Beatles rejected, Stu lives, Ringo returns

March 1962

Decca Records famously rejected The Beatles a few weeks after their January 1, 1962 audition. Dick Rowe, the head of the company, reportedly told Brian Epstein that “groups of guitarists are on their way out.” Rowe would deny that he ever said that, but nevertheless, Decca did not end up signing The Beatles and Epstein had the sad duty of relaying the bad news to the boys.

But was it really all that bad of a thing? Imagine The Beatles being labelmates with Cliff Richard and never working with George Martin! How different would the story have been? Would we even be talking about The Beatles right now if Decca had signed them? We’re talking about all this and more in this episode of The Beatles60 broadcast! We also catch up with Stuart Sutcliffe, who's still living with Astrid Kirchherr and studying with Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. Ringo Starr returns from Hamburg after the flood in early 1962. Today’s episode is called “Beatles Rejected.”

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Beatles, Manchester (more)

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Was Pete’s sacking really such a mystery?