Tony Sheridan
British musician (1940–2013) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
British musician (1940–2013) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[1] 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.
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Tony Sheridan | |
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Tony Sheridan performing live, November 2004 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity |
| Born | 21 May 1940 Norwich, Norfolk, England |
| Died | 16 February 2013 (aged 72) Hamburg, Germany |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1958–2013 |
| Labels | Polydor |
| Website | Official website |
Sheridan was born in Norwich, Norfolk, where he grew up at 2 Hansell Road in Thorpe St Andrew and attended the City of Norwich School.[2][3]
His parents, Alphonsus McGinnity and Audrey Mann, were married in Norwich in 1939. In his early life, Sheridan was influenced by their interest in classical music, and by age seven, he had learned to play the violin. He eventually came to play guitar, and in 1956, formed his first band. He showed enough talent that he soon found himself playing in London's "Two I's" club for some six months straight.
In 1958, aged 18, he began appearing on Oh Boy!, made by the ITV contractor ABC, playing electric guitar on such early rock classics as "Blue Suede Shoes", "Glad All Over", "Mighty Mighty Man" and "Oh, Boy!" He was soon employed backing a number of singers, reportedly including Gene Vincent and Conway Twitty while they were in England.[4] In 1958 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 who was there, Hank Marvin.[5][6] Early in 1960, he performed in a tour of the UK, along with Vincent and Eddie Cochran. On 16 April, Vincent and Cochran rebuffed his request to ride along with them to the next venue. He therefore escaped the road accident which would leave Cochran dead and Vincent badly injured.[7]
Sheridan played guitar for Cherry Wainer on her recording of "Happy Organ". Despite these successes, his penchant for being late, showing up without his guitar, etc., soon got him a reputation for having gone a bit "haywire", and cost him much of his professional standing in England. Providentially, an offer for a gig came from Bruno Koschmider's "Kaiserkeller" club in Hamburg, West Germany for an English group to play there.[1] Sheridan and others (including Colin "Melander" Crawley) joined an ad hoc group promptly dubbed "The Jets" and were put on the ship headed for Hamburg. As fate would have it, legal woes (i.e. lack of proper papers) caused "The Jets" to not last long, but Sheridan (and now-friend Crawley) were soon back onstage in Hamburg.[8]
While performing in Hamburg between 1960 and 1963, Sheridan employed various backup bands, most of which were really "pickup bands", or simply an amalgam of various musicians, rather than a group proper (though almost always including now bassist Colin "Melander" Crawley and usually top-pianist Roy Young).[1] However, in 1961, the young Beatles (with their line-up at the time of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best) who had met and admired Sheridan during their first visit to Hamburg in 1960, and who worked with him on their second visit, became even closer.[1] The Beatles sometimes backed Sheridan, who, in turn, often joined the Beatles during their own sets backing them on guitar. They even visited Sheridan's home and had jam sessions in the back garden.[9]
Ringo Starr briefly played in Sheridan's backing band during very 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).[10]
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.[11] 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[who?] say that only on their two songs do all four Beatles play (minus Sheridan), while Sheridan plays on all of his tracks. John 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) (per "Beatles Deeper Undercover" by Kristopher Engelhardt, p. 302). During these sessions at Polydor were produced a total of nine songs, 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").
Polydor's beliefs in Sheridan's coming stardom were so strong that they buried the two Beatles tracks until much later. Additionally John Lennon, Pete Best and Tony Sheridan all swore that there were several other Beatles tracks that were recorded during the two-day session, but they have not surfaced.[12] In the spring of 1962 in order to fulfill 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 Roy Young, though Polydor released a version in 1962 on Sheridan's album My Bonnie; however, Polydor states they've never found this last recording). A newspaper story of the day also mentioned that Sheridan had recorded "You Are My Sunshine" with the Beatles as well for single release (it was also on his album as well).
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".[13][14] 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.[15]
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."[15] During 1967, Polydor continued releasing Tony Sheridan singles recorded 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.[15] Due to the repeated shellings he experienced in Vietnam, Sheridan henceforth suffered from great sensitivity to the sounds of any kind of explosions, even fireworks.
With his Polydor contract gone, Sheridan did what he could to survive. In the early 1970s, he managed to cut a single as a pop duo, teamed with Carole Bell, and they toured Europe together with fair success. Following that phase he returned to playing in West Germany (usually Hamburg) or London. The mid-1970s saw him deejaying a West German radio programme of blues music, which was well received. He then managed to record an entire live album of early rock classics, a number of which had been part of his and the early Beatles live act but had never been recorded.
In 1978, a record producer in the United States heard Sheridan's early Polydor recordings (with and without the young Beatles), and was impressed by Sheridan's singing and playing. Sheridan immediately accepted an offer to record a whole studio album in Los Angeles. Elvis Presley's TCB Band, not working at the time, was hired to play on the album along with top bassist (and former Hamburg friend) Klaus Voormann. An album of rock classics plus a few country tunes resulted but, with no major label release, it was restricted to direct TV sales. Thus, the prospect of a long American career in Las Vegas evaporated.
In 1978, the Star Club was reopened, and Sheridan performed there along with Elvis Presley's TCB Band.[16]
In 1991, Joe Sunseri, Sheridan's biographer and then-manager, completed Nobody's Child: The Tony Sheridan Story. However, due to a falling-out, the biography remained unpublished.
On 13 August 2002, after a long hiatus away from the record industry, Bear Family Records released Sheridan's album "Vagabond",[17][18] essentially a collection of his own material, except for a new cover version of "Skinny Minnie", a Bill Haley song he had recorded years earlier for his first album "My Bonnie". "Vagabond" was essentially different from his previous repertoire, consisting mainly in reflective ballads. "His development as an artist and on a personal and spiritual level makes Vagabond an interesting departure that bona fide r’n’r that made his reputation on the Hamburg scene way back in the 60's. Those who know his story know that he gradually departed from that said scene after his experiences in Viet Nam and his search for spiritual awareness.".[19] "Vagabond" can be heard on YouTube.[20]
In 2002, the Argentinian rock musician Charly Garcia recorded his album Influencia,[21] on which Tony Sheridan contributed as a singer/guitarist on the song "I'm Not in Love".[22] The song can be heard on YouTube.[23]
In 2003, Sheridan produced a DVD on which there was a 24 minutes video clip, where he gives us a guided tour of the St. Pauli district, showing us the main venues and places where himself, The Beatles and other musicians would perform, hang out and sleep when they played at the Star-Club, the Kaiserkeller and other clubs in Hamburg. He also reminisces about the day-to-day life of them as performers, the harsh conditions they endured, performing 8 hours per day, with little money for salary, and sometimes sleeping in squalid living quarters, all which they had to endure for the love of Rock and Roll. "We were like slaves" he pointed out with a grin, concluding that he feels honored to have been privileged to contribute to this little piece of history. An extract of that guided tour can be viewed on YouTube.[24]
On 29 February 2004, the German classical music group "CHANTAL InstrumentalEnsemble" produced a tribute concert for The Beatles, where they performed 15 instrumental Beatles songs along with an additional 11 played with Tony Sheridan as their Guest Star.[25] One of the highlights of the night, was the Live performance of Sheridan's song "Tell Me If You Can",[26] the only Live recording of the song,[27] which he co-wrote with Paul McCartney during their time in Hamburg, more than 40 years prior.[28] The full set of the songs played on that night are found on the DVD of the event, entitled "CHANTAL meets Tony Sheridan - A Beatles Story".[29] An abridged set of these songs was issued on CD[30] (including all the tracks sung by Sheridan).[31] All the songs played by Sheridan on that night can be viewed on YouTube.[32] Michael Hofmann-von der Weiden, founder of the Ensemble CHANTAL commented that this unique event was "A musical dream come true for me",[33] as it represented "an ascent not thought to be possible: CHANTAL toured and recorded with the Teacher of The Beatles, the full-blooded musician Tony Sheridan. (...) This CD (& DVD) is the audible and visual proof of how romantic the ballad "Why" can still sound today, that the stomping "Skinny Minnie" is still a highlight in Sheridan's song list, and how the traditional "The Saints" fairs in a vivid rock arrangement. (...) Sheridan and CHANTAL are a combination of a special category, and they disprove old prejudices (such as): "Too old to rock and roll..." " - Günter Jertz [33][34]
In 2005 the Ensemble CHANTAL also produced with Tony Sheridan the first studio version of the song "Tell Me If You Can" recorded at Abbey Road Studios, which was issued as a CD-Single including an instrumental version.[35]
In 2007 Sheridan went to the Opus 3 Studio in Sweden to record some songs, three of which he sang: "Tell Me If You Can",[36] "Indochina" (a song relating his experience when he performed for the US soldiers in Vietnam in the 1970s)[37] and "The Puzzle".[38] They were issued as part of the album: "Tony Sheridan and Opus 3 Artists",[39] which was released posthumously in 2018. The remaining nine tracks were original songs recorded by Sheridan in his home by himself with only his guitar, to which additional post-production arrangements (musical and vocal) were added to the basic tracks by the "Opus 3 Artists".[40] The whole lineup of 12 songs of this album is available on YouTube[41]
A biography of Sheridan, titled The Teacher (ISBN 0957528507), was eventually published in 2013 by Norfolk author Alan Mann, a childhood-friend of Sheridan. The book was essentially an email question and answer interview. While repeated probings by the author did elicit the fact that Sheridan spent two weeks in an English jail, the author unfortunately took Sheridan's memory of things at total face value.
In 2015, Colin "Melander" Crawley, Sheridan's former bassist, published another biography, Tony Sheridan – The One The Beatles Called "The Teacher"(ISBN 9781515092612). Of the two published biographies, it gives the most insight into Sheridan's major career of the early '60's.
The Beatles affectionately called him "The Teacher", because they learned from him so many crucial professional skills, namely from his sense of showmanship, his stage presence, his musical talent, and his musical arrangement skills. One of Sheridan's outstanding skills was for musical arrangements, which were evident especially in the early years of his career, by his turning into Rock'n Roll many old traditional songs like: "My Bonnie", "The Saints", "Swanee River", "You Are My Sunshine" and jazz standards like "Sweet Georgia Brown". But ironically, one of the greatest lessons which the Beatles learned from Tony's life, was to reproduce the opposite of what they saw from his habits: Be disciplined in rehearsing their music relentlessly, always arrive fully prepared... and on time.
Ulf Krüger, the German producer of Sheridan's album "Vagabond" (2002) wrote this: "The leader of the amateur band with whom I played in the early 1960s, was a Sheridan fan. His working method ("How would Tony Sheridan do it?") demanded that we busy ourselves with the arrangements until the band leader was satisfied that the result came close to the required "TS" (Tony Sheridan) style - then it was alright! Having become acquainted with the "Top Ten" and the "Star-Club", I was shocked by both; and seeing Tony Sheridan at last on stage, I immediately knew why countless musicians unconditionally accepted him as the "master": Tony was unique - and miles away of his time."[42]
Gerry Marsden, lead singer of the band "Gerry and the Pacemakers" said: "He was a genius, a great guitar player. I used to watch Tony every night and he influenced me a great deal."[43]
"Tony was the Star in "Star-Club", His Name will live forever." - Ted "Kingsize" Taylor[44]
Sheridan lived in Seestermühe, a village north of Hamburg, and in addition to music, in his later life he was interested in heraldry and designed coats of arms.[45] Sheridan was extremely secretive about his personal life, although it's known that he was married three times, lastly to Anna Sievers, and previously to Rosi Heitmann and to Hazel Byng. His friend and former bassist Crawley stated that in 1960 Sheridan confided that despite his mixed Irish-Catholic and Jewish background, he was at that point viewing himself as a Buddhist. Later Sheridan became a devotee of the guru Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh and lived in the 1980s at the guru's Rajneeshpuram commune in Oregon, United States.
Tony Sheridan died on 16 February 2013 in Hamburg,[46][47] after undergoing heart surgery.[48]
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