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The Beatles · S4 E2
Brian Epstein
The manager of NEMS record shop on Whitechapel. A customer asks for My Bonnie, Brian goes to the Cavern to investigate, and within weeks he is managing the biggest band in the world
November 9, 1961. A 27-year-old record shop manager in a tailored suit walks down eighteen stone steps into the Cavern Club, and the noise hits him like a wall.
The Beatles, From Me to You (1963). Their first undisputed UK number one, written on a tour bus and delivered to the world by a man who heard something in a cellar that nobody else in the music business could see. This single exists because Brian Epstein refused to take no for an answer.
From Me to You, The Beatles (1963)
John and Paul wrote this on February 28, 1963, on a bus traveling between York and Shrewsbury during the Helen Shapiro package tour. The title came from the NME letters page, headed 'From You to Us,' which they simply flipped. The harmonica intro nods to their debut single, but the songwriting is sharper, more confident: the verse melody climbs where 'Love Me Do' stayed flat. It entered the UK chart at number six and hit number one within two weeks.
Sources
Miles, Barry. "Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now." Henry Holt, 1997.
Lewisohn, Mark. "Tune In." Crown Archetype, 2013.
The Man Who Couldn't Find a Record
Brian Epstein ran NEMS (North End Music Stores) on Whitechapel, the biggest record shop in northern England. He prided himself on being able to source any record a customer wanted. When a teenager named Raymond Jones asked for 'My Bonnie' by the Beatles on October 28, 1961, and Epstein couldn't find it in any catalogue, it ate at him.
Sources
Epstein, Brian. "A Cellarful of Noise." Souvenir Press, 1964.
Lewisohn, Mark. "Tune In." Crown Archetype, 2013.
“There was some indefinable charm there. They were extremely amusing and in a rough 'take it or leave it' way, very attractive.”
— Brian Epstein, A Cellarful of Noise, 1964
NEMS Record Shop, 12-14 Whitechapel, Liverpool
Brian Epstein's record shop, barely 200 yards from the Cavern Club on Mathew Street. The biggest band in the world was playing practically next door, and Epstein had no idea until a customer told him.
TAP TO REVEAL: What made Brian Epstein's first visit to the Cavern so awkward?
Till There Was You, The Beatles (1963)
A show tune from The Music Man, covered by the Beatles on With The Beatles. Brian Epstein hand-picked this song for their record label auditions because it proved they weren't just another loud rock and roll act. Paul's tender vocal and the delicate acoustic guitar work showed a range no other guitar group in Britain could match. This was Epstein's secret weapon.
Till There Was You, The Beatles (1963)
Read the lyrics while you listen. A love song from a 1957 Broadway musical, transformed by Paul McCartney into something so intimate it fooled record executives into thinking the Beatles could do anything. They were right.
What record was Brian Epstein trying to find when he first heard about the Beatles?
Epstein has the contract. He has the band. Now he needs a record label. On January 1, 1962, he drives them through a snowstorm to London for an audition at Decca Records.
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