The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. Producer Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece group until June 1962, and he used them as Tony Sheridan’s backing band on a series of recordings for Polydor Records. As part of the sessions, the Beatles were signed to Polydor for one year. Credited to “Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers” (or Tony Sheridan & the Beatles), the single “My Bonnie”, recorded in June 1961 and released four months later, reached number 32 on the Musikmarkt chart. (More from Wikipedia)
The first single that is generally credited to the Beatles is “My Bonnie” b/w “The Saints”; the artist is Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers on the album and the EP, but the single on Polydor Records shows Tony Sheridan and the Beatles. The Beatles met and befriended Tony Sheridan, a rock and roll singer on their first trip to Hamburg, Germany in 1960; when they returned to Hamburg in 1961, they backed Sheridan as lead singer in a series of recordings. Since Tony Sheridan later re-recorded several of the songs, the songs that actually feature the Beatles are uncertain in many cases; but it is known that they played on both of these songs. The single was released in 1961 and reached #26 in the US and #48 in the UK.
I have an album collecting this music that still hasn’t shown up from the Katrina remains called The Early Years. It doesn’t sound much like the Beatles after they hit the big time, but I still love that music.
(June 2015)
