Music: 'The Hamburg Repertoire'

From smoky ballads to red hot ravers, The Beatles played them all — and more — inspired by artists from Dinah Washington to Chet Atkins

However you first became aware of The Beatles music, there are probably a few that know of the group’s multiple trips to Hamburg, Germany. Before the storm of adulation in the UK, before the conquering of the U.S. and then the world, these scrappy upstarts from Merseyside first accepted a do-nothing residency at a hole-in-the-wall club in late summer 1960 in the red-light district known as the Reeperbahn and then, against the odds, proceeded to get their shit together.

The Hamburg Repertoire from el records is a 2CD 67-track collection of the original artists who had their songs covered by The Beatles in the years spanning 1960-1962. When the quintet — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best — arrived in August 1960 for their first go-round, trapped in squalid living conditions and rebuffed by an indifferent and hostile audience who didn’t speak English, they had precious little original material to fall back on.

Possessing zero professionalism and simmering teen angst, they were encouraged to mach schau (“make show”) on a punishing schedule fueled by amphetamines and beer with an eclectic and necessarily diverse playlist of songs to perform for the gangsters, prostitutes, and carousing British sailors who cared little about who was playing the music as long as they could be entertained and buy a few cheap drinks.

The Beatles at The Indra Club, Hamburg. August 17, 1960

---

Interspersed with these 67 songs is a mindset of what the band was capable of learning during those two survival years, even in that first run, cut short by various youthful transgressions, including the now legendary tales of deportation of an underage Harrison, the condom burning from Best and McCartney and in 1961 the end of Sutcliffe’s role as a musician to stay with photographer Astrid Kirchherr.

Several of these covers later became staples in their halcyon days at the Cavern Club, further immortalized on Beatles albums, and sometimes were the go-to’s for nostalgic recordings on British radio programmes, television warm-ups, and later, filming sessions.

Lenny Welch - A taste of honey (1962)/℗© Songfest ASCAP/YouTube

---

Better known for the peppy 1965 instrumental from Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, this version of “A Taste of Honey” is the arrangement McCartney sang towards the end of the Hamburg run at the Star-Club in 1962. With its lyric-less origin beginning in a 1958 British play, it soared in popularity when English clarinetist Acker Bilk recorded it in 1963 in tandem with The Beatles inclusion on their Please Please Me debut. Showcased many times after on multiple Beatles BBC Radio series, McCartney was apparently inspired to write 1967’s “Your Mother Should Know” from the 1961 movie adaptation of the play.

1st RECORDING OF: The Hippy Hippy Shake - Chan Romero (1959)/℗© Bobby Tunes, Inc./YouTube

---

A beloved belter from McCartney, “The Hippy Hippy Shake” dominated the performances not only in the Hamburg days, but onto their radio recordings for the BBC and their “Get Back/Let It Be” sessions. It’s easy to see why in the original 1959 version from American Chan Romero: the hiccup screaming vocal, and stinging lead guitar (courtesy of the legendary Barney Kessell) was the perfect fit for a tight, sexy romp and became a UK Number 2 hit in December 1963 for fellow Liverpudlians The Swinging Blue Jeans.

1958 Eddie Fontaine Nothin’ Shakin’ But The Leaves On The Trees Stereo/℗© Arc Music/YouTube

---

The galloping rhythm of “Nothin’ Shakin’ (But The Leaves On The Trees)” was an unmistakable Hamburg vocal showcase for the young George Harrison, evidenced by its inclusion in the 1963 BBC Light Programme Pop Go the Beatles. While it’s easy to dismiss this straightforward, beat-driven tune, Harrison displayed a wise-beyond-his-years delivery and is frequently cited among ‘Beatleologists’ as the band member who shone the brightest during the ill-fated Decca auditions on January 1, 1962.

---

1st recording of: Dizzy Miss Lizzy - Larry Williams/℗© Venice Music/YouTube

---

From the opening guitar riff, you can visualize Lennon breaking into “Dizzy, Miss Lizzy” with full-force sweat as McCartney banged away at an upright piano off to the side of the stage on any given night in Hamburg. Williams, by 1958, was working his way out of labelmate Little Richard’s shadow as the teenage Quarrymen were riding a wave of post-WWII disenfranchised Brit youth, embracing the whoops, screams, and blazing jump blues that became the embodiment of rock and roll. The Beatles ended up recording “Dizzy, Miss Lizzy” for the Help! soundtrack and “Slow Down” with “Bad Boy” for the American LP Beatles VI, both released in 1965.

At the Top Ten Club, Hamburg, spring 1961. (Colorized)

---

marlene dietrich falling in love again/℗© Friedrich Hollaender/Sammy Lerner/YouTube

---

A match made in heaven. Dietrich’s “Falling in Love Again” from 1930 got the McCartney treatment many a time during those dark German nights inside the Indra, the Kaiserkeller, the Top Ten Club and finally the upscale Star-Club where this tune was captured by Ted “Kingsize” Taylor on a Grundig reel-to-reel recorder with a single microphone during The Beatles last contractual club visit in late 1962.

That time frame was captured on full (with Ringo on drums) and released as a 2LP set in 1977. Legalities and the rough quality have kept the double album legally off-market since 1998 after Apple was able to secure full copyrights. However, word has it that director Peter Jackson has put his machine-learning computations to the source tapes and the public may finally hear a Dietrich-worthy cover from the Liverpool lads.

The Hamburg Repertoire: The Original Classic Recordings of Songs Performed by The Beatles Onstage in Hamburg is available to pre-order from el records and releases January 10 as a 67-track, 2CD set, which includes a 36-page booklet.

---