Test record that helped launch the Beatles' career going up for auction

Most Beatles fans know the fabled tale of a dejected Brian Epstein visiting the HMV record shop in London to have some of the group's rejected Decca tapes transferred onto disk.

That move put him in touch with the music publishers who ultimately opened the door to EMI and to the Beatles recording with George Martin.

And now, one of the disks made that day is going up for auction, complete with handwritten labels, by Epstein, on both sides.

The 78 rpm record features original tune "Hello Little Girl" on one side and the group's cover of "Till There Was You," popularized by Peggy Lee, on the other. The label on the first side reads "John Lennon and the Beatles" while the flip "reads "Paul McCartney and the Beatles." This was presumably done to highlight the fact that the Beatles featured multiple lead vocalists.

The first side also includes a hand-written "Lennon-McCartney" credit - again, likely to highlight another of the group's strengths: they wrote their own material.

Additionally, "Hello Little Girl" is spelled British style, "Hullo Little Girl" on the handwritten label.

According to a BBC report, the record "lay forgotten" for decades in the home of Gerry and the Pacemakers keyboardist Les Maguire.


Comments