The Beatles

Musiker-Gewälten vom 27.5. – 2.6.61, [“Musicians managed from 27 May – 2 June 1961”], 1 page of graph paper (11 5/8 x 8 ½ in.), written in a German secretary hand, signed “George Harrison,” “Paul McCartney,” “John Lennon,” “Stuart Sutcliffe,” “Peter Best,” and “Rosi Heitmann” [for Tony Sheridan in absentia], check marks in left margin, numeral “389” in red ink in upper right corner, and notation in lower margin.

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A wonderful relic of the Beatles second trip to Hamburg, a 13-week stay at Peter Eckhorn’s Top Ten Club on the Reeperbahn in the St. Pauli red-light district. They took the stage on 1 April 1961 for a grueling schedule, requiring them to be on stage from 7 PM to 2 AM Monday through Friday, and from 7 PM to 3 AM on weekends with 15-minute breaks each hour. Their salary was DM35 per bandmember per day for a total of DM245 each week. It was during this visit that The Beatles made their first professional recordings backing Tony Sheridan for the German label Polydor including the singles “My Bonnie,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” and “Cry for a Shadow.”

At the end of each week, the band, plus Tony Sheridan, was presented with a single handwritten pay receipt that they were required to sign in order to get paid. Thirteen of these receipts were created, one for each week of their contract. The present example is signed by all five original Beatles. While there is space for Tony Sheridan to sign, his space is signed by his second wife Rosi Heitmann. The receipt lists their names, their daily pay rate, their weekly totals, and what was taken for income tax (“lohnsteuer”), leaving them with DM221.81 each, save for Sheridan who had a higher tax rate, and so was left with less (DM 210.61).

Hamburg was the place where The Beatles really learned to play. As Sheridan recalled, "If you play 'Blue Suede Shoes' 2,000 times, you have got to find ways to do it differently - you put in sevenths and ninths and elevenths. That is what Hamburg can do for you ..." (quoted by Spencer Leigh in his obituary for Sheridan in The Independent, 18 February 2013).