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" and "Moon Over Naples".
Thomas David "Tommy" Roe is an American rock and pop singer-songwriter.
Tony Sheridan was an English rock and roll singer-songwriter and 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. Sheridan recorded several songs with the Beatles, two of which were later released as a single. Further recordings without the Beatles filled out the album. Because of the later fame of the Beatles, the material has been repackaged several times.
The Shadows were an English instrumental rock group. They were Cliff Richard's backing band from 1958 to 1968 and on numerous reunion tours. The Shadows have had 69 UK chart singles from the 1950s to the 2000s, 35 credited to the Shadows and 34 to Cliff Richard and the Shadows. The group, who were in the forefront of the UK beat-group boom, were the first backing band to emerge as stars. As pioneers of the four-member instrumental format, the band consisted of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums. Their range covers pop, rock, surf rock and ballads with a jazz influence.
"Let Me Go, Lover!", a popular song, was written by Jenny Lou Carson and Al Hill, a pseudonym used by Fred Wise, Kathleen Twomey, and Ben Weisman. It is based on an earlier song called "Let Me Go, Devil", about alcoholism.
"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, Germany while they were performing as Tony Sheridan's backup 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 imitates the lead guitar with typical Hank Marvin licks, the melodic bass fills, and even has an imitation during the second middle eight of the famous Jet Harris yell. It is the only Beatles track to be credited to Lennon and Harrison alone.
The Marbles were an English rock duo that consisted of Graham Bonnet and Trevor Gordon, who operated between 1968 and 1969. Their only well-known singles were "Only One Woman" and "The Walls Fell Down". They also became associated with the Bee Gees members Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb at that time.
"Rainy Night in Georgia" is a song written by Tony Joe White in 1967 and popularized by R&B vocalist Brook Benton in 1970. It was originally released by White on his 1969 album, Continued, on Monument Records, shortly before Benton's hit single was issued.
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.
In the Beginning is the first American packaging of the 1964 German album by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, called "The Beatles' First !".
Ain't She Sweet was an American album featuring four tracks recorded in Hamburg in 1961 by The Beatles featuring Tony Sheridan and cover versions of Beatles and British Invasion-era songs recorded by the Swallows. As Atlantic Records only had rights to four Sheridan/Beatle recordings recorded by Polydor Records, they filled the rest of the album with Beatle and British Invasion cover songs. When this material was released by Atco Records, there were mono and stereo editions. Atco also added additional drum overdubs to the four Sheridan cuts on top of the original drum tracks. American drummer Bernard Purdie claims to have performed overdubs of unspecified Beatles records, which would most likely have been for Ain't She Sweet, but this has never been officially confirmed.
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. Originally released in 1964 in Germany, then issued in 1967 in England, 1969 in Canada and finally in the United States in 1970.
"Oh, Boy!" is a song written by Sonny West, Bill Tilghman and Norman Petty. The song was included on the album The "Chirping" Crickets and was also released as the A-side of a single, with "Not Fade Away" as the B-side. The song peaked at number 10 on the US charts, and number 3 on the UK charts in early 1958.
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.
"Sweets for My Sweet" is a song written by the songwriting team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, originally recorded by The Drifters.
Beatles Bop – Hamburg Days is a compilation album of the 1961-1962 recordings of The Beatles with Tony Sheridan done in Hamburg for Polydor with producer Bert Kaempfert. Released by Bear Family Records in 2001, this is, to date, the most complete collection of these recordings featuring both mono and stereo mixes. This collection excludes the other recordings featured on the My Bonnie and The Beatles' First albums that were done by other musicians under "The Beat Brothers" name. But it does include a version of "Swanee River" by other musicians as a comparative to the lost Beatles recording.
"Wonderful Land" is an instrumental piece written by Jerry Lordan recorded and released as a single by the Shadows in 1962. It stayed at No. 1 for eight weeks in the UK Singles Chart.
"Ya Ya" is a song by Lee Dorsey. The song was written by Dorsey, Clarence Lewis, Morgan Robinson, and Morris Levy. Levy's participation in the writing has been called into question. In fact, the Flashback release of the single lists only Dorsey and Lewis 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".
