''In the Beginning (Circa 1960)'' is the first American packaging of the 1964 German album 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 ...

and

the Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

, called " The Beatles' First !".

History

''In the Beginning (Circa 1960)'' was released by

Polydor Records 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. ...

in 1970 (catalogue number 24-4504). It was 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 ...

with The Beatles in 1961 (except for "

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 ...

" in 1962) and features

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 the drums. This album, expanded with four more tracks without the Beatles' participation, was originally released as "The Beatles' First !" in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1964. It was reissued in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

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 ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the comp ...

. Polydor (which eventually absorbed MGM) established its

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

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 "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

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 ...

, 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 EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

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 ''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 ...

" with two additional tracks by Sheridan and with both parts of "

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 ...

". 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 The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

until the full catalogue of the Beatles was made available in 2011, although it is not available for purchase any longer.

Track listing

All vocals by Tony Sheridan unless otherwise indicated. ;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 #" Cry for a Shadow" (

Harrison Harrison may refer to: People * Harrison (name) * Harrison family of Virginia, United States Places In Australia: * Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin In Canada: * Inukjuak, Quebec, or " ...

/Lennon) (instrumental) – 2:22 #" Let's Dance" (Lee) (by

& The Beat Brothers) – 2:32 #" My Bonnie" (traditional) – 2:06 #" 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 ...

" ( Charles) (by Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers) – 2:37 ;Side two #

" ( Bernie/ Casey/ Pinkard) – 2:03 #"

When the Saints Go Marching In "When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as simply "The Saints", is a traditional black spiritual. It originated as a Christian hymn and is often played by jazz bands. This song was famously recorded on May 13, 1938, by Louis Armstron ...

" (traditional) – 3:19 #" Ruby Baby" ( Leiber/Stoller) (by Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers) – 2:48 #" Why" (Crompton/Sheridan) – 2:55 #" Nobody's Child" (Coben/Foree) – 3:52 #"

" ( Dorsey/Lewis/Robinson) (by Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers) – 2:48

Charts

References

{{Authority control Albums produced by Bert Kaempfert The Beatles with Tony Sheridan albums 1970 compilation albums Polydor Records compilation albums The Beatles compilation albums Albums with cover art by Joel Brodsky