Tony Sheridan, the singer best known for handing The Beatles their first professional recording session in the early Sixties, has died at the age of 72.
The family of Sheridan broke the news on Facebook over the weekend with a short message that read: “Our beloved father and friend! Thank you for your love and inspiration. You left us today at 12.00 pm.”
It was during The Beatles’ stay at the Top Ten club in Hamburg when Sheridan, a fellow resident at the venue, recruited the band to back him for a recording session at the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle on behalf of the German Polydor Records label.
The resultant track ‘My Bonnie‘ was released in October 1961 under the banner Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, and marks the first time The Beatles, albeit under a label-assumed name, had been committed to tape.
While it is his association with The Beatles that he will always be best remembered by, Sheridan enjoyed sporadic success in his own right with a series of releases during subsequent decades. His last album, ‘Vagabond‘, was released in 2002.