The first appearance of The Beatles was with the English singer Tony Sheridan, on his record "My Bonnie."

I have an old copy of the American re-issue from 1964, which features the old Hamburg line-up of Stuart Sutcliffe on bass and Pete Best on drums:

I keep it in my office downtown, along with some other sentimental records, my signed copy of the first edition of the 4-Hour Work Week and Sylvia Massy's awesome coffee table tome, "Recording Unhinged."

There's a scene in the movie Backbeat where they're singing the song with Sheridan, and it's one of the movies I used to watch on repeat as a teenager after recording it to VHS from the Icelandic national television station.

I found the record in a random record store in Tucson and I didn't buy it because it's valuable (it's a re-issue and in less-than-stellar condition), but because of what it means.

The Beatles could never have imagined the success they would achieve. And even if they did, I'm sure the sheer weight of those expectations would've crushed them.

Imagine if somebody from the future came to you and told you,

"You'll become the greatest musician the world will ever know. No pressure, but get on that will you?"

So regardless of where you are in your musical journey, whether you're still figuring out how to start or have achieved some success, remember that all great artists start from humble beginnings.