1961
Gigs were in plentiful supply now, and the group performed somewhere around 80 times in Liverpool during the first three months of 1961, making stage performance their overwhelming priority. It was not uncommon for them to play two gigs on the same day, and occasionally even three. Probably due to the workload, songwriting took a back seat during this period, and there are no new songs confirmed. Two, however, can be cited with reservation...
[41]
|
i'm in love (lennon)
“I’m In Love” has been dated to 1960-61 by Allen J Wiener (The Beatles Ultimate Recording Guide, 1992) but supporting evidence is scant. The earliest hard proof of the song’s existence is from a Lennon demo made in 1963 for the Fourmost, casting doubt over its vintage. The Fourmost made the first proper recording of the track on October 14, 1963, and their subsequent single made number 17 on the UK chart. (Billy J Kramer also recorded it.)
Lennon’s demo has since been bootlegged, and was officially released by EMI in December 2013, as a download-only file. The “album” it was included on has now been bootlegged in tangible format. |
[42]
|
nobody i know (mccartney)
Like “I’m In Love”, this track was dated 1960-61 by Allen J Wiener but there is little to substantiate this. Tellingly, the song is not mentioned at all in Mark Lewisohn’s authoritative The Beatles: Tune In and so we include it here with due caution. The song was given to (if not, actually written for) Peter And Gordon in the spring of 1964, their version appearing on 45 and making number 10 on the UK chart. No Beatles version is known to exist.
|
The Beatles embarked on their second Hamburg residency on April 1, and performed repeatedly with singer Tony Sheridan. This resulted in the group’s first professional recording session:
rECORDING: hamburg, june 22, 1961
When noted producer Bert Kaempfert set about making an album with singer Tony Sheridan, the Beatles were hired as his backing group, for a somewhat unglamorous recording session in a hall attached to a local school. Kaempfert taped enough songs for an entire LP, Harrison-Lennon’s “Beatle Bop” (“Cry For A Shadow”) among them, as well as the Lennon vocal, “Ain’t She Sweet”.
The LP eventually came out, but the Beatles were kept very much in the background, and even saw themselves billed as the Beat Brothers on the sleeve. Although they hoped “Cry For A Shadow” would be released as a single, it wasn’t – at least not immediately. It did appear on an EP in France in April 1962, but had to wait until the Beatles were famous for a UK/US single release. |
From this era, another two songs arise, although neither one is really a Beatles composition:
[43]
|
tell me if you can (mccartney)
Although details are a little sketchy, it seems this song was written by Tony Sheridan and Paul McCartney together, in June 1961 (or December 1962, depending which version is believed). Initially only a vague claim, the passing of time has consolidated the story, which is now generally accepted.
Sheridan did not record the song until as late as 1997, and that version never appeared, reportedly due to a block by McCartney. (The recording has seeped out on bootlegs however.) It came to full public availability in 2005 with the CD/DVD, Chantal Meets Tony Sheridan, where it is given the compositional credit, “McCartney/Sheridan”. |
[44]
|
FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN (mccartney)
The Beatles, with McCartney on vocals, incorporated the oldie, "Falling In Love Again" into their stage act during 1961 (a version of which survives on the Starr Club tapes). Possibly because he learned the original German version, and therefore did not know the words, McCartney wrote his own lyrics to at least part of the tune, making the Beatles' version a co-write to some extent.
|
The Beatles returned to England at the start of July, without Stu Sutcliffe, who had now quit the band, leaving a group line-up of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Best. Back in Liverpool, the Beatles simply continued gigging intensively, working through the summer and into autumn, mostly – though by no means exclusively – at the Cavern.
Unknown at the time, they were on the verge of the most decisive moment in their story.
It was on November 9, 1961, that the immaculately attired Brian Epstein walked down the narrow steps into the cauldron which was the Cavern Club. A local record store owner, he had been alerted to the Beatles by requests for “My Bonnie”, which had by now been lifted from the Tony Sheridan recordings of June and released as a single in Germany on the Polydor label. (Epstein would subsequently get it released in the UK as well.) Epstein's shop, NEMS, was situated on Whitechapel, at one of the exit points to the network of alleyways where the Cavern was situated.
The story from there is well-known. Epstein was impressed with what he saw and offered to manage the group, with a view to getting them a recording deal. All parties agreed contractual terms in December, and Epstein wasted no time in having a Decca rep come and see them play at the Cavern. This led of course to a Decca audition, on New Year’s Day 1962 (not, at that point, a bank holiday).
Unknown at the time, they were on the verge of the most decisive moment in their story.
It was on November 9, 1961, that the immaculately attired Brian Epstein walked down the narrow steps into the cauldron which was the Cavern Club. A local record store owner, he had been alerted to the Beatles by requests for “My Bonnie”, which had by now been lifted from the Tony Sheridan recordings of June and released as a single in Germany on the Polydor label. (Epstein would subsequently get it released in the UK as well.) Epstein's shop, NEMS, was situated on Whitechapel, at one of the exit points to the network of alleyways where the Cavern was situated.
The story from there is well-known. Epstein was impressed with what he saw and offered to manage the group, with a view to getting them a recording deal. All parties agreed contractual terms in December, and Epstein wasted no time in having a Decca rep come and see them play at the Cavern. This led of course to a Decca audition, on New Year’s Day 1962 (not, at that point, a bank holiday).