Re -Train Your Brain To Happiness: For Sale: Beatles Recording That Led To The Biggest Mistake In Music History

George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Pete Best and John Lennon playing at the Cavern club in Liverpool circa 1961.

This picture from an old EP I have showing Tony Meehan on the drums.

Oh dear! Luckily someone used their brains eventually!

I also noticed the mention of the late Tony Meehan as a producer for Decca Records.

He was the drummer in Cliff Richard’s first band “The Drifters” who later became “The Shadows”. Obviously Decca didn’t get the deal.

I still have all my VERY old early Beatles recordings on vinyl, and they are on the Parlophone label.

by Simon de Bruxelles

FIFTY-ONE years after a record company executive turned down the Beatles because "guitar groups are on the way out", the demo tape made by the world's most successful pop group has come to light.

A Decca A&R man, Dick Rowe, passed on the band and signed the Tremeloes instead, a decision described as the biggest mistake in the history of music. The recording may have failed to impress Decca but it won the Beatles a contract with EMI and a ticket to superstardom.

It has emerged for sale just over half a century since it was recorded, on New Year's Day 1961, with three of the Fab Four.

Shortly after signing with EMI the original drummer Pete Best, who played on the demo, was sacked and replaced by Ringo Starr.

The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, held on to the tape he had paid to make and later gave it to an executive associated with EMI. It was sold privately in 2002 to a dealer in rock memorabilia who is now selling it with a pre-auction estimate of 30,000 pounds ($46,000).

Bootleg versions of the recording session at the Decca studios in West Hampstead, London, have been circulating among collectors for years but few if any have heard the original "pristine" master tapes. Sadly for the purchaser the tapes do not come with any rights to the 13 tracks on the recording.

Ted Owen, the managing director of the Fame Bureau, which is selling the demo tape in London on November 27, said: "Apple, the company set up by the Beatles, holds the copyright to their voices and if anyone tried to release the material without their permission they would certainly be sued."

The band made the recording after a ten-hour drive from Liverpool to London when the driver got lost.

The following day they were auditioned by the Decca producer Tony Meehan.

Epstein chose ten covers the Beatles had previously performed including Money (That's What I Want), Like Dreamers Do, Take Good Care of my Baby, and Crying, Waiting, Hoping. The sale also includes a photographic negative of the band that they took with them to use for an album cover.

The rejection may have gone down in history but it did little harm to Rowe's career.

He made amends by signing the Rolling Stones for Decca. Rowe died in 1986.

Mr Owen said that he based his estimate on prices realised by other unreleased tapes by artists including Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix.

He said: "This has never officially been released. It is unique and the sound quality is crystal clear. We have spoken to various experts and this is the best quality recording of this session there is."

With many thanks to News Limited – The Australian - for the article and top picture.

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Lifetime Achievement Award for Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr At 2014 Grammys

George Harrison and Ringo Starr - It Don't come Easy

For sale: Beatles recording that led to the biggest mistake in music history

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