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 the Beatles (though the record was labelled as being with "The Beat Brothers"), one of two non-Beatles (the other being Billy Preston) to receive label performance credit on a record with the group, and the only non-Beatle to appear as lead singer on a Beatles recording which charted as a single.
Sheridan was born on 21 May 1940 in Norwich, Norfolk, where he grew up at 2 Hansell Road in Thorpe St Andrew and attended the City of Norwich School. His parents were Alphonsus McGinnity and Audrey Mann.
In his early life, Sheridan was influenced by his parents' interest in classical music, and by age seven, he had learned to play the violin. He attended the City of Norwich School. He had a leading role in the school production of The Mikado in 1951 and played the violin in the orchestra.
He eventually came to play guitar, and in 1956, formed his first skiffle band and played at the Red Lion pub in Norwich. During the 1950s he played with the Cygnets and the Saints. He later went to play six months at The 2i's Coffee Bar in London's Soho, In 1958, only two years after starting to play in the skiffle band which he formed, Sheridan and Kenny Packwood began appearing live on the Oh Boy! television show made by ABC.
He was employed backing a number of singers, including Gene Vincent and Conway Twitty, while they were in England. Johnny Foster sought to recruit Sheridan as a guitar player in Cliff Richard's backing band (soon renamed the Shadows), but after failing to find him at the 2i's Coffee Bar opted for another guitarist present – Hank Marvin.
In 1959 he played the guitar solo on Cherry Wainer's studio recording of "The Happy Organ". The following year, he toured the UK with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. On 16 April, Vincent and Cochran rejected Sheridan's request to ride with them; their car later crashed, killing Cochran.
Disrepute in England and recovery in Hamburg
Despite these successes, Sheridan had a reputation for being late and showing up without his guitar and his professional standing in England suffered. An offer for a gig came from Bruno Koschmider's Kaiserkeller club in Hamburg, West Germany, for an English group to play there. Sheridan joined an ad hoc group dubbed the Jets and headed to Hamburg. While performing in Hamburg between 1960 and 1963, Sheridan employed various backup bands, most of which were "pickup bands" – an amalgam of various musicians, rather than a proper group. The Beatles had met Sheridan during their first visit to Hamburg in 1960 and worked with him during their second visit. In 1961, the Beatles (with their line-up at the time of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best) became even closer to Sheridan. They sometimes backed Sheridan, who in turn often joined them during their own sets backing them on guitar. They visited Sheridan's home while playing in Norwich (17th May 1963) and had jam sessions in the back garden.
Ringo Starr briefly played in Sheridan's backing band during early 1962, before returning to Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Starr was reportedly unhappy with Sheridan performing songs he had not rehearsed with his band (other musicians made the same complaint, as well as about Sheridan's penchant for fist-fights).
Polydor recordings with the Beatles
When a colleague of German Polydor producer/A&R man Bert Kaempfert saw the pairing on stage, he suggested that Sheridan and the Beatles make some recordings together. Kaempfert viewed Sheridan as the one with star potential, and though Kaempfert's production company signed the Beatles to play on Sheridan's records, the contract stipulated that the four Beatles (Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Best) were guaranteed to play on a minimum of two songs. Of the seven songs recorded during Sheridan's two-day-long sessions for Polydor in June 1961, at times the band behind Sheridan would be down to only two Beatles (Paul McCartney and Pete Best). Conversely some say that only on their two songs do all four Beatles play (minus Sheridan), while Sheridan plays on all of his tracks. Lennon's rhythm guitar is heard only on the two Beatles tracks (though his voice is heard in background vocals as well as his handclaps on Sheridan's tracks).
During these sessions at Polydor nine songs were produced, seven of them for Sheridan: "My Bonnie", "The Saints", "Why", "Nobody's Child", "If You Love Me, Baby (Take Out Some Insurance on Me Baby)", "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Swanee River" (this last recording is now lost, but it was recorded later on by Sheridan with another backup group). Two more songs without Sheridan were recorded by the Beatles: "Ain't She Sweet" and "Cry for a Shadow" (formerly titled "Beatle Bop").
It was said that "Sheridan didn't have a lot of originality, his performances mostly channeling Elvis".
Polydor's beliefs in Sheridan's coming stardom were so strong that they buried the two Beatles tracks until much later. Additionally, Lennon, Best and Sheridan all swore that there were several other Beatles tracks that were recorded during the two-day session, but they have not surfaced. In the spring of 1962 in order to fulfil contractual obligations, the four surviving Beatles (plus Roy Young but without Sheridan) recorded an instrumental version of "Sweet Georgia Brown"; later, Sheridan cut his vocal overdub for the song while solo in the studio. Reportedly "Swanee River" was also recorded by the Beatles and Young, though Polydor released a version in 1962 on Sheridan's album My Bonnie; however, Polydor states they have never found this last recording. A contemporary newspaper story also mentioned that Sheridan had recorded "You Are My Sunshine" with the Beatles as well for single release.
In 1962, after a series of singles (the first of which, "My Bonnie"/"The Saints" made it to number 5 in the German chart), 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 one of the most expensive collectible 45 rpm with the black label in mint condition selling for $15,000 in 2007 and the pink label selling for $3000.
Also in 1962, Polydor released the album My Bonnie across West Germany. The word "Beatles" was judged to sound too similar to the Hamburgisch dialect word "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 the United Kingdom, 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 many times.
In the mid-1960s, Sheridan's musical style underwent a drastic transformation, away from his rock and roll roots and towards a more blues- and jazz-oriented sound. Though those recordings were praised by some, many fans of his earlier work felt disappointed. The change was presaged by liner notes from his 1964 album, Just a Little Bit of Tony Sheridan, in which his musical preferences are listed as "jazz and classical" rather than rock. The liner notes also mention his wanting to visit the southern US "to hear at first hand the original negro music and experience the atmosphere that has been instrumental in creating negro jazz and the spiritual, for which he has a great liking." During 1967, Polydor continued releasing Tony Sheridan singles recorded with German producer Jimmy Bowien, though they only ever released two albums by him.
By 1967, Sheridan had become disillusioned with his Beatle-brought fame. Because he was more concerned by the Vietnam War and the thought of further Communist aggression, Sheridan agreed to perform for the Allied troops. While in Vietnam, the band that he had assembled was fired upon and one of the members was killed. For his work entertaining the troops, Sheridan was made an honorary Captain of the United States Army. Due to the repeated shellings he experienced in Vietnam, Sheridan subsequently suffered from great sensitivity to the sound of explosions.