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Swanee River

Written by Stephen Foster
(c. 1851) 1

Recording Details

Studio Rahlstedt, Hamburg
Recorded: 24 May 1962, 7 Jun 1962

John: backing vocal?, guitar?
Paul: backing vocal?, bass
George: backing vocal?, guitar?
Pete: drums
Roy Young: piano?
Tony Sheridan: lead vocal

The Beatles recorded two instrumental backing tracks in Hamburg with producer Bert Kaempfert on 24 May 1962.2 This is possibly the most pointless Beatles studio session since by this time they had been offered a recording contract with EMI and this Hamburg session was only needed to fulfil contractual obligations to Kaempfert. Once again, they were serving as the backing band to Tony Sheridan but, since he didn’t attend this session, the five musicians present were John, Paul, George, Pete, and Top Ten/Star Club pianist Roy Young. Sheridan then recorded his vocals later on 7 June. Both songs were likely recorded live to twin-track.

Kaempfert’s song choices were Sweet Georgia Brown and Swanee River which is odd since Tony Sheridan was just about to release both songs on his My Bonnie LP (recorded in December 1961 with a different band)3 so there was seemingly no need to re-record them. Stranger still, this newer Beatles version of Swanee River was lost before it was ever released and this version of Sweet Georgia Brown is also surprisingly difficult to find.

Instruments

Assuming everything was the same for Swanee River as for Sweet Georgia Brown then John likely played his 1958 Rickenbacker 325 Capri with Bigsby vibrato, Paul certainly would have played his 1961 Höfner 500/1, and Pete would have played all or part of his 1960 Premier Marine Pearl kit. George may have also played his 1957 Gretsch PX6128 Duo Jet with Gretsch Bigsby vibrato. Presumably, Roy Young would have played piano and some combination of John, Paul and George would probably have provided backing vocals. Without a recording to listen to for reference we’ll never know the exact details.

Releases Overview

This version of Swanee River was lost before it was ever released. The other version recorded in December 1961 which was released in 1962 does not feature The Beatles despite sources which may say otherwise.

References:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Folks_at_Home ↩︎
  2. Lewisohn, Mark, 2013, Tune In (pp. 653-655)
    Hammack, Jerry, 2017, TBRRM: Vol 1 (pp. 24-25) ↩︎
  3. Krasker, Eric, 2002, The Bear Family Polydor Box Set:
    Is It Really The Final Word?     https://beatles.ncf.ca/krasker2.html ↩︎