Tony Sheridan Biography

Tony Sheridan (born Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity on May 21, 1940 in Norwich, Norfolk), is an English rock and roll singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as an early collaborator of The Beatles, and one of two non-Beatles (the other being Billy Preston) to receive label performance credit on a record with the group.

While performing in Hamburg between 1960 and 1963, Sheridan employed various backup bands. In 1961, one such band, who had met Sheridan during their first visit to Hamburg in 1960, and who worked with him on their second, was The Beatles (with their line-up at the time as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best).

When German Polydor agent Bert Kaempfert saw the pairing on stage, he suggested that they make some recordings together. In 1962, after a series of singles (the first of which, "My Bonnie"/"The Saints" made it to #5 in the Hit Parade), the record was released in America on Decca with a black label and also in a pink label for demo play. The record has the distinction of being the most expensive collectible 45 rpm with the black label in mint condition going for $15,000 (2007) and the pink label selling for $3000.

Also in 1962, Polydor released the album My Bonnie across Germany. The word Beatles was judged to sound too similar to the German Pidels (pronounced peedles), the plural of a slang term for penis, hence the album was credited to Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers. After The Beatles had gained fame, the album was re-released in Britain, with the credit altered to Tony Sheridan and The Beatles. The Beatles' Hamburg studio recordings, as well as some live recordings from the same period, have been reissued several times over the decades.

The Bealtes Entourage:

• George Martin
• Brian Epstein
• Neil Aspinall
• Mal Evans
• Derek Taylor
• Allen Klein
• Tony Sheridan
• Klaus Voorman
• Peter Brown
• Sid Bernstein
• Allan Williams
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
• Freda Kelly
• Geoff Emerick
• Norman Hurricane Smith