...and The Beatles were born

A bootleg made in Brazil

I was at a used records shop, doing my research on the old Beatles' releases, when I found, among several other legitimate Beatles' albums, a strange LP: the sleeve (recreated here) was completely red, with the title "THE BEATLES" in the middle of the cover, and other inscriptions. Its title, as written on the label, was ...and The Beatles were born...
On the back cover, a small text in Portuguese, printed in typewriter-like letters. It was (allegedly) written by Big Boy, a famous Brazilian DJ of the seventies (owner of one of the largest records collection in the world). This text says that, although the album looked like a bootleg, it was legitimatelly released by Napoleon, an Italian recording factory. The text also tells those were songs taken from the material recorded by The Beatles with Tony Sheridan, in Hamburg, between 1960-1961. In addition, the LP labels register "The Beatles and Tony Sheridan" as the artist.

Here are the original sleevenotes in Portuguese, and my translation into English.

Even if the real Big Boy have written them, the notes certainly don't tell the truth! Of course, it IS a bootleg, since it is not made neither by EMI nor by Polydor (the legitimate owner of Tony Sheridan recordings).

According to Jan van der Knaap from Netherlands, who owns a copy of the original Italian issue, the songs on side B, claimed to be the Tony Sheridan songs, are actually performed by a "late 60's" group that seems to be The Who! On this side, there are no credits for composers.
He also says that the Beatles songs sound just like the versions on the album Live at the Hollywood Bowl, with some differences: the poorer sound quality, there aren't edits between tracks, and there is an extra song: You Can't Do That. Both Twist and Shout tracks are actually the same recording. The Italian issue doesn't have any liner notes.

The year of release is unknown, although it was probably before 1977, when the Hollywood Bowl were legitemately released.

The album, although, was made by an established record factory, CID (Companhia Industrial de Discos). This company usually issues low cost records, as instrumental albums of unknown orchestras.

The Tracks:

Side One:

  1. Boys
  2. A Hard Day's Night
  3. Long Tall Sally
  4. Twist and Shout
  5. You Can't Do That
  6. Medley: All My Loving / Twist and Shout

Side Two:

  1. Did He Want
  2. Moonshine
  3. She Got Soul
  4. Call Your Love
  5. Lover Melody
  6. The Dirty Old City MG Driver
  7. Soon Be Home
  8. Tchao

Catalog number: Napoleon NLP 11044

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