Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers – My Bonnie

Tony Sheridan was an excellent guitarist and had a good rock voice. The Beat Brothers were The Beatles and they punch this old standard up of My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean. This record is probably the most important record they made …even as just a backing group.

They were thrilled to be on a record. “I didn’t stop playing it for days,” George told the NME two years later. Teenager Jimmy Campbell would remember Paul running up the stairs at Aintree Institute shouting “This is our record!” He made the DJ Bob Wooler put it on and he was bouncing all over the place just listening to himself coming out of the speakers. He was really made up. “Listen to that!”

Brian Epstein ran NEMS record store and one of his policies was to get any song that he might not have in stock. Around mid-afternoon on Saturday, October 28, 1962, a young man from Knotty Ash, Raymond Jones, walked into the NEMS shop on Whitechapel and tried to buy the record.

What happened next is the subject of conflicting accounts, though they end the same way. Jones remembers that Brian Epstein, unable to find “My Bonnie” in any release lists, asked him questions about it, which concluded with Jones saying the Beatles were locals and “the most fantastic group you will ever hear.” Brian himself, in his autobiography, suggested this additional information only came to him over the following days, and in the raw interview transcript for that book, he said one of his shop-girls noted Jones’ order.

That led Brian Epstein to the Cavern Club where the Beatles played. That is somewhere that he would probably have never gone. Raymond Jones’s simple request would go down in history. Soon after, Brian was managing the Beatles and within a year they got George Martin’s attention and the rest is history.

While the Beatles were in Hamburg they were signed to a record contract by  Bert Kaempfert. He recorded many cuts with The Beatles backing Sheridan and also a few by themselves. One original was the Lennon-Harrison instrumental Cry For A Shadow. The rest were standards like Ain’t She Sweet and When the Saints Come Marching In. The Beatles were fortunate with  Bert Kaempfert. He wasn’t a shark…he signed them and when they had a chance to sign with EMI…he only asked that they record a couple of more songs and he let them go.

My Bonnie was released in October of 1961 in Germany and peaked at #32 in the German charts. It didn’t do much in the UK but fans knew about it and wanted it. The Beatles were very popular in Liverpool at the time and it sold well there after Brian got it in his store. Later on when they released Love Me Do it sold over 10,000 copies in Liverpool alone.

Record executives thought Epstein bought that many to put it in the charts but no….they really sold. Most people outside of Liverpool couldn’t understand how a “new” band would sell that many but they had been popular there since coming back from Hamburg in 1961. The Beatles started their own fan club in 1962 before Brian met them.

Their old bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe was there, but Paul played bass during the sessions.

My Bonnie

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
Well 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, oh bring back
Oh 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
Oh I said 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
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all. View all posts by Badfinger (Max)