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".
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", billed as the first new Beatles song in 25 years, which was released as a single two weeks after Anthology 1.
Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity, known professionally as 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 for Polydor. Sheridan recorded several songs with the Beatles, of which only a single was released in 1961, credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. While the two 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 and pop tune 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, 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.
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 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' 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.
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.
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.
Danny Davis was an American country music band leader, trumpet player, vocalist and producer, best known as the founder and leader of the Nashville Brass.
"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".
"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 its 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.
I Saw Her Standing There is a bootleg compilation album of songs by the English rock band the Beatles. Available as both a 2-CD and a 2-LP set, it is a collection of their early recordings, featuring songs from the band's Hamburg recording sessions, Decca audition and performances from the Cavern Club, as well as their first ever radio interview. Adversely, the album also includes many songs that were not recorded by the Beatles.
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.
"My Bonnie" is a song by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles which was first released in October 1961 as a single in West Germany. "The Saints" was released as the single's B-side. The song is a rock and roll rendition of the traditional Scottish folk song "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean". The German import became popular in Liverpool and the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein secured a British release on 5 January 1962, this time credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beatles. It was also released elsewhere in 1962 but was not successful. The single was released in the United States during the Beatlemania, this time around with the Beatles credited as the lead artist, reaching the number 26 spot on the Billboard charts. The song, along with "Ain't She Sweet" and "Cry for a Shadow", was placed on Anthology 1 in 1995. Sheridan's first version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" was also recorded with the Beatles and issued on an E.P. in 1962. This was the third and last song with the Beatles to be credited to the Beat Brothers.
