The Beatles famous audition for Decca Records took place in London on New Year’s Day in 1962. The session followed the label’s A&R representative Mike Smith’s attendance at a Cavern performance on December 13, 1961. The Beatles’ performance that night hadn’t been strong enough to secure them a record deal, but the label was willing to offer them a session at their studios in London.

The group – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best – travelled down from Liverpool on New Year’s Eve with driver and roadie Neil Aspinall. Beset by snowstorms, and after getting lost, the party eventually arrived, “just in time to see the drunks jumping into the Trafalgar Square fountain”, as Lennon described it. Memphis, Tennessee was one of the 15 songs the group recorded for Decca. The entire session took roughly an hour and the majority of songs were likely to have been recorded in a single take without overdubs.

The group didn’t perform at their best and the label used the now infamous phrase, that “guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein”, to provide a polite rejection. However, the Decca audition tapes did prove fortunate for The Beatles. Had they signed to Decca, their career may never have involved Ringo Starr, who joined the group only after George Martin accepted an audition for Parlophone at Abbey Road Studios but he expressed concerns about Pete Best’s drumming.

In 1976 Deccagone Records released 14 of the 15 tracks recorded in 1962 in various colored vinyl with attractive picture sleeves but not from the era when the songs were recorded.

Various Sources