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2.11am
3 September 2012
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Assuming you have heard at least some of the audition they made for Decca, or all of it because of it all being available at our fingertips, what is your favorite performance the Beatles made of the 15 at their audition? Personally, I like Crying, Waiting, Hoping for the solo, but it’s all around great to hear.
Please don't wake me, no don't shake me, leave me where I am, I'm only sleeping~.
2.44am
16 August 2012
Offline I really wish at point that the Decca audition would be formally released as a ‘pre-Beatle’ canon title… I don’t see it happening, but hey…
For me, I love the three songs which seem to be the epitome of that audition: ‘Three Cool Cats’, ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’ and ‘Besame Mucho ‘.
But the whole magilla needs to be acknowledged for its’ sheer awesomeness.
E is for 'Ergent'.
3.51pm
14 December 2009
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I have never heard this…what’s this about it “all being available at our fingertips”??
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
4.30pm
16 August 2012
Offline I believe that would be in reference to the fact that it can easily be downloaded or at least enjoyed on YouTube.
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vonbonteeE is for 'Ergent'.
4.42pm
14 December 2009
Offline Ah, I see. What a terrible way to listen to an “album”!
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
5.21pm
Reviewers
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1 May 2011
Offline You can buy it on itunes, its called ‘The Capricorn Tapes’ and costs £10.99. Its probably available elsewhere as well (amazon £7.49), tho why you’d buy it is beyond me.
The best of the lot is Hello Little Girl . I can see that being a hit, nothing amazing but would have gotten airplay and probably reached the top 10. Love of the Loved would have have made a decent b-side with the self-penned notion being used to sell it. Not really sure why LOTL was ignored on Anthology 1 and Like Dreamers Do wasnt since LOTL is a better song having a bit more energy and drive what with the pause before the chorus and Pauls more awake vocal.
The only good cover is Take Good Care Of My Baby as i like George’s vocal, it would have been interesting to here a bbc version but again there is little driving it forward, something that the bbc records have and most of these tracks lack. Memphis, Tennessee; To Know Her Is To Love Her; Sure To Fall; Crying, Waiting, Hoping; Money; Besame Mucho ; & Till There Was You were all improved upon and available elsewhere and sound pretty dull here. The rest are better best left on youre computer for occasional revisiting.
It wasnt a good audition in my opinion what with 4 nervous beatles, lacklustre recordings and little energy running thru anything, and am quite happy its not had an official Apple release. I also cant see that happening as Apple like to put out records that show the beatles as being great and awesome and the Decca Auditon doesnt fit into that (tho they are happy to throw out any old tat in merchandise). Yes its historical but that doesnt neccessarily mean its good. There is better lingering in the vaults gathering dust.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
3.17am
3 September 2012
Offline I personally like their pre-bowl cut sound. Mistakes on guitar were present, but it makes it seem more exclusive, or more personal. That being said, I really enjoy the Decca version of Memphis.
Please don't wake me, no don't shake me, leave me where I am, I'm only sleeping~.
6.07pm
3 May 2012
Offline I quite like ‘Take Good Care Of My Baby’ and ‘Like Dreamers Do ‘. Really don´t like ‘Hello, Little Girl’, that´s for sure. Sorry, I try to like it but I just can´t.
Listening to the Decca audition, I don´t know why they weren´t accepted onto the label. They weren´t great that day and I don´t think the audition is a clear hint of what was to come over the next year or two but they don´t sound too bad either. I would´ve accepted them had it of been down to me.
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
5.03pm
12 April 2012
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I’ve always thought love of the loved was the best performance of the decca audition. I like that song
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rockgold14Once there was a way to get back homewards. Once there was a way to get back home; sleep pretty darling do not cry. And I will sing a lullaby
5.33am
25 August 2012
Offline GeorgeTSimpson said
I’ve always thought love of the loved was the best performance of the decca audition. I like that song
But, really, what does the term ‘love of the loved’ mean anyway? 
As I mentioned in another thread, I think “Like Dreamers Do ” is one of the few songs the group gave away (along with “Bad to Me,” “World Without Love,” “It’s for You,” “That Means a Lot,” and “Sour Milk Sea”) that they genuinely could’ve gotten away with recording themselves… providing it ended up on Please Please Me . It could’ve taken the spot of “Ask Me Why ” on the album, relegating that song to ‘non-album track’ status (though I seem to like it more than most fans).
“Hello Little Girl ,” on the other hand, is precisely what George Martin meant when he said that when he first met the group, they really couldn’t write much of anything. 
3.49pm
23 September 2012
Offline My favourites are The Sheik of Araby & September in the rain.
Really like George for lead and the guitar for The Sheik Of Araby that was based off Joe Brown’s version of the song. As for September, it just appeals to me and I was listening to it over and over for quite awhile. Like Holsety said, it’s the small mistakes that make me like it more. Though I have to admit I didn’t quite enjoy Till There Was You and the guitar solo in there.
"The marks humans leave are too often scars"
10.26pm
10 November 2009
Offline I love the Decca Audition. Sure, they sound very nervous, their performance might not be what was their best back in 1962, but all those 15 songs are a very interesting and enjoyable experience.
My favorites are: Like Dreamers Do , The Sheik Of Araby, Take Good Care Of My Baby, Sure To Fall (In Love With You), Hello Little Girl , Three Cool Cats, Crying Waiting Hoping, Love Of The Loved, Besame Mucho & Searchin’.
I love their version of Money here too, is more pure raw rock’n roll than the With The Beatles version, though the backing vocals are somewhat messy.
Till There Was You is lovely too as it features two solos, but Paul is very nervous, the first guitar solo is played somewhat poor, and the drums get out of rhythm a few times; clearly, they improved this into a more memorable version on the With The Beatles album.
To Know Her Is To Love Her & Memphis, Tennessee are very good too as the BBC versions, but those are better.
September In The Rain , is great too, though the reverberation makes it a little unconfortable.
I am currently remastering these, as I have been fan of this audition, but the sound quality has been somewhat of a problem: Drums are very buried, trebles are somewhat inaudible and there are some cracks that are very uncomfortable (Three Cool Cats has the worst at almost the end).
Here are the ones I have done so far, I’ll update it whenever I upload a new one (from here you can select the others in the playlist):
Let me take you down 'cause I'm going to...Strawberry Fields.
9.58pm
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1 May 2011
Offline Have been listening to this and the more i hear it the more its understandable why Decca turned them down.
There is little energy in any of the covers, even Money (That’s What I Want) has a very restrained feeling to it, like John is singing it without much thought or belief.
For me its the original material that comes across as the highlights. Like Dreamers Do gives off a bit of heat in the middle eight and Hello Little Girl shows some promise but it’s very surprising to hear the audition lacking any real thrust and drive considering everything you read about the early Beatles performances. A lot of that comes from the drumming which is more keeping time than driving on the beat.
The material selected by Brian is incredibly conservative; very few rockers or fast paced tracks that get your feet moving, Brian going more for the impossible-to-be-offended-by safety first cover material.
Besame Mucho comes over as a badly arranged joke in its arrangement, John and George providing vocal accompaniment that would thankfully be dropped by the time of the EMI performance – tho is still in place on the March ’62 BBC performance.
Paul tries far too hard to put on a show too often and comes across badly. Till There Is You is so badly hammed up its embarrassing (the improvement between this performance and the version on WTB is mind-boggling), and with the botched solos and shambolic ending its quite possibly the worst of the audition, and what the heck is he doing on Sure To Fall (In Love With You)?
Some of George’s guitar solo’s are weak – Till There Was You in particular is a mess and what happened to the ending?.
Nerves you can overlook but pedestrian, clumsy, hammy, and too little shining thru makes it understandable why Decca went with Brian Poole and The Tremeloes.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
1.52pm
22 December 2013
Offline Were these not the first recordings that George Martin heard by them as well? Sir George has always said that it wasn’t their music that sold him on them but their personal charms, but I don’t believe that he met them until after hearing something interesting on this same Decca Audition Tape. I wonder if he listened to the whole thing or just one or two songs before agreeing to meet with them in the studio…:-)
4.06pm
22 December 2013
Offline I came across this interesting read which questions whether or not these recordings are actually of the Decca audition http://www.beatlesagain.com/ba…..decca.html and I have to say, I’m starting to wonder a bit after reading this…:-)
6.38pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Billy Rhythm said
I came across this interesting read which questions whether or not these recordings are actually of the Decca audition http://www.beatlesagain.com/ba…..decca.html and I have to say, I’m starting to wonder a bit after reading this…:-)
I do hate these people! They ask a question, throw a few doubts in the air, and after going through them, answer – It’s more than likely what it says on the tin.
Let’s look at his main claims.
“…the song lineup does not conform to memories (in the 1960’s) of what the Beatles had played for Decca.” Occasional misremembeing of exactly what was played. Easily done as it was just a passing day that they probably hadn’t heard in years when answering questions about it, and they often got Decca recordings mixed up with BBC recordings. The Beatles are not the best witnesses to where and when. Good sources reported (in 1963) that Keep Your Hands Off My Baby during the Please Please Me album session, yet there is no trace of that!
“Before this set emerged in 1977…several other recordings were touted as being from the Decca auditions.” True, and anybody who examines those earlier bootlegs that claim to be from the Decca auditions, knows that each and every one of them were BBC radio recordings. There is not a single track identified as a Decca audition performance before 1977 that hasn’t been correctly identified as a BBC track since the in-depth research into the BBC recordings (and their recovery) started in the 1980s.
“(Brian) had some kind of tape prior to January 1961 too, because it led to the audition to begin with.” Erm, no, the majority of sources say he played the Decca recordings (which, admittedly, he may have put onto tape) and gave the instruction to listen to the band and not the vocalist. The only person who disagrees with this is Tony Barrow, who says Brian apologised for the sound quality of his acetate but that it came from a TV broadcast. We all know that that is wrong. So, it would seem that in Brian’s long courtship of Tony Barrow, Tony has got confused about when he heard certain things, as it is well known Brian had an acetate made from the Granada filmed Cavern performance in August 1962.
And then, after throwing up these doubts, he says, “Against all these doubts, I have to admit that what we like to call the ambience sounds the same to me for all these 15 songs, and that points to them having been recorded at the same session. This suggests the Decca audition as the occasion…”
I agree on the ambience, acoustics of the room, whatever you want to call it, sounding the same, and indicating they are all from the same session, and there is NO OTHER known recording that fits. Unless he is suggesting that there is some completely forgotten studio recording session – and the Decca tapes are yet to emerge, then there is nothing else that these 15 songs can be.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
7.46pm
22 December 2013
Offline I think that they ask some questions here that are interesting because there’s a simple logic that suggests something’s not right here. For example, if this session was to be an “audition” for a recording contract with Decca, why would it be recorded and archived by the company when they had no idea if they were even interested in recording them? And, just what did Brian Epstein play for them to have them even give them the time of day, let alone a recording session “audition”? It wasn’t the “Granada filmed Cavern performance in August 1962” because the dates don’t match, let alone that Ringo plays on it when he wasn’t even a member of the band just yet. I said when I posted the link that “I’m starting to wonder a bit” and this is my conclusion, for what it’s worth:
In an attempt to secure The Beatles a recording contract, Brian Epstein actually paid Decca for a recording session at their London Studios while convincing somebody in Decca’s A&R Department to either attend or listen to the session afterwards, in the hopes that it would lead to bigger and better things to which of course it didn’t. All The Beatles knew was that they were going to London to “audition” for Decca, but the reality is that they weren’t ever really interested in signing them and any interest “shown” was simply a “courtesy” to Brian who’d paid handsomely for the recording session, and they’d probably never even heard ANY recordings/tapes/acetates of The Beatles before they showed up at the session.
Brian Epstein wasn’t only trying to sell The Beatles to potential A&R Reps, but trying to sell himself to the Fab Four as being a capable Manager to them before EMI finally took a chance on them. There wasn’t a whole lotta good news during the first six months of 1962 when it came to future prospects, and anything “promising” was likely exaggerated by Brian to keep the mood positive. All they needed to hear was “We’re going to London to Audition for Decca Records!”, the fact that it likely was all cleverly orchestrated by Mr. Epstein didn’t need to be disclosed to them. I believe that when Brian first informed them of EMI’s interest (which was more genuine) by telegram, it was misrepresented that they’d been signed when actually they hadn’t been as of yet, it was simply a “Sound Recording Test” without any agreement in place.
Brian Epstein believed in The Beatles and made many financial sacrifices (much to his family’s dismay). We’ve all heard the stories how he supposedly bought 10,000 copies of ‘Love Me Do ‘ for his NEMS Shoppe to influence the charts, and it’s entirely feasible that he went through great expense to stage the ‘Decca Audition’ to impress The Beatles with the hopes to impress Decca as well, but the reality likely is that Decca was never interested in even “auditioning” them in the first place, let alone sign them to a recording contract. Yes, the 15 song collection IS the ‘Decca Audition’, but it wasn’t really an “audition”….:-)
10.10pm
16 August 2014
Offline Von Bontee said
I have never heard this…what’s this about it “all being available at our fingertips”??
I used to have a bootleg on vinyl of this called the SILVER BEATLES and also a 45 bootleg of Love of the Loved bw/ Memphis.
You can now find it easily doing a torrent search for downloadiing to your computer
11.41pm
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1 May 2011
Offline Surprised looking back no-one has put up a video for anyone who wants to hear it.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
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