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The Beatles - The Beatles' First CD (album) cover

THE BEATLES' FIRST

The Beatles

 

Proto-Prog

2.14 | 9 ratings

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Guillermo
Prog Reviewer
2 stars This album was first released in the U.K. in June 1964.It has recordings done by The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and drummer Pete Best) with lead singer and guitarist Tony Sheridan, in Hamburg, in June 1961, for the Polydor label and produced by the then famous Bert Kaempfert, a German orchestra leader in the "easy listening" style. These recordings have been re- issued many times by different record labels and under different album titles, but essentially they have the same tracks, which in my opinion are very well recorded mostly by being recorded more than 50 years ago.This was the first time that all these tracks were released in a LP in the U.K. representing the time the band were still palying gigs in night clubs in Hamburg. Sheridan was also there doing his job and he impressed Kaempfert enough to offer him a recording contract. Kaempfert also saw The Beatles there sometimes as a backing band for Sheridan and he liked the combination enough to offer the band the opportunity to take part in some of the recordings, as in some tracks (tracks 3, 6, 9, and 12) Sheridan is also backed by a band called The Beat Brothers. Kaempfert also gave The Beatles the chance to record two tracks without Sheridan ("Ain´t She Sweet", sung by Lennon, and "Cry for a Shadow", an instrumental piece of music composed by Harrison and Lennon, the only time both were credited as composers together in a song recorded by the band). In my opinion, Sheridan as singer sometimes sounded a bit like Elvis Presley. But anyway, he became famous in Germany and he still lives there and plays there. In conclusion: this first release of these songs in album form in the U.K. from these 1961 recordings was done when The Beatles were becoming more famous in their country and in other countries. So, the label took the opportunity to show these recordings to the general public and also to earn some money from them. These are not the very first recordings done by The Beatles in a more or less professional manner in Hamburg. They have said that they did some recordings (with Ringo Starr on drums before he officially joined the band in mid 1962) as a backing band for a singer called Lou Walters some months before these recordings with Sheridan were done. The recordings with Walters are now lost and never were released in any form and they were mostly considered as Walters´ demos.
Guillermo | 2/5 |

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