Encore: What If the Beatles Had Passed the (1962 Decca) Audition?

For our last holiday hiatus episode, we’re going back to our archives again, to look at a New Year's day that may have been one of the most pivotal moments in the Beatles’ career.

After just one month of being their manager, Brian Epstein arranged something that was unthinkable even weeks before — an audition with Decca, one of the UK’s top record labels. 

So on a freezing New Year's Day in 1962, the Beatles made a treacherous trip down to London, playing an eclectic mix of rock, standards, and Lennon-McCartney originals. It didn't go so well—the Beatles lost that contract to a competitor group, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes.

But that first rejection may have been a key to the Beatles' whole story going forward. And not only the Beatles’ story, but Brians, George Martin’s, and possibly even the entire British Invasion movement. So on this New Year’s week, we discuss a pivotal New Year's in the Beatles' history and ask the question: Would the Beatles have been the band we know today if they had passed the audition?

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