Arriving in Nashville quietly at night on June 6, 1974, for a month of rehearsing and relaxing, former Beatle Paul McCartney, his 3-year-old daughter, Stella, and wife Linda, contemplate the small crowd of reporters and fans, which greeted them at Metro Airport.
Vancouver, Canada – A long-lost piece of Beatles history has unexpectedly surfaced in a small Vancouver record store, sending shockwaves through the music world.
Rob Frith, owner of Neptoon Records, recently unearthed what he initially believed to be an ordinary bootleg labeled Beatles 60s Demos. The reel-to-reel tape had been sitting in his collection for years, untouched. But when he finally played it, Frith realized he may have stumbled upon something extraordinary—a near-perfect copy of the band’s legendary 1962 Decca audition tape.
“I just figured it was a tape off a bootleg record,” Frith shared on social media. “After hearing it last night for the first time, it sounds like a master tape. The quality is unreal.”
The tape sounds like it’s a direct copy of the Beatles’ infamous January 1, 1962, audition session at Decca Studios in London. The band—then an unknown quartet featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and drummer Pete Best—recorded 15 songs that day, hoping to secure a record deal. Instead, Decca rejected them, claiming “guitar groups are on their way out.” The Beatles would later sign with Parlophone under producer George Martin, ultimately changing music history with their debut album, Please Please Me, in 1963.
According to Frith, the sound quality was so pristine “it seemed like the Beatles were in the room.” The tape’s authenticity gained further credibility after music preservationist Larry Hennessey examined it, noting the presence of “leader tape”—a characteristic feature of master recordings used to separate tracks.
Digging deeper, Frith traced the tape’s origins to Jack Herschorn, a former Vancouver music executive. Herschorn revealed he had received the tape from a producer in London during the 1970s, who suggested selling copies in North America. But Herschorn resisted, believing the recordings deserved proper release. “It didn’t feel like the moral thing to do,” he explained. “These guys are famous, and they deserve to have the right royalties on it.”
Now, more than 60 years after the fateful Decca audition, a snippet of the Beatles’ raw early sound—specifically their rendition of “Money (That’s What I Want)”—has gone viral on Frith’s Instagram. The rare glimpse into the band’s pre-fame days has sparked widespread excitement among Beatles enthusiasts.
Despite the potential value of his find, Frith insists he has no plans to sell the tape. Instead, he says he would gladly offer a copy to Decca Records or, as he joked, personally hand it to Sir Paul McCartney if he ever visits Neptoon Records.
