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The Beatles · S4 E3
The Decca Audition
January 1, 1962. New Year's Day. Brian drives the band to London in a snowstorm. They play fifteen songs for Decca Records. Decca says no. Guitar groups are on the way out
January 1, 1962. A van carrying the Beatles crawls through a New Year's Day snowstorm toward London, the driver lost somewhere in the Midlands, while their entire future hinges on what happens when they finally arrive.
The Beatles, Penny Lane (1967). Paul McCartney's love letter to the Liverpool streets that raised him. Released five years after a London record label looked at four boys from Merseyside and said guitar groups were on the way out.
Penny Lane, The Beatles (1967)
Paul built 'Penny Lane' from real memories of a real street: the barber who shows photographs, the banker with a motorcar, the fireman rushing in from the pouring rain. The piccolo trumpet solo was inspired by Paul hearing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 on the BBC, and George Martin brought in classical trumpeter David Mason to record it. John helped with the lyrics and added the 'blue suburban skies' line. Released as a double A-side with 'Strawberry Fields Forever,' both songs are now considered among the greatest ever recorded.
Sources
Miles, Barry. "Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now." Henry Holt, 1997.
Lewisohn, Mark. "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions." Hamlyn, 1988/2018.
TAP TO REVEAL: What did Decca Records choose instead of the Beatles?
Fifteen Songs, Zero Magic
The Beatles arrive at Decca Studios on the morning of January 1, exhausted and nervous after hours on frozen roads. They play fifteen songs for A&R man Mike Smith in an unfamiliar studio with unfamiliar acoustics, and the magic that fills the Cavern every lunchtime refuses to show up. The tapes survive on Anthology 1: you can hear the stiffness, the over-careful playing, the sound of a band trying too hard to impress instead of just being themselves.
Sources
Lewisohn, Mark. "Tune In." Crown Archetype, 2013.
The Beatles. "Anthology 1." Apple Records, 1995.
“Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein.”
— Attributed to Decca Records executives, January 1962 (as recounted in Brian Epstein, A Cellarful of Noise, 1964)
Decca Recording Studios, West Hampstead, London
165 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead. The studio where the Beatles played fifteen songs on New Year's Day 1962 and were told they had no future. The building still stands.
Misery, The Beatles (1963)
John and Paul wrote 'Misery' during the Helen Shapiro tour in February 1963, hoping Shapiro herself would record it. Her producer turned it down. Another rejection, another door shut in their faces. They kept the song, and the title says everything about how that Decca rejection felt.
Misery, The Beatles (1963)
Read the lyrics while you listen. 'The world is treating me bad, misery.' John and Paul turning rejection into a two-minute pop song, because that's what they do. The best revenge is a number one album.
Who drove the Beatles' equipment van through the snowstorm to the Decca audition?
Every major label in London has said no. Then a tape lands on the desk of George Martin, a classically trained producer at Parlophone who makes comedy records for Peter Sellers, and he hears something that makes him pick up the phone.
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