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Credit: Far Out \/ Decca Records<\/p>\n
October 25th, 2026 \u00b7 9:30pm GMT <\/p>\n
There was no record label as sore as Decca<\/a> back in 1962.<\/p>\n You gotta feel for \u2018em. Nobody was expecting Merseybeat to travel any great distance beyond England\u2019s North West; The Beatles were a respectable live outfit, counting hundreds of live shows under their belt, enjoying a fervent Hamburg following owing to their repeated club residencies in the German city, and beloved as Liverpool\u2019s premier beat group.<\/p>\n Yet, according to Decca, \u201cguitar groups are on the way out\u201d and \u201cthe Beatles have no future in show business\u201d. That was the response the band and manager Brian Epstein received from the label bigwigs after an audition at their London studios on New Year\u2019s Day 1962. Driven down to West Hampstead by road manager Neil Aspinall, the Beatles, with Pete Best still on drums, performed a test run of songs selected by Epstein, Fab Four historian Mark Lewisohn positing that the setlist included cuts by Buddy Holly, The Coasters, Chuck Berry, and even a few numbers from their Silver Beetles days.<\/p>\n There\u2019s been much speculation regarding Decca\u2019s rejection, from the simple fact that the Beatles just weren\u2019t especially remarkable on that day, or failing to capture that Cavern Club energy<\/a> that won them the invite down to the label\u2019s in-house studio. Decca\u2019s spectacularly wrong prediction that guitars had no future in the charts was reinforced by the artists packing their roster, business largely concerned with classical LPs, easy listening, and a select handful of teen idols like Billy Fury.<\/p>\n Such a quip has also been suspected as a white lie. Decca were absolutely on the hunt for \u201cguitar groups,\u201d signing up local lads Brian Poole and the Tremeloes after showing the Beatles the door. The Tremeloes won Decca a few Top Tens, but it wasn\u2019t exactly Beatlemania.<\/p>\n Decca were hurt. The Beatles were well on their way to conquering the nation; their second single, \u2018Please Please Me\u2019, nabbed number two, and the \u2018From Me To You\u2019 follow-up smashed the top spot. Loose talks had been had with Parlophone before even the Decca audition, but the Beatles\u2019 first proper session with EMI arrived in June 1962 with George Martin in the producer\u2019s chair, and their dazzling run of albums followed.<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t gonna make the same mistake again. When another \u201cguitar group\u201d by the name of The Rolling Stones sought a record contract, Decca nearly took their arm off. It was a sweet deal. Off the bat, the Stones were given the OK for high royalty rates, artistic control, ownership of the master tapes, and the luxury of recording outside the Decca Studio. While they missed out on the Fab Four, they won a more than respectable near decade\u2019s worth of smash singles and mammoth LPs with the Stones before the 1970s arrived.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Decca then went on a mad rush to sign any rock band they could, grabbing The Moody Blues, Small Faces, and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, and later forming the progressive sub-label Deram Records, scooping up Cat Stevens, Procol Harum and an early David Bowie.<\/p>\n Lesson well and truly learned. The original Decca Beatles sessions would eventually resurface: \u2018Searchin\u2019\u2019, \u2018Three Cool Cats\u2019, \u2018The Sheik of Araby\u2019, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney\u2019s \u2018Like Dreamers Do\u2019 and \u2018Hello Little Girl\u2019 seeing the official light of day on 1995\u2019s Anthology 1 compilation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n