''The Beatles' First!'' (subtitled ''Recorded in Hamburg 1961 - Featuring Tony Sheridan and Guests'') is a German compilation album of songs recorded in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 1961 and 1962 by

Tony Sheridan Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity (21 May 1940 – 16 February 2013), 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 th ...

with

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

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.

Recording history

On 22 June 1961, composer and musical director

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born Berthold Heinrich Kämpfert; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the mus ...

produced the Beatles' first professional recording session backing English singer and guitarist

for the German label Polydor. Performed in the auditorium of Friedrich-Ebert-Hall, a high school in the borough of

Hamburg-Harburg Harburg is a Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg#Boroughs, borough of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It is also the name of Harburg (quarter), Harburg quarter in the borough, which used to be the capital of the Harburg (district), Harburg district in ...

often used as a studio,

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

is on bass,

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

on rhythm guitar,

Pete Best Randolph Peter Best (né Scanland; born 24 November 1941) is an English musician known as the drummer of the English rock band the Beatles who was dismissed immediately prior to the band achieving worldwide fame. Fired from the group in 1962 ...

on drums (which only includes snare, hi-hats and cymbal) with

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

and Sheridan sharing lead guitar parts. McCartney, Lennon and Harrison also perform backing vocals. The session, which possibly ended the next day, saw the recording of "

My Bonnie My or MY may refer to: Arts and entertainment * My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station * Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe * ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak * ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon Business * Market ...

" and " The Saints" (released as a single that same year and on an LP called ''

'' in January 1962, all credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers), "

Why Why may refer to: * Causality, a consequential relationship between two events * Reason (argument), a premise in support of an argument, for what reason or purpose * Grounding (metaphysics), a topic in metaphysics regarding how things exist in v ...

", an original song by Sheridan, and the covers " Nobody's Child" by

Hank Snow Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. Most popular in the 1950s, he had a career that spanned more than 50 years, he recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on t ...

and " If You Love Me, Baby (Take Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby)" by

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

but the latter with different lyrics. Two other tracks on which Sheridan does not appear, the instrumental "Beatle Bop" (later renamed "

Cry for a Shadow "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 ...

"), credited to Harrison - Lennon, and the standard "

Ain't She Sweet "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 ...

", sung by Lennon, are also recorded. These five songs will remain unreleased for nearly three years. "

Sweet Georgia Brown "Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard composed in 1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, with lyrics by Kenneth Casey. History Reportedly, Ben Bernie came up with the concept for the song's lyrics – although he is not the credited lyricis ...

" and " Swanee River" were recorded at Rahlstedt studio in Hamburg on 24 May 1962, during a second session designed to end the Beatles recording contract with Polydor in order to give free rein to their new manager,

Brian Epstein Brian Samuel Epstein (; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him i ...

. "Sweet Georgia Brown" was released in October 1962 on a German E.P. entitled "

Ya Ya "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 a ...

" and credited again to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers but the recording of the second song was lost.

Release history

''The Beatles' First!'' was released in April 1964 by German

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

(Polydor 20328) and was available in the UK as an import. Four songs by Sheridan with other musicians were added to the eight recorded by the Beatles. The track "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby" was mistitled "If You Love Me, Baby". The following month, Polydor

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

issued a 10 inch LP, simply entitled ', that compiled exclusively the Beatles' Hamburg recordings. On 4 August 1967, Polydor officially released ''The Beatles' First'' in the UK (catalogue number 236-201), but with a sleeve designed by

Barry Zaid Barry Zaid (born June 8, 1938) is a graphic artist and designer. Zaid has contributed covers and drawings to numerous magazines and newspapers including Canadian publications ''The Globe and Mail'', the ''Star Weekly'', ''Chatelaine'', ''Toront ...

which omits the

exclamation mark The exclamation mark, , or exclamation point (American English), is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence, f ...

. In New Zealand, the album was released three times: firstly in 1966 (cat. no. 237632, as above), secondly in the early 1970s, titled ''The Beatles in Hamburg'' (cat. no. NZ SP 125) and in 1977 as a double LP (cat. no. 118). In Canada, the album was released in 1969 with the title ''

Very Together ''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 ...

'' (Polydor 242.008), while the US issued the album the following year under the title ''

In the Beginning (Circa 1960) ''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 !". History ''In the Beginning (Circa 1960)'' was released by Polydor Records in 1970 (ca ...

'' (Polydor 24-4504) with "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby" correctly named. All subsequent releases of the Tony Sheridan/Beatles/Beat Brothers recordings are repackages of the same tracks. The album was released on CD in 1984 under the title ''

The Early Tapes of The Beatles ''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 t ...

'' which included two more bonus tracks by Sheridan and the complete recordings of the songs "

" and "My Bonnie", the latter with its slow intro sung in English. It was expanded to a double-CD set subtitled ''Deluxe Edition'', with two tracks replacing the previous edition's bonus tracks, issued by

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

on 12 June 2004. The main tracks are in

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

on the first CD and in

mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...

on the second CD. This release used similar artwork from the original German sleeve. The eight tracks recorded by the Beatles were compiled, in all their published variations, in the double album " Beatles Bop – Hamburg Days" in 2001 by

Bear Family Records Bear Family Records is a Germany-based independent record label, that specializes in reissues of archival material, ranging from country music to 1950s rock and roll to old German movie soundtracks. History The label has been in existence since ...

and ten years later by

Time Life Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, ...

with the title ''The Beatles With Tony Sheridan – F1rst Recordings: 50th Anniversary Edition''.

Track listing

Original LP

All vocals by

unless otherwise indicated. All songs recorded with the Beatles unless noted The Beat Brothers and marked by an asterisk. ;Side one # "

" (

Ager Ager or AGER may refer to: * Ager (surname) * Ager (river), a river in Upper Austria *Àger, a municipality in Catalonia, Spain * Viscounty of Àger, a medieval Catalan jurisdiction that branched off the County of Urgell * Ager, California, uninc ...

/ Yellen) (vocal:

) – 2:10 # "

" (

/John Lennon) (instrumental) – 2:22 # * " Let's Dance" (Lee) (The Beat Brothers) – 2:32 # "

" (traditional) – 2:06 # " If You Love Me, Baby (Take Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby)" (Hall/Singleton) – 2:52 # * "

What'd I Say "What'd I Say" (or "What I Say") is an American rhythm and blues song by Ray Charles, released in 1959. As a single divided into two parts, it was one of the first soul songs. The composition was improvised one evening late in 1958 when Charl ...

" (

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

) (The Beat Brothers) – 2:37 ;Side two #

" ( Bernie, Casey, Pinkard) – 2:03 # " The Saints" (traditional) – 3:19 # * " Ruby Baby" (

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such crossover hit songs as " Hound Dog" ( ...

) (The Beat Brothers) – 2:48 # "

" (Compton/Sheridan) – 2:55 # " Nobody's Child" (Cy Coben, Mel Foree) – 3:52 # * "

" ( Dorsey/Robinson) (The Beat Brothers) – 2:48

The Early Tapes of The Beatles

# ''Ain't She Sweet'' – 2:12 # ''Cry for a Shadow'' – 2:23 # ''When the Saints Go Marching In'' – 3:18 # ''Why'' – 2:58 # '' If You Love Me, Baby'' – 2:53 # * ''What'd I Say'' – 2:39 # ''Sweet Georgia Brown'' – 2:05 # * ''Let's Dance – 2:33 # * ''Ruby Baby'' – 2:52 # ''My Bonnie'' – 2:42 # ''Nobody's Child'' – 3:55 # * ''

Ready Teddy "Ready Teddy" is a song written by John Marascalco and Robert Blackwell, and first made popular by Little Richard in 1956. Little Richard sang and played piano on the recording, backed by a band consisting of Lee Allen (tenor saxophone), Alvin ...

'' (

John Marascalco John S. Marascalco (March 27, 1931 – July 5, 2020) was an American songwriter most noted for the songs he wrote for Little Richard. He was born in Grenada, Mississippi and died in Los Angeles, California. Career Marascalco co-wrote several ...

and

Robert Blackwell Robert Alexander "Bumps" Blackwell (May 23, 1918 – March 9, 1985) was an American bandleader, songwriter, arranger, and record producer, best known for his work overseeing the early hits of Little Richard, as well as grooming Ray Charle ...

) – 2:01 (added track by The Beat Brothers) # * ''Ya Ya'' – 5:08 (complete recording) # * ''

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

'' (

Jerry Leiber Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such Crossover music, crossover hit songs ...

and Mike Stoller) – 2:38 (added track by The Beat Brothers)

Deluxe Edition

;Disc one – Stereo # "Ain't She Sweet" # "Cry for a Shadow" # * "Let's Dance" # "My Bonnie" # "Take Some Insurance On Me, Baby" # * "What'd I Say" # "Sweet Georgia Brown" # "The Saints" # * "Ruby Baby" # "Why" # "Nobody's Child" # * "Ya Ya" # "My Bonnie" (English intro) # "My Bonnie" (German intro) ;Disc two – Mono # "Ain't She Sweet" # "Cry for a Shadow" # *"Let's Dance" # "My Bonnie" # "Take Some Insurance On Me, Baby" # * "What'd I Say" # "Sweet Georgia Brown" # "The Saints" # * "Ruby Baby" # "Why" # "Nobody's Child" # * "Ya Ya" # "My Bonnie" (English intro) # "My Bonnie" (German intro) # * "

Let's Twist Again "Let's Twist Again" is a song written by Kal Mann and Dave Appell, and released as a single by Chubby Checker. One of the biggest hit singles of 1961, it reached No.8 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' pop chart (No.3 on ''Cash Box'') in August of that ...

" (added track by The Beat Brothers) # * "Top Ten Twist" (added track by The Beat Brothers)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beatles First, The 2004 compilation albums Albums produced by Bert Kaempfert German-language compilation albums The Beatles with Tony Sheridan albums 1964 compilation albums Polydor Records compilation albums