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Confessions of a Fifth Beatle

Rock’s Most Famous Combo Could Have Been John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Tony.

 

Tony Sheridan almost sailed on the Yellow Submarine. He could have been one of the beautiful people. He almost joined The Beatles.

 

The Fab Four might have become the Fab Five, had Sheridan decided back in 1961 to go to Liverpool. But he decided to stay in Hamburg, Germany, with his girlfriend, playing local gigs, mostly in the red-light district.

 

"Paul asked me to go. We were pals. But I had a life here in Germany", says Sheridan. "I was doing very well". These days, the British-born singer is living pretty much the same life he did back then, playing to small audiences, and recording from time to time. The leather biker outfits have been mothballed. After all, he’s a grandfather.

 

But he’s stayed loyal to the rhythm and blues roots that drew him and The Beatles together as greaser teenagers in the early 1960s. The Beatles have frequently recalled Sheridan fondly, although they have never said how close he was to joining the group.

 

With the re-release of ‘Yellow Submarine’, Sheridan says he’s still friends with the surviving Beatles and doesn’t think much about what could have been. "I’m 59, I’ve had five wives and four children", Sheridan says. "I can only imagine what would have happened to me if I hit the limelight".

 

Sheridan has certainly handled losing his ticket to ride The Beatles rocket to fame much better than Pete Best, who toiled as The Beatles drummer through their Hamburg days, only to be replaced days after the group signed with EMI Records in 1962. The drummer tried to capitalize on his name, releasing an album of Beatles covers deceptively titled ‘Best of The Beatles’. But his success was commensurate with his talent.

 

If nothing else, ‘The Pete Best Combo: Best’ (Music Club), explains why Ringo’s a star. The Wolf Files called Best for an interview and he snapped, "How much will you pay?" and hung up when offered nothing more than gratitude.

 

Like Best, Sheridan never made it big. But where would The Beatles be without him? When they were living on corn flakes and jelly beans, hoping not to be deported back to Liverpool because they were under age, Sheridan gave them a job as his back-up group.

 

"At that time, my career was much further along", Sheridan says. "Polydor wanted to record me. I had no backing group, so I asked for The Beatles".

 

This was no dream gig. The Beatles took home $52 for three days work. Worst of all, the first cut was a rock ’n’ roll version of ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’. Embarrassing, perhaps. But this was The Beatles first paid recording gig. "We cut this for German teenyboppers and made the best of it," Sheridan says. "George Harrison put a very nice lead guitar on, and it rocked".

 

Beatles historians will note that it was only after some Liverpool kids started asking for ‘My Bonnie’ that record store owner Brian Epstein became the group’s manager, transforming them from a gruff pub band to a polished act. As one of his first moves, Epstein had to undo the contract The Beatles signed for the Sheridan sessions, which calling on the Fab Four to deliver four new songs for the German market in 1962. In one of the great miscalculations of all time, record executive Berthold Kaempfert laughed him off.

 

Kaempfert told British music magazine Melody Maker: "One day, Brian Epstein wrote to me asking under what conditions I’d release The Beatles. I said there are no conditions, you can take them. Polydor didn’t want them. They were only interested in Sheridan".

 

And now Tony Sheridan laughs. "It’s nice to know someone has faith in you", he says, pointing out that Kaempfert isn’t exactly one of those producers who could be accused of having a tin ear. He is credited with composing ‘Strangers In The Night’, one of Frank Sinatra’s biggest hits.

 

These days, Sheridan only plays ‘My Bonnie’ when the audience begs. ‘Yesterday’ is part of his repertoire. But he leaves the other Beatles stuff aside. "Why try to improve on it?" he says. "They did what they did so well". He says he met up with Ringo back stage at one of his shows a few months ago. "He ran by, gave me a hug and ran out", he says.

 

It was Sheridan who brought Starr to Hamburg, where he met the other Beatles and eventually joined the group, replacing Best.

 

"People call me a footnote in history", he says. "But you never expect to play a small part in something so big. I just tried to keep rockin’".

 

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