During the Beatle's second visit to Hamburg, April to July 1961, the group regularly backed an English singer/guitarist, Tony Sheridan, who gone to play there in the early summer of 1960 and befriended the Beatles' when they first arrived in the city shortly afterwards. On a visit to the Top Ten Club, a music publishing executive was impressed by the Sheridan/Beatles stage combination and so talked a friend, the orchestra leader and composer Bert Kaempfert, suggesting that Kaempfert consider producing some recording sessions.

One morning, probably 22 June, not long after the Beatles had finished another seven-hour slog in the Top Ten, taxis arrived to take them to the place of recording - not a real studio but Friedrich-Ebert-Halle, a school, where the session took place on stage. The Beatles backed Sheridan on five or six numbers - the main one being rock rendition of the lullaby My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean - and then had two more to themselves: Ain't She Sweet and Cry For A Shadow. In August 1961, after the Beatles had returned to Liverpool, Polydor issued My Bonnie as a single, credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, the disc eventually climbing high on a local German chart. Only on the British release (elsewhere, it was only after the group became famous) was the label credit altered to Tony Sheridan and the Beatles.

But My Bonnie was more than just the Beatles' first appearance on commercial disc: it also brought to the attention of Brian Epstein...

Tony Sheridan rocked-up the arrangement they called My Bonnie, delivered the spoken-word introduction, sang and played lead guitar. George Harrison played the opening lead guitar passage, Paul McCartney is clearly evident, not only for his bass but also for his background shouts, and John Lennon and drummer Pete Best - who had joined the group's line-up in August 1960 - also played.

Ain't She Sweet

Recorded for Bert Kaempfert who produced the session. John Lennon sings lead vocals on this song. Although The Beatles did act as Tony Sheridan's backup group on other tracks during these sessions, Sheridan did not participate on the recording. The song was not released until May 29, 1964 as a British single. In the US the song was also released as a single but Atco Records had a session drummer overdub a louder drum track.

A slightly remixed version of the song may have been released in May 1964 in Australia, and a shorter edited version of 'Ain't She Sweet' is reported to have been released by Polydor in Chile as a single.

On July 24, 1969 during the recording of 'Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard', The Beatles broke into a jammed version of 'Ain't She Sweet'.

Cry For A Shadow was recorded June 22 - 23, 1961.
This is an instrumental with no participation from Sheridan. The song is a slight dig at the backing group for Cliff Richard, The Shadows. The song was almost called 'Beatle Bop' and was first released in September 1961 on the German Polydor EP "My Bonnie" by Tony Sheridan.

The US LP "The Beatles With Tony Sheridan And Their Guests" contains this track in reprocessed stereo. It is reported that on the German double-LP, "Die Wilden 60er Jahren" this track is shortened to 1'20".

www.beatles.com.au