Hear the 1962 Beatles Demo that Decca Rejected: “Guitar Groups are on Their Way Out, Mr. Epstein”

It’s been called the biggest mis­take in music his­to­ry. On New Year’s Day 1962, Dec­ca Records had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to hear two new bands. One was Bri­an Poole and the Tremeloes. The oth­er was an obscure group from Liv­er­pool called the Bea­t­les. Of course, Dec­ca chose the Tremeloes. “Gui­tar groups are on their way out, Mr. Epstein,” was what the label’s senior A&R man, Dick Rowe, report­ed­ly said to Bea­t­les man­ag­er Bri­an Epstein. The Bea­t­les, who at that time includ­ed Pete Best on drums, record­ed 15 songs on New Year’s Day at the Dec­ca Stu­dios in Lon­don and select­ed 10 for their demo tape. The orig­i­nal 10-song tape (see the hand-writ­ten list of tracks below) will be auc­tioned today in Lon­don. Orga­niz­ers expect it to sell for around $30,000. Despite all the pre-auc­tion hype, the demo tracks them­selves have been around for decades on boot­leg and “grey mar­ket” records. And they’re online. You can lis­ten below and decide for your­self: If you were a record com­pa­ny exec­u­tive, would you have signed the Bea­t­les?

  1. “Like Dream­ers Do” (Lennon-McCart­ney)
  2. “Mon­ey (That’s What I Want)” (Gordy/Bradford)
  3. “Till There Was You” (Mered­ith Will­son)
  4. “The Sheik of Ara­by” (Smith/Wheeler/Snyder)
  5. “To Know Her is to Love Her” (Phil Spec­tor)
  6. “Take Good Care of My Baby” (King/Goffin)
  7. “Mem­phis, Ten­nessee” (Chuck Berry)
  8. “Sure to Fall (In Love with You)” (Cantrell/Claunch/Perkins)
  9. “Hel­lo Lit­tle Girl” Lennon-McCart­ney)
  10. “Three Cool Cats” (Leiber/Stoller)
  11. “Cry­ing, Wait­ing, Hop­ing” (Bud­dy Hol­ly)
  12. “Love of the Loved” (Lennon-McCart­ney)
  13. “Sep­tem­ber in the Rain” (Warren/Dubin)
  14. “Bésame Mucho” (Con­sue­lo Velásquez)
  15. “Searchin’ ” (Leiber/Stoller)

Relat­ed con­tent:

The Mak­ing of the Bea­t­les Song ‘Tomor­row Nev­er Knows’

‘Here Comes the Sun’: The Lost Gui­tar Solo by George Har­ri­son

The ‘Straw­ber­ry Fields For­ev­er’ Demos: The Mak­ing of a Bea­t­les Clas­sic


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Comments (10)
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  • Sam says:

    Nah… THey were right.. The Bea­t­les were just a fad !!!!

  • hefty j says:

    I guess this set of “songs” will now be released in Mono Stereo CD Blu­Ray DVD Elpee cas­sette and 8track so all the yup­pies can ful­fill their wet dreams. Nice.

  • Kevin says:

    In the guy’s defense, there’s noth­ing real­ly out­stand­ing that I heard. They sound­ed just like every oth­er band that want­ed to be Elvis at that point.

  • zoyelque says:

    @Kevin,Except that there were No Bands doing what they were doing until they arise to fame,what a coin­ci­dence that every oth­er band start­ed after they The Bea­t­les start­ed the British inva­tion.

  • Michael says:

    Dec­ca did the world a big big favour by turn­ing them down, else they would have released this and then have been for­got­ten. Now they were instead forced to put their act togeth­er and they found George Mar­tin who shaped their music.
    Thank you Dec­ca

  • Rab says:

    So what was the Dec­ca album ‘The Sil­ver Bea­t­les’, and where did that fit in? It was

  • Rab says:

    …it was main­ly rock­’n’roll cov­ers.

  • Bob Ludwig says:

    That can’t be the orig­i­nal tape box.
    Dec­ca would have record­ed it FULL-track mono, not 2‑track mono. More impor­tant­ly the Dolby‑A Noise Reduc­tion Sys­tem was not invent­ed until 1966!

  • Robert Gruner W. says:

    I total­ly agree with what Michael says.. Dec­ca did the world a big big favour by turn­ing them down, else they would have released this and then have been for­got­ten. Now they were instead forced to put their act togeth­er and they found George Mar­tin who shaped their music.
    Thank you Dec­ca..
    Excel­lent com­ment..

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