The Decca Tapes

On New Year's Day January 01 1962, The Beatles arrived at the Decca Studios in London for a recording audition in order to hear them perform. The head of Decca at the time, a certain Dick Rowe, had asked one of his staff, a certain Mike Smith, to check out the band and have them come down to London if he liked what he saw. Mike Smith liked what he saw and booked the studio. In those days, I suppose New Year's Day was not a holiday like it is today.
Anyway, 15 songs have been issued over the years from this day's work. These tunes are a great example of the early Beatles with Pete Best on drums. The band sound nervous and tired, especially Paul.
14 of the songs first surfaced as seven singles on the "Deccagone" fan club label. All of the singles have picture sleeves.
The entire 15 songs set was eventually released on LP in various forms with my copy being "The Decca Tapes" on the Circuit label and "The Decca Sessions 1.1.62" LP from Topline Records (catalogue number TOP 181. The songs on both of these LPs run slightly fast. The Topline version only contain 12 of the songs (covers) and do not contain the three Lennon-McCartney originals.
The Decca Audition songs include: "Money", "Till There Was You", "Sheik Of Araby", "To Know Her Is To Love Her", "Take Good Care Of My Baby", "Memphis", "Sure To Fall", "Three Cool Cats", "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", "September In The Rain", "Besame Mucho", "Searchin'" plus the originals "Like Dreamers Do", "Hello Little Girl" and "Love Of The Loved". Most of these songs would eventually find their way onto official EMI records, BBC sessions or given away to other artists during the 1960s.
Apple officially released five of the songs on the Anthology 1 compilations:"Like Dreamers Do", "The Sheik Of Araby", "Hello Little Girl", "Three Cool Cats", "Searchin'".