"My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean", or simply "My Bonnie", is a traditional Scottish folk song that is popular in Western culture. It is listed in Roud Folk Song Index as No. 1422. The song has been recorded by numerous artists since the beginning of the 20th century, and many parody versions also exist. The best known recording of the song may be a rock n' roll version titled "My Bonnie" by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, recorded in the first ever commercial recording session that featured the Beatles, and the resulting single is generally regarded as the Beatles' first single. History Although the song's origin is uncertain, its original subject could be Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie'): after the defeat of the Prince at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and his subsequent exile, his Jacobite supporters could have sung this song or one like it in his honour; and thanks to the ambiguity of the term "Bonnie", which can refer to a woman as well as to a man, they could pretend it was a love song. In 1881, under the duo of pseudonyms H. J. Fuller and J. T. Wood, Charles E. Pratt published sheet music for "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me". Theodore Raph in his 1964 book American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites, writes that people were requesting the song at sheet music stores in the 1870s, and Pratt was convinced to publish a version of it under the pseudonyms, and the song became a big hit, especially popular with college singing groups but also popular for all group singing situations. Another song from the English tradition titled "My Barney Lies over the Ocean" has a slightly different melody, and it is said to be an antecedent of "My Bonnie". In the liner notes for 1975 album "For Pence and Spicy Ale" where the English traditional singing group The Watersons recorded a version, the musicologist A. L. Lloyd says about "My Barney": "A stage song favoured by Irish comedians from the 1860s on. During the 1880s, apparently on American university campuses, close harmony groups remade it into the better-known—and even more preposterous—'My Bonny Lies over the Ocean'. Watersons had this from Bob Davenport who learnt it from a Frank Quinn 78." Early recordings Many early recordings were recorded under the title "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me", such as the 1901 recording released by the