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