Beatles: Decca Records Audition Tape Found By Record Shop Owner

When The Beatles were still an up-and-coming band, they famously auditioned for a record deal with Decca Records in 1962. The label declined to sign the band, which still might be the biggest blunder a record executive committed in music history. Decades later, a very rare recording from that audition has surfaced.

Per the CBC, Rob Frith, the owner of the popular Vancouver shop Neptoon Records, had the reel-to-reel tape sitting around in his shop. One day, he visited a friend's studio and brought the tape, since the studio had the proper machine to play the tape.

The tape was labeled "Beatles 60s demos." Frith assumed the tape was a bootleg. However, when he started playing the tape, the quality of the audio was crystal-clear. CBC reports that Frith believes this tape is "a rare, direct copy" of this Decca audition.

Adding to the rareness of this tape is that it contains leader tape, which is a white tape on the spool that separates each track. Larry Hennessey, a music preservationist and a friend of Frith's, told the CBC, "The way that's wound on the tape, you can see that it separates the tracks … it's not a fast copy or a bootleg."

So, how did this tape end up in a record store in Vancouver? Apparently, the tape belonged to a man named Jack Herschorn, who brought the tape with him overseas following a work trip in London. Herschorn once owned the Vancouver-based Mushroom Records, and the person who gave him the tape said he could release copies of it in North America. Herschorn didn't think that was an ethical thing to do, but when he left the music business years later, he forgot about the tape. He admits he should have taken the tape, but he "had other things going on" and "wasn't thinking about it."

So, what's next for this tape? That's a bit up in the air. CBC notes, "[Frith's] not eager to sell it. He's also not about to release the recordings to the public on his own, but if Decca wanted a clean version of it, he'd give the label a copy, he said. Or if McCartney were to come to Neptoon Records in person, Frith said he would give it to him."

Regardless, it's still amazing that Beatles treasures are still being found over 50 years since the legendary band broke up.