Is it correct that the Beatles first recorded under the name “The Beat Brothers”? Also, is it correct their first recording contract was landed in Germany? Related to this, was their first-ever release entitled “My Bonnie”? Can some sharp-shooting Beatles fan confirm this for me?
Oh, also: Although the band had a few minor members come and go, people seem to remember the drummer before Ringo as Peter Best, but in one credit in a liner note for a rare Beatles CD of these very early tracks, it says the name was Peter Beston. Which is correct, or did he become known as “Pete Best”?
Don’t know the answers to most of those, but The Beatles’ first big recording was as the backup band for singer Tony Sheridan, on a rocked-up version of “My Bonnie” (My bonnie lies over the ocean, my bonnie lies over the sea…). More info here.
I would not be surprised to learn that Pete Best was the stage name of Peter Beston. After all, Ringo Starr was really Richard Starkey. It’s very common to use a stage name.
The Beatles had several names before settling on The Beatles. The Beetles, The Silver Beetles, Long John and the Silver Beetles (“John was Long John and happy to be it…”), and finally, THe Beatles. I wouldn’t be surprised if, at one point, they were also known as the Beat Brothers, though I’m too lazy to dig out the record and verify. Their first recording was as the back-up band for TOny Sheridan on the My Bonnie album.
"‘My Bonnie’/‘The Saints’ (Polydor NH 24-673) was billed as by ‘Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers.’ As Tony recalls it, Beat Brothers was used instead of Beatles because ‘Beatles’ sounded a lot like the German slang word for penis, which was ‘peedles.’ (Remember John saying ‘Beatle peedles’ on a Christmas record?)
It was a quote from Paul on the Anthology. He was discussing their tour of Scotland when everybody changed their names. Paul became Paul Ramone, George was Carl Harrison, and Paul said “Everybody thought that John didn’t change his name, he was too cool for that. Well on that tour he was Long John and happy to be it.”
The world’s first Beatles single was My Bonnie (Lies Over the Ocean)/The Saints (When the Saints Go Marching In) on Germany’s Polydor label, credited to Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers, recorded in Hamburg, Germany in May or June 1961 and released in June 1961.
The second Beatles release was the seven-inch EP titled My Bonnie, with the songs My Bonnie, Why, Cry for a Shadow, and The Saints, again credited to Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers. It was released on Germany’s Polydor label in September 1961. (Cry for a Shadow was the Beatles playing an instrumental without Tony Sheridan.)
In January 1962, Polydor released the My Bonnie/The Saints single in the UK, credited to Tony Sheridan and The Beatles. It was their first British release.
Polydor released an LP album in Germany in June 1962, credited to Tony Sheridan and The Beatles, but the latter actually played on only two of the cuts, My Bonnie and The Saints.
The first Beatles release under their contract with EMI was the single Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You, recorded in September 1962 and released on the Parlophone label in October 1962.
BTW, the name The Silver Beatles was used only on a tour of Scotland in 1960. The promoter was big on the 1950s style “[Lead Singer] and the [Group Name]” for band names, and wanted to bill the Beatles as Long John Silver and the Beatles. They compromised on The Silver Beatles.
Reading this makes me wonder if music history would have been the same if “Johnny and the Moondogs” had kept their name. I don’t know if I would have felt the same way about a group that reminds me of a Beach Blanket movie.