
Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry)
The
Hippy Hippy Shake (Chan Romero)
Sweet
Little Sixteen (Chuck Berry)
Lend
Me Your Comb (Twomey/Wise/Weisman)
Your
Feet's Too Big (Benson/Fisher)
Where
Have You Been All My Life (Mann/Weil)
Twist
And Shout (Russell/Medley)
Mr.Moonlight
(Johnson)
A
Taste Of Honey (Marlow/Scott)
Besame
Mucho (Velasquez/Shaftel)
Reminiscing
(King Curtis)
'Till
There Was You (Meredith Wilson)
Everybody's
Trying To Be My Baby (Carl Perkins)
Kansas
City/Hey Hey Hey Hey (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller/"Little" Richard
Penniman)
Nothin'
Shakin' (But The Leaves On The Tree) (Colacrai/Fontaine/Lampert/Cleveland)
To
Know Her Is To Love Her (Phil Spector)
Little
Queenie (Chuck Berry)
Falling
In Love Again (Lerner/Hollander)
Sheila
(Tommy Roe)
Be-Bop-A-Lula
(Vincent/Davis)
Hallelujah,
I Love Her So (Ray Charles)
Ask
Me Why (McCartney/Lennon)
Red
Sails In The Sunset (Kennedy/Grosz)
Matchbox
(Carl Perkins)
I'm
Talkin' 'Bout You (Chuck Berry)
I
Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (Piron)
Long
Tall Sally (Penniman/Johnson/Blackwell)
I
Remember You (Mercer/Schertzinger)
Additionally there's a title called Red Hot, which hasn't appeared on a record, but you can hear it in the background of the first Anthology-video.
1982: THE COMPLETE SILVER BEATLES
Contains parts of a demo tape which The Beatles (w/Pete Best on drums) recorded for Decca Records on New Year's Day 1962, hoping to be signed to the label.
The complete demo tape contains the following songs:
Hello
Little Girl (McCartney/Lennon)
The
Sheik Of Araby (Smith/Snyder/Wheeler)
September
In The Rain (Dubin/Warren)
Three
Cool Cats (Leiber/Stoller)
Love
Of The Loved (McCartney/Lennon)
Memphis,
Tenessee (Berry)
'Till
There Was You (Wilson)
Crying,
Waiting, Hoping (Holly)
Like
Dreamers Do (McCartney/Lennon)
Money
(Bradford/Gordy)
Searchin'
(Leiber/Stoller)
Sure
To Fall (Perkins/Cantrell/Claunch)
To
Know Her Is To Love Her (Spector)
Take
Good Care Of My Baby (Goffin/King)
The three McCartney/Lennon-songs are typically left out on the released LP/CD, but two of them appears on Anthology 1. So far, all editions of this LP/CD has been mastered from a tape which has been running slightly too fast. On Anthology 1, this has been corrected. Some of the minor record companies that have released this record have tampered with the recordings juggling verses around and duplicated sections of the songs in order to make the LP/CD longer.
Beatles-company Apple has repeatedly gone to legal actions in order to stop the sales of the Decca demos and the Star-Club recordings. To obtain copies for your collection, you may want to go to an Amazon store near you ( www.amazon.com in the USA and www.amazon.co.uk in the UK) and do a keyword search for "Tony Sheridan" "The Beatles Live at The Star Club" or "Silver Beatles". Chances are you'll find them for sale by private persons in the Zshop section of the site.