Upon first reading Mark Lewisohn's THE COMPLETE BEATLES CHRONICLE several years ago, I wondered if a similar trek to Hamburg might be necessary to uncover a "missing" Beatles recording.  Lewisohn states that a recording session with Tony Sheridan in the Spring of 1962 produced "Sweet Georgia Brown" and another song.  (Mark Lewisohn, THE COMPLETE BEATLES CHRONICLE, page 70.) 

Lewisohn was unable to conclusively identify the song, or any record in which it appears.  As a hopelessly addicted Beatles completist, the thought of a missing Beatles song sent me into a panic.  I needed it in my collection.

Now, after four years hunting for the missing song, I can finally rest easy.  The song does not exist.  While it appears that the Beatles did record a second song with Tony Sheridan at that Spring 1962 recording session, the evidence is overwhelming that the recording was never commercially released.  Furthermore, it will never be released, as the original tape, itself, is no longer in existence.

It is well known among Beatles collectors that the group recorded at least eight songs for Bert Kaempfert of Polydor Records in Hamburg prior to their EMI contract.  Two of the songs, "Ain't She Sweet" and "Cry For A Shadow" were recorded by the Beatles, alone.  The other six songs, "My Bonnie", "The Saints", "Why", "Take Out Some Insurance On Me Baby" (also known as "If You Love Me Baby"), "Nobody's Child" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" were recordings of the Beatles backing-up English vocalist Tony Sheridan.  "My Bonnie" and "The Saints" were released as a single in Germany in 1961, which Polydor originally credited to "Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers."  Over the ensuing years, all eight songs have been reissued on numerous occasions with the performance credit for the six Tony Sheridan tracks subsequently listed as "The Beatles with Tony Sheridan."   

Of the eight known Polydor recordings, seven of them were recorded over a four day period in June of 1961.  (Hans Olof Gottfridsson, "THE BEATLES FROM CAVERN TO STAR-CLUB," page 75-79.) The eighth, "Sweet Georgia Brown" was recorded nearly a year later. According to Lewisohn, the Beatles were bound to a recording contract with Polydor producer Bert Kaempfert at the time of their discovery by Brian Epstein, and Kaempfert would only agree to release them from that contract if they agreed to record two more songs for him when they returned to Hamburg in the Spring of 1962. That Hamburg recording session, which Lewisohn set as taking place sometime during the third week of April, produced "Sweet Georgia Brown" and one other song.  (Lewisohn, page 70.)

Gottfridsson confirms Lewisohn's assertion that Kaempfert required the Beatles to participate in a Spring 1962 recording session before he would release them from his contract.  He also confirms that this recording session produced both "Sweet Georgia Brown" and one other song.  However, Gottfridsson disagreed with Lewisohn on a minor detail.  With access to some of Polydor's studio documentation, Gottfridsson is able to establish the date of that session as May 24, 1962, rather than in April.  (Gottfridsson, page 98.)

      

   The second song recorded in this new session was      either "Swanee River" (as reported in MERSEY BEAT in      May 1962) or "Skinny Minny" (as reported by Pete Best      in his biography BEATLE!), neither of which is included      on the supposedly complete 1984 CD.  The backing on      "Skinny Minny" does not sound like the Beatles' at all;      the backing on "Swanee River" does -- except, that is,      for a saxophone break which may well have been overdubbed      later, perhaps at the same time that Sheridan re-recorded      his lead vocal for "Sweet Georgia Brown", in early 1964.
(Lewisohn, page 70.)

    

The identity of the "missing" song bothered me.  If Lewisohn could not identify it, how could I be sure to include it in my collection.  The 1996 New York Beatlefest offered me an occasion to personally ask Tony Sheridan about the recording.  However, Sheridan denied that such a song existed.  His response led me to believe that he didn't understand my query, but the question and answer format of Beatlefest did not give me ample opportunity to clarify what I was asking.  I walked away from Beatlefest disappointed and as confused as ever.  However, with the publication of Gottfridsson's book, new light has finally been shed on the "missing" song.

While Gottfridsson concedes that Pete Best remembers the session as having produced "Skinny Minny", he makes a strong argument that Best's memory is faulty.  [In another instance, Gottfridsson shows that Best's recollection of having received a copy of the "My Bonnie" single before returning to Liverpool in July of 1961 is erroneous, as the record was not released until October.  (Gottfridsson, page 89.)]  Rather, Gottfridsson relies on the memory of recording technician Gunther Sorensen, who has vivid memories of the Beatles recording "Swanee River" the same day they recorded "Sweet Georgia Brown."  More conclusive is the recording schedule or "Aufnahme-Planung" that Gottfridsson found in Polydor's archives stating the two songs recorded at this session were "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Swanee River."  (Gottfridsson, page 99.)

Having established that the ninth song the Beatles recorded for Polydor is "Swanee River," the next step was to seek out a copy of the recording.  This proved easier than I expected.  In fact, a copy of the recording is featured on "The Hamburg Twist", a bonus Polydor EP (Polydor  NCB 240 003) which is included in Gottfridsson's book.  A quick search of my record collection found that I also had two other records in my possession that contained this song, an 1964 American album entitled THE BEATLES WITH TONY SHERIDAN AND GUESTS FEATURING MY BONNIE (MGM E4215) and a late 1980s German album entitled TONY SHERIDAN VOL. 1 THE SINGLES 1961- 1964 (Star Club Records  LP 841 141-1).  All these records contained the same recording (although the bonus EP was in stereo).

However, the mystery does not end here.  Gottsfridsson's book indicates that Tony Sheridan made two recordings of "Swanee River", one in December of 1961 when the Beatles were back home in Liverpool and one, presumably, in May of 1962 with the Beatles as his back-up group.  Furthermore, Gottfridsson reports that all known releases of this song are from the same recording.  It is just not known which recording session the released version came from.  (Gottfridsson, page 104.)  That is as far as Gottfridsson was willing to take the mystery.  The Beatles recorded "Swanee River", and either the version on the record is the Beatles or it is not.  "Listen for yourself...and be your own judge!"  (Ibid.)

Although Gottfridsson does not attempt to confirm whether the existing recording of "Swanee River" is or is not the Beatles, there appears to be ample evidence to solve this mystery in his own book.  The first piece of evidence is found in what Gottfridsson knows about Tony Sheridan's December 1961 recording session.

Sheridan recorded 10 songs for Bert Kaempfert in Hamburg on December 21, 1961.  As the Beatles were back in Liverpool, a different group of musicians were used as his back-up group.  They were Roy Young on piano, Colin Melander on bass, Ricki Barnes on saxophone and either Jimmy Doyle or Johnny Watson on drums. (Gottfridsson, page 94.)  I think the key here is Ricki Barnes. The only known recording of "Swanee River" contains a saxophone break, and low and behold, a saxophone player was there at the December 1961 recording of the song!  That alone should be enough to cast suspicion on the theory that the existing recording is by the Beatles.

Lewisohn suggests that the sax could have been overdubbed when Sheridan re-recorded the words to "Sweet Georgia Brown." (Lewisohn, page 70.)   Sheridan's re-working of the lyrics to "Sweet Georgia Brown" took place in January 1964.  (Gottfridsson, page 101.)  However, the first known release of "Swanee River" was on Tony Sheridan's "MY BONNIE" album (Polydor LPHM 46 612), which was released in Germany in June of 1962.  This effectively refutes Lewisohn's explanation.  Furthermore, Sheridan re-recorded the lyrics of "Sweet Georgia Brown" in order to include several Beatles references.  "Swanee River" was not given the same treatment. Gottfridsson suggests that a sax player, perhaps Ricki Barnes, could have been involved in the Beatles May 1962 recording session. (Gottfridsson, page 104).  This is plausible, as apparently Roy Young played the piano on the Beatles May 1962 recording of "Sweet Georgia Brown."  However, if Barnes, or another sax player, was on hand at that recording session, why didn't he play on "Sweet Georgia Brown", as well?  By virtue of the saxophone's presence, it seems much more likely that the known recording of "Swanee River" is from the December 1961 non-Beatles recording session, rather than the May 1962 Beatles recording session of the song.

The roster of other songs recorded by Tony Sheridan without the Beatles in December 1961 seems to also confirm that the only known recording of "Swanee River" comes from this session.  In addition to "Swanee River", the other songs were "Sweet Georgia Brown", "Skinny Minny", "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On", "I Know, Baby", "You Are My Sunshine", "Ready Teddy", Hallelujah, I Love Her So", "Let's Twist Again", and "Top Ten Twist."  (Gottfridsson, page 93).  As was said above, "Swanee River" was first released on a Tony Sheridan album called MY BONNIE, which was released in Germany in June 1962.  The album contained six songs on each side, the first of which came from Sheridan (and the Beatles) 1961 single "My Bonnie" b/w "The Saints."  The other 10 songs included on this album were the same 10 songs recorded at Sheridan's December 1961 non-Beatles recording session.   It seems unlikely that Polydor would use nine songs from session and a 10th from another.

It is even more unlikely that the version of "Swanee River" found on the MY BONNIE album is the Beatles version of that song when one considers that the album was released only one month (or less) after the Beatles' May 24th recording session.  It is unlikely that Kaempfert could have had the track prepared for inclusion on an album that quickly, especially as "Sweet Georgia Brown", the other song from the session, was first released on a German Tony Sheridan EP entitled "Ya Ya" in October 1962, five months after the song was recorded.

Thus, while it seems that the Beatles did record "Swanee River" for a Bert Kaempfert recording session, that recording was never released to the world.  Is it locked in a vault, waiting to be released in the future?  No!  Gottfridsson reports that the Beatles were under contract to Kaempfert Productions and not Polydor.  Kaempfert turned over the finished recordings to Polydor, but he retained possession of any alternate takes, sound checks, unreleased recordings, and the like.  Furthermore, Kaempfert's copies no longer exist.  His widow told Tony Sheridan that all his recordings were destroyed in a fire.  ("The Beatles Unlimited" (1984), No. 57, page 12, cited in Gottfridsson, page 105.)

Therefore, the quest for the "missing" Beatles recording can now end.  That is, unless, like Sidney Greenstreet in "The Maltese Falcon", one is never willing to abandon the search for "the stuff that dreams are made of."  Perhaps Pete Best's assertion that the song was "Skinny Minny" is worthy of further investigation....