Someone on Quora posted 10 of the 15 songs that appeared on the Beatles Decca tapes, an audition which took place on 1 January 1962 in London.
As you may know, Decca Records rejected the Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and drummer Pete Best – with a polite “guitar groups are on the way out.”
The order of the songs at the session was:
Like Dreamers Do (A) (Lennon/McCartney)
Money* (That’s What I Want) (Gordy/Bradford)
Till There Was You* (Meredith Willson)
The Sheik of Araby (A) (Smith/Wheeler/Snyder)
To Know Her Is to Love Her* (Phil Spector)
Take Good Care of My Baby** (King/Goffin)
Memphis, Tennessee (Chuck Berry)*
Sure to Fall (In Love with You)* (Cantrell/Claunch/Perkins)
Hello Little Girl (A) (Lennon/McCartney)
Three Cool Cats (A) (Leiber/Stoller)
Crying, Waiting, Hoping* (Buddy Holly)
Love of the Loved** (Lennon/McCartney)
September in the Rain** (Warren/Dubin)
Bésame Mucho* (Consuelo Velázquez)
Searchin'(A) (Leiber/Stoller)
*unreleased version **unreleased (A) appears on Beatles Anthology #1, 1995
I had – actually have – a bootleg an unauthorized version of the Decca Tapes on vinyl from some point in the 1970s. I know that because my girlfriend at the time, who otherwise liked the collection, scowled when she heard Three Cool Cats: “save one chick for me!” It was a song, let’s say, of its time.
The decision to reject the Beatles turned out to be fortunate for three bands:
Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, “who auditioned the same day as the Beatles, as they were local and would require lower travel expenses”
The Beatles, who ended up at Parlophone under the tutelage of George Martin
The Rolling Stones: after the Beatles became popular in England, Decca snatched up the Stones
Coincidentally, both the Tremeloes and the Stones recorded Beatles’ songs.
Those five Decca recordings on the Anthology 1 collection in 1995 was a boon to Pete Best’s bank account.
10 songs
Searchin’
Three Cool Cats
The Sheik Of Araby
Like Dreamers Do
Hello Little Girl
I also own The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away, a “compilation album containing the original artist recordings of songs composed by [the duo] in the 1960s that they had elected not to release as Beatles songs. The album was released in the UK in 1979.” Three covers of the Decca songs appear there.
Hello Little Girl- The Fourmost
Like Dreamers Do – The Applejacks
Love of The Loved – Cilla Black
