The Beatles bootleg recordings at the club. Eventually Taylor sold the tapes, which formed the basis of the double album "Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962", released in 1977 by Lingasong Records. The liner notes for the initial release falsely implied that the recordings had been made in the spring of 1962, prior to the Beatles' EMI contract, on a night when Ringo Starr happened to be sitting in for Pete Best. In commentary for a lawsuit to block the album's release, John Lennon wrote, "the sleeve note, apart from being inaccurate, seems to have been written with a court case in
Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 Paul Murphy and subjected to extensive audio processing to improve the sound, leading to the 1977 album. Although the poor sound quality limits its commercial appeal, the album provides historic insight into the group's club act in the period after Ringo Starr joined but before the emergence of Beatlemania. The Beatles were unsuccessful in legally blocking the initial release of the album; the recordings were reissued in many forms until 1998, when the group were awarded full rights to the performances. The Beatles' five residencies in Hamburg during 1960 to 1962 allowed the Liverpool band to develop their performance skills