In the Beginning (Circa 1960)

Released in 1970 (Polydor 24-4504), this album is little more than a reissue of the 1964 album The Beatles' First for the U.S. market under a different title. The Beatles' First was, itself, a derivation of the Tony Sheridan album My Bonnie credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers recorded in 1961 in Hamburg, Germany on which John, Paul and George served as Sheridan's backup band on at least some of the recorded tracks.

The title is a bit misleading as there was never really an outfit called The Beatles featuring Tony Sheridan. In fact, though the Beatles went under the moniker "The Beat Brothers", this was not a name used exclusively by the Beatles, but rather a moniker they temporarily adopted at the insistance of others in order to band-up with Tony Sheridan in Germany.

The album was late to the United States due to various mergers and auctions taking place in the recording industry at the time. The material was originally split between Atco Records and MGM Records. MGM was thereafter merged into Polydor which didn't establish a U.S. distribution arm until 1969.

The album is noteworthy for its timing, having been released only four days before The Beatles' final album, Let It Be, making it the last Beatles compilation released while the band was - at least officially - still together.

The later CD version, was released without the erroneous (Circa 1960) claim as part of the title and including an extended version of the song "Ya Ya" - a song on which The Beatles likely didn't play on.

This collection of songs is the only version that were not owned by EMI which, perhaps, explains why there are so many derivations of the album. Identical versions of the album were also released earlier in Canada with the title Very Together in 1969 and later as The Beatles in Hamburg in New Zealand. Polydor also released another nearly identical version of the album in 1984 as The Early Tapes of The Beatles.