Tony Sheridan
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.
For other people named Tony Sheridan, see Tony Sheridan (disambiguation)."The Teacher"[edit]
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."[43]
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."[44]
"Tony was the Star in "Star-Club", His Name will live forever." - Ted "Kingsize" Taylor[45]
Personal life[edit]
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.[46] 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.