‘My Bonnie’, The Beatles’ first commercially-released record, featured English singer Tony Sheridan on lead vocals and was recorded in Hamburg in 1961.

The Beatles had performed with Sheridan at the Top Ten club in Hamburg. They came to the attention of German bandleader Bert Kaempfert, who suggested that they record some songs together.

‘My Bonnie’ was chosen because of its popularity with Hamburg’s sailors; it was part of The Beatles’ live set for the same reason.

In the studio

The recording took place on a converted stage at Hamburg’s Friedrich-Ebert-Halle school, during a two-day session on 2223 June 1961. The group were the backing band for Sheridan, who took lead vocals, and together they recorded ‘My Bonnie’ and ‘The Saints’, the latter a rocked-up version of ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’.

It’s just Tony Sheridan singing, with us banging in the background. It’s terrible. It could be anybody.

The ‘Love Me Tender’-style introduction was sung by Sheridan in the song’s traditional waltz arrangement, before a tempo- and key-change took the song into the realm of rock ‘n’ roll.

George Harrison performed lead guitar on ‘My Bonnie’, although Sheridan played the solo, which was later spliced in from a different take. Two edit pieces were also taped for the introduction, in English and German. The translation was by Bernd Bertie.

Following the recording, The Beatles – minus Sheridan – recorded two songs of their own choosing: ‘Ain’t She Sweet’, and ‘Cry For A Shadow’.

The release

‘My Bonnie’ was released as a single, with ‘The Saints’ on the b-side, in October 1961. Credited to Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers, it reached number five in the German singles chart.

It was released in Britain on 5 January 1962, credited to Tony Sheridan and The Beatles.

We did a recording with Tony Sheridan, ‘My Bonnie’, for Bert Kaempfert, a band leader and producer. It was actually ‘Tony Sheridan und die Beat Brothers’. They didn’t like our name and said, ‘Change to The Beat Brothers; this is more understandable for the German audience.’ We went along with it – it was a record.

In addition to being The Beatles’ first commercially-released disc, ‘My Bonnie’ played a more pivotal role in their fortunes: it brought them to the attention to Liverpool record shop owner Brian Epstein. A local fan named Raymond Jones is said to have requested the song in his NEMS store, setting events in motion which led to Epstein becoming The Beatles’ manager.

A kid had gone into Brian’s record store and asked for ‘My Bonnie’ by The Beatles. Brian had said, ‘No it’s not, it’s by Tony Sheridan,’ and he ordered it. Then Brian heard that we were playing 200 yards away. So he came to the Cavern and the news got to us: ‘Brian Epstein is in the audience – he might be a manager or a promoter. He is a grown-up, anyway.’ It was Us and Grown-ups then.
Paul McCartney
Anthology

Lyrics

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Yeah, bring back my Bonnie to me

Yeah, bring back, ah bring back
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Oh bring back, ah bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me

Well, my Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
Yeah, my Bonnie lies over the ocean
Whoa, I said bring back my Bonnie to me

Yeah, bring back now, ah bring back
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Oh bring back, ah bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me


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