His resume includes comprehensive releases on their concert performances (“The Beatles Live!”) and studio work (“The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions”), for which he was given a Beatle obsessive’s dream job, getting paid by EMI Records to enter the inner sanctum of the Abbey Road studio and listen to the band’s recordings. Hundreds of books have been written about the band, but none with such care and authority as those by the 58-year-old British author. Ultimately, the song was released by Epstein’s other band, The Fourmost, in 1963.NEW YORK (AP) – No matter how much you think you know about the Beatles, Mark Lewisohn probably knows more. Gerry & The Pacemakers recorded its own version of the song “Hello Little Girl,” but it was never released in the 1960s. The tune “Hello Little Girl” is attributed to “John Lennon and the Beatles,” while “‘Till there was You” is credited to “Paul McCartney and the Beatles.”Įpstein later gave the disc to Maguire, whose Liverpool group he also managed. The record is labeled in Epstein’s own handwriting, and it appears the manager was keen to highlight the lead singer for each song. Martin signed the Beatles to EMI – the rest, as they say, is history. The engineer listening to the tapes at the time was so impressed that he brought them to the attention of Syd Coleman of EMI’s publishing company Ardmore and Beechwood – then based above the HMV store.Ĭoleman in turn brought the discs to the attention of George Martin, who invited the band to a try-out at Abbey Road Studios. Importantly, these discs could be more easily player on a record player – and by potential record companies. Decca, to its eternal shame, reportedly rejected the group’s offering, saying: “Guitar groups are on the way out.”ĭismayed but determined, Beatles manager Brian Epstein was still able to take a copy of the audition tape to record store HMV in Oxford Circus, central London, where it was transferred to acetate discs. The lads from Liverpool recorded 15 songs that day. While other budding musicians may well have been nursing hangovers on New Year’s Day, 1962, the Beatles were attending an audition at Decca Records in west London.

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Indeed, without this particular piece of lacquer, the Beatles might never have scored their recording contract with producer George Martin – who passed away this month, aged 90. It was the first disc to bear the Beatles name – scrawled on the cover by manager Brian Epstein. There are perhaps few pieces of vinyl in the Beatles’ impressive recording canon, more significant than this one. This rare Beatles record has sold at auction for $110,000.

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