Around 11th April 1962, The Beatles gave a tape containing eight of the tracks to Astrid Kirchherr, their friend from Hamburg, and who was also the fiancé of former Beatles’ bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe. The tape was probably intended for Sutcliffe, who, unknown to The Beatles, had died of a brain haemorrhage the previous day. Kirchherr gave the tape to a friend of hers a year later.
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| Tracks released on the 1973 bootleg LS Bumblebee were mostly lifted from the Let It Be sessions, although it did include an extended version of Love of the Loved. It was the first time that a track from the Decca audition was released. The title track, thought to be The Beatles, was actually by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore |
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| In 2012, this tape, purporting to be the original Decca master tape, was sold at auction for £35,000. However, it contains only 10 songs (Like Dreamers Do, Money, Take Good Care Of My Baby, Three Cool Cats, Sure To Fall, Love Of The Loved, Memphis, Cryin', Waitin', Hopin', Till There Was You and Searchin'). A handwritten note stuck to the cover gives the number BSR-1111, the catalogue number of Backstage Records 1982 bootleg, Like Dreamers Do. |
How the tapes came to be in the public domain is open to debate. One story goes that in late 1976 or early 1977, an unknown journalist from the UK approached Decca seeking permission to review the audition for a music paper feature. Surprisingly, Decca agreed to lend the tapes to the journalist. Before returning the tapes, the journalist arranged for a copy to be made.
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| The Deccagone single release of Like Dreamers Do/Searchin'. |
Possibly both versions of the tale are true. What is known is that two copies of the Decca Tapes were sold to private collectors in the late seventies.
One went to Joe Pope, who acquired the tape (given the timing, probably the version made surreptitiously by the journalist) for $5000. Pope ran the Beatles fanzine, Strawberry Fields Forever, from his store in Boston. He had the tape professionally mastered, then released fourteen of the tracks, omitting Take Good Care Of My Baby, as a series of seven 45rpm singles between April 1977 and February 1979 on his own Deccagone label. These were pressed on coloured vinyl and sold through his fanzine. The world finally had some idea of why Decca Records had turned The Beatles down.
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| Circuit Records' The Decca Tapes was released in mock stereo, and with the audio running too fast |
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| Misterclaudel's Historical Decca Audition Tape contains both known versions of the recordings. |
Angry that Circuit had stolen his thunder, Pope immediately released his own LP, The Deccagones. This compiled the fourteen tracks he had previously released as singles, plus Take Good Care Of My Baby.
The recordings have been issued many times in the years since, but all have been sourced either from Joe Pope’s Deccagone releases, or from Circuit Records The Decca Tapes. On 10 March 2009, Japanese label Misterclaudel released both the Deccagone and the Circuit versions on a CD named Historical Decca Audition Tape.
| Decca Audition Bootleg Releases An Incomplete List | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single | Three Cool Cats / Hello Little Girl | Deccagone | PRO 1100 | April 1977 |
| Single | Deccagone | PRO 1101 | August 1977 | |
| Single | Memphis, Tennessee / Love Of The Loved | Deccagone | PRO 1102 | November 1977 |
| Single | Searchin' / Like Dreamers Do | Deccagone | PRO 1103 | November 1977 |
| Album | The Deccagone Sessions | Smilin' Ears | 7701 | December 1977 |
| Single | Sure To Fall / Money | Deccagone | PRO 1104 | February 1978 |
| Single | Crying, Waiting, Hoping / Till There Was You | Deccagone | PRO 1105 | October 1978 |
| Single | To Know Him Is To Love Him / Besame Mucho | Deccagone | PRO 1106 | February 1979 |
| Album | The Decca Tapes | Circuit | LK 4438-1 | December 1979 |
| Album | The Deccagones | Deccagone | None | December 1979 |
| Album | Dawn Of The Silver Beatles | PAC Records | UDL 2333 | 16 April 1981 |
| Album | Lightning Strikes Twice | PAC Records | UDL 2382 | 16 April 1981 |
| Album | Like Dreamers Do | Backstage Records | BSR 1111 | May 1982 |
| Album | The Complete Silver Beatles | Audio Fidelity Enterprises / Audio Fidelity | AFELP 1047 | September 1982 |
| Album | The Complete Silver Beatles | Audio Fidelity Enterprises / Audio Rarities | AR 2452 | October 1982 |
| Album | The Silver Beatles Vol.1 | Audio Fidelity Enterprises / Phoenix | PHX 352 | October 1982 |
| Album | The Silver Beatles Vol.2 | Audio Fidelity Enterprises / Phoenix | PHXC 353 | October 1982 |
| Album | The Audition Tapes | Breakaway Records | BWY 72 | December 1983 |
| Album | Raw Energy | Romance Records | SB-18 | Spring 1988 |
| Album | The Silver Beatles | Teichiku | TECP-30219 | 1990 |
| Album | Lost Decca Sessions | Recall Records | RR070007 | 2008 |
| Album | Historical Decca Audition Tape | Misterclaudel | MCCD119 | 10 March 2009 |
Note:- Much of the information here has been collated from postings on this forum. Other sources are Bill Harry's The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia
,
John C.Winn's
Way Beyond Compare
,
and Richie Unterberger's
The Unreleased Beatles
.
, Ian MacDonald, Vintage 2005, and 
, Andy Babuick, Backbeat Books 2002)
Mark Lewisohn, Hamlyn Publishing (1988)
)
, he told author Spencer Leigh, "more than the others, [Harrison] thought we should do one or two from the top twenty." That Harrison sings this track lends support to Best's comment.
Spencer Leigh, Northdown Publishing Ltd (August 1998)
)
.
was recorded by Birmingham band The Applejacks in May 1964. Released by Decca (Decca F11916) on June 5th 1964, it climbed to number 20 on the UK chart. Ironically, the single was produced by Mike Smith, the same producer who oversaw The Beatles' failed Decca audition.
