| In the Beginning (Circa 1960) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Compilation album by the Beatles featuring Tony Sheridan | ||||
| Released | 4 May 1970 | |||
| Recorded | June 1961 – April 1962, Hamburg, Germany | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Length | 36:35 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer | Bert Kaempfert | |||
| The Beatles and Tony Sheridan chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
In the Beginning (Circa 1960) is the first American packaging of the 1964 German album by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, called "The Beatles' First!".
In the Beginning (Circa 1960) was released by Polydor Records in 1970 (catalogue number 24-4504). It was recorded in Hamburg with The Beatles in 1961 (except for "Sweet Georgia Brown" in 1962) and features Pete Best on the drums. This album, expanded with four more tracks without the Beatles' participation, was originally released as "The Beatles' First !" in Germany in 1964. It was reissued in the United Kingdom in 1967 with the same title - without the exclamation point - then in Canada under the title Very Together in 1969. Previous American releases of this material in 45RPM form was split in 1964 between MGM Records and Atco Records. Polydor (which eventually absorbed MGM) established its United States branch in 1969 which explains why this package was released much later in The Beatles' history. All of the tracks feature vocals by Sheridan except for "Ain't She Sweet", sung by John Lennon, and the instrumental "Cry for a Shadow". The album was released only four days before Let It Be , The Beatles' final studio album. This is therefore the last Beatles compilation album released whilst the band were still releasing studio albums although the group was already unofficially split.
All subsequent releases of Sheridan/Beatles/Beat Brothers material are simply repackages of the same tracks. In the Beginning (Circa 1960) was also the only Beatles album not owned by EMI though Universal's purchase of Polydor and the Beatles' main catalogue put them under the same ownership. In 1984, this album was released on CD by Polydor under the title "The Early Tapes of the Beatles" with two additional tracks by Sheridan and with both parts of "Ya Ya". Only part one of that track was released on the original LP.
For a time, In the Beginning (Circa 1960) was the only Beatles album available on the iTunes Store until the full catalogue of the Beatles was made available in 2011, although it is not available for purchase any longer.
All vocals by Tony Sheridan unless otherwise indicated.
| Chart (1970) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 [2] | 117 |
The Beatles' bootleg recordings are recordings of performances by the Beatles that have attained some level of public circulation without being available as a legal release. The term most often refers to audio recordings, but also includes video performances. Starting with vinyl releases in the 1970s, through CD issues in the late 1980s, and continuing with digital downloads starting in the mid 1990s, the Beatles have been, and continue to be, among the most bootlegged artists.
Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, including "Strangers in the Night", “Danke Schoen” and "Moon Over Naples".
Anthology 1 is a compilation album by the Beatles, released on 20 November 1995 by Apple Records as part of The Beatles Anthology series. It features rarities, outtakes and live performances from the period 1958–64, including songs with original bass player Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best. It is the first in a trilogy of albums with Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, all of which tie in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. It contains "Free as a Bird", the first new Beatles song in 25 years, which was released as a single two weeks after Anthology 1.
"My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean", or simply "My Bonnie", is a traditional Scottish folk song that is popular in Western culture. It is listed in Roud Folk Song Index as No. 1422. The song has been recorded by numerous artists since the beginning of the 20th century, and many parody versions also exist.
Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity, known professionally as Tony Sheridan, was an English rock and roll guitarist who spent much of his adult life in Germany. He was best known as an early collaborator of the Beatles, one of two non-Beatles to receive label performance credit on a record with the group, and the only non-Beatle to appear as lead singer on a Beatles recording which charted as a single.
My Bonnie is a 1962 album by English rock and roll singer-songwriter and musician Tony Sheridan. Sheridan, then playing in clubs in Hamburg with the Beatles, was discovered by producer Bert Kaempfert and subsequently signed with him to record for Polydor. Sheridan recorded several songs with the Beatles, of which only a single was released in 1961, the titular "My Bonnie" and B-side "The Saints", credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. While both songs are included here, the remaining tracks on this album were credited again to the Beat Brothers but recorded without the Beatles.
"Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard composed in 1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, with lyrics by Kenneth Casey.
"Cry for a Shadow" is an instrumental rock piece recorded by the Beatles on 22 June 1961. They recorded the song at Friedrich-Ebert-Halle within the gymnasium, Hamburg, West Germany while they were performing as Tony Sheridan's backing band for a few tracks, under the moniker the Beat Brothers. It was written by George Harrison with John Lennon, as a pastiche of the Shadows' style. It is the only Beatles track to be credited to Lennon and Harrison alone.
The Early Tapes of The Beatles is the first digital repackaging of The Beatles' First !, the 1964 German compilation album of Tony Sheridan and The Beatles recordings. The songs were recorded in Hamburg between 1961 and 1963. Most of the tracks feature vocals by Sheridan. Only tracks 1-5, 7, 10, and 11 actually feature the Beatles, with John Lennon singing lead on "Ain't She Sweet" and featuring "Cry for a Shadow", an instrumental written and performed by the British group alone. The other songs are performed by Sheridan and other musicians, identified as "The Beat Brothers". This CD, which was released in 1984, includes two additional tracks and an extended version of "Ya Ya" and was reissued in 2004 with a different design on Universal Music's Spectrum label.
Ain't She Sweet was an American compilation album featuring four tracks recorded in Hamburg by The Beatles in 1961 and 1962. Cover versions of Beatles and British Invasion-era songs recorded by the Swallows complete the tracklist.
The Beatles with Tony Sheridan and Their Guests was an American compilation album that included "Cry for a Shadow", an instrumental written and recorded by The Beatles, plus three other recordings with the fledgling group backing fellow British guitarist and vocalist Tony Sheridan.
The Beatles' First! is a German compilation album of songs recorded in Hamburg in 1961 and 1962 by Tony Sheridan with the Beatles as his backing group. It was originally released in 1964 in Germany, then issued in 1967 in England, 1969 in Canada and finally in the United States in 1970.
"Ain't She Sweet" is a song composed by Milton Ager, with lyrics by Jack Yellen. It was published in 1927 by Ager, Yellen & Bornstein, Inc. It became popular in the first half of the 20th century and typified the Roaring Twenties. Like "Happy Days Are Here Again" (1929), it became a Tin Pan Alley standard. Both Ager and Yellen were elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Very Together is an album by the English rock band the Beatles and the first compilation of the band's early recordings supporting Tony Sheridan to be released in Canada. It was issued in November 1969 by Polydor Records, with the catalogue number 242.008. The cover photograph features four candles, one of which has been extinguished – a reference to the "Paul is dead" urban legend.
"Ya Ya" is a song by Lee Dorsey. The song was written by Dorsey, C. L. Blast, Bobby Robinson, and Morris Levy. Levy's participation in the writing has been called into question; the Flashback release of the single lists only Dorsey and Blast as writers, as do the liner notes to the American Graffiti soundtrack.
"Take Out Some Insurance" is a blues song released in 1959 by Jimmy Reed written by Charles Singleton and Waldenese Hall but originally credited to Jesse Stone. The copyright registration for the song lists its title as "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby".. Tony Sheridan recorded it with different lyrics in 1961 with The Beatles as his backing band. Misidentified, it was released in Germany in 1964 as "If You Love Me, Baby " but subsequently as "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby ", "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby" or erroneously as "If You Love Me, Baby".
"Nobody's Child" is a song written by Cy Coben and Mel Foree and first recorded by Hank Snow in 1949. Many other versions of this song exist.
"Why" is one of the early songs performed by the Beatles when they were backing Tony Sheridan. It was first issued on Sheridan's French extended play called "Mister Twist" in 1962. In the UK, it is the B-side of the instrumental rock tune "Cry for a Shadow". Although it was originally intended to be the A-side, the record label Polydor chose not to release it. When the Beatles were gaining popularity by 1964, the record label decided to release it with "Cry for a Shadow" as the A-side and "Why" as its B-side. In the US and Canada, it was released as originally intended, by the North American record label MGM with "Why" as the A-side and "Cry for a Shadow" as the B-side, due to it being an instrumental. Both were included on the German compilation album The Beatles' First! in 1964 and on all its other reissues worldwide in subsequent years.
"Skinny Minnie" is a 1958 song co-written and recorded by Bill Haley and his Comets. The song was released as a Decca single which became a Top 40 chart hit in the U.S., peaking at #22 on the Billboard chart.
Roy Frederick Young was a British rock and roll singer, pianist and keyboard player. He first recorded in the late 1950s before performing in Hamburg with the Beatles. After a stint with Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, he released several albums with his own band as well as recording with Chuck Berry and David Bowie, among others.
