The Beatles auditioned for Decca

The Beatles auditioned for Decca took place on January 1 1962 in the studios of Decca Records in West Hampstead, London . The then unknown Beatles took fifteen songs that the group at that time had in his repertoire. Decca however, decided to enter into a recording contract with The Beatles, but chose Brian Poole and The Tremeloes, on the same day audition did. The rejection is one of the greatest historical mistakes.

Contents

 * The first audition
 * 2 songs
 * 3 The rejection
 * 4 The recordings

The audition
To prepare for the audition came Mike Smith of the Department of A & R for Decca on 13 December 1961 at the Cavern Club in Liverpool to hear the Beatles. Their manager Brian Epstein had invited him. The group consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar), Paul McCartney (bass guitar), George Harrison (lead guitar) and Pete Best (drums).

Smith saw something in the group and arranged an audition on New Year's Day 1962.

On December 31, 1961, Neil Aspinall, the road manager of The Beatles, the four members of the group from Liverpool to London in his van brand Commer . Brian Epstein took his own train. Along the van in a snow storm and moreover touched Aspinall was lost, so that the journey lasted ten hours. Until ten o'clock at night they were in London. When they arrived they saw as John Lennon later told "a bunch of drunks in the fountain at Trafalgar Square jump." [1]

After a night in a hotel they reported the next morning at eleven o'clock at once with Brian Epstein at the Decca Studios. The Beatles were nervous. That Smith was running late and forced them to the amplifiers to work with Decca, because he found their substandard installation, also did not contribute to their self-confidence. The group could play an hour and during that time spent fifteen songs performed that Epstein had selected in advance. Smith made ​​using a mono- tape recorder . Fifteen songs were recorded in one 'take'; nothing was done. Tony Meehan, the former drummer of The Shadows , acted as sound engineer. The group was not at his best during the audition. The vocals sounded sometimes unsteady and the musicians did not always keep size, though they were increasingly on stream towards the end.

After Epstein and his musicians still had the idea that they had made it. He went with them to eat in a restaurant in the district Swiss Cottage and offered them wine. Aspinall then drove the group back to Liverpool.

The numbers
Of the fifteen songs there were only three of the duo Lennon-McCartney . None of the three have The Beatles ever recorded again; or Lennon and McCartney gave permission to others to take them.

The numbers were: Like Dreamers Do was later recorded by The Apple Jacks , Hello Little Girl by The Four Most and Love of the Loved by Cilla Black . The Beatles took Money (That's What I Want) and Till There Was You again in 1963 for their album With the Beatles .
 * 1) Like Dreamers Do (Lennon / McCartney) (singer: McCartney)
 * 2) Money (That's What I Want) (Gordy / Bradford) (singer: Lennon)
 * 3) Till There Was You (Willson) (singer: McCartney)
 * 4) The Sheik of Araby (Smith / Wheeler / Snyder) (singer: Harrison)
 * 5) To Know Her Is to Love Her (Spector) (singer: Lennon)
 * 6) Take Good Care of My Baby (King / Goffin) (singer: Harrison)
 * 7) Memphis, Tennessee (Berry) (singer: Lennon)
 * 8) Sure to Fall (in Love with You) (Perkins / Cantrell / Claunch) (singer: McCartney)
 * 9) Hello Little Girl (Lennon / McCartney) (singer: Lennon)
 * 10) Three Cool Cats (Leiber / Stoller) (singer: Harrison)
 * 11) Crying, Waiting, Hoping (Holly) (singer: Harrison)
 * 12) Love of the Loved (Lennon / McCartney) (singer: McCartney)
 * 13) September in the Rain (Warren / Dubin) (singer: McCartney)
 * 14) Bésame Mucho (Velázquez) (singer: McCartney)
 * 15) Searchin ' (Leiber / Stoller) (singer: McCartney)

The rejection
Together with Dick Rowe (1921-1986), the head of the department of A & R, Mike Smith heard the result. They decided not to go with the Beatles, but opted instead for Brian Poole and The Tremeloes, who had auditioned on the same day. The decisive factor was that the group had as a London base. That made for Decca communication easier than The Beatles with Liverpool as home base.

Only a few weeks later succeeded Brian Epstein managed to get telephone contact with Dick Rowe and he heard a recording contract is not in it. Rowe thereby did the (later notorious) sayings: "Guitar Small groups are on their way out, Mr. Epstein" and "For The Beatles is no future in show business."

Epstein, however, had been given a copy of the tape and could therefore other record companies to bring some leave part of his efforts Beatles to the man. One of the people who got to hear the band, was George Martin at Parlophone . On June 6th 1962 as the group audition will do in the Abbey Road Studios . This time with success, although Martin was not satisfied with the drumming of Pete Best, with the result that it was put in the group.

Incidentally, Brian Poole and The Tremeloes not a bad choice for Decca. They had several hits including Do You Love Me, which first took place in the UK Singles Chart . Dick Rowe contracted a year later, in 1963, but the Rolling Stones, by the intercession of George Harrison . Andrew Oldham, manager of The Stones, said in 2001: "Dick Rowe should not live in the memory as the man who The Beatles rejected, but as the man who reaped the Rolling Stones. "

The recordings
The Beatles songs that had incorporated at Decca, resulted in a plate or not recording, but in the course of the years have surfaced bootlegs on, typically of poor quality. Some records or CDs contain all the Decca recordings, let the other three songs by Lennon and McCartney away. These products bear names like The Decca Tapes of The Lost Decca Sessions. The legal status of The Road to Fame from 1961-1962, 1994, where the Hamburg recordings by The Beatles with Tony Sheridan stand, is also dubious.

On the compilation album Anthology 1 1995 contains five songs of the Decca audition: Bésame Mucho also insists, but this version comes from the audition at Parlophone on June 6, 1962. Pete Best could otherwise share in the proceeds of the album, which earned him several million.
 * Searchin '
 * Three Cool Cats
 * The Sheik of Araby
 * Like Dreamers Do
 * Hello Little Girl

In 2013 released the album I Saw Her Standing There (Rockmelon Music RMMCD101). This is the first legal edition of the ten songs on the Decca audition that are not on Anthology 1. They are combined here with the Hamburg recordings and recordings made ​​at the Cavern Club .

It is unclear where the original band with fifteen shots resides. One suspects in the vaults of Apple Records . In December 2012, an original band 'sold to a Japanese collector for £ 35,000. That band, however, contained only ten songs.