The Complete Silver Beatles

The Beatles


Silver Beatles - Front Cover	Silver Beatles - Rear Cover

Label Audio Fidelity

Catalogue No. AFELP 1047

Release date 10th September 1982

Total time 28:17

U.K. Album Chart Detail : Did NOT chart

Detail : Neither "Complete", nor "The Silver Beatles" ...
but this is the first official release of 12 of the 15 songs recorded by The Beatles at their Decca Audition of 1st January 1962. This session was held at the Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead studio's of Decca records in London, less than two miles from Abbey Road !
John, Paul, George and Pete Best (who had dropped the name "Silver Beatles" a year earlier) were met by Decca A&R man, Mike Smith at 11:00 and ran through 15 songs in under an hour. The songs were selected by Brian from the groups repertoire to reflect every aspect of their capabilities, and were recorded straight live, no over-dubs, onto two-track mono reel-to-reel tape.
At the end of the audition, The Beatles were hurried out as Smith was also auditioning Brian Poole and The Tremeloes from Barking in Essex. Clearly there was not much between the bands, but Decca also took into consideration the local aspect of the "Trems" which meant less travel expenses, and this was a factor in their final decision ... The Beatles did NOT pass the audition.
The order of the songs at the session was :

Like Dreamers Do
Money
'Till There Was You
The Sheik Of Araby
To Know Her Is To Love Her
Take Good Care Of My Baby
Memphis, Tennessee
Sure To Fall
Hello Little Girl
Three Cool Cats
Crying, Waiting, Hoping
Love Of The Loved
September In The Rain
Besame Mucho
Searchin'
The missing three tracks from this official release, were the three Lennon-McCartney written songs, which are always left off of "Decca tapes" official releases ... probably to avoid any legal wranglings (songs, 1,9, & 12).
To hear the entire audition complete and in order, there are many bootlegs abounding. An excellent example is "The Road To Fame", and a superb example of decent packaging can be seen in the "Deccagone" single releases of 1976 !
The C.D. issue of this L.P. was on 16th July 1986 on Overseas Records, catalogue number 30CT-55
See after the tracklisting below for further (re)releases of these tracks.

Side 1

Track	Composer	Lead Vocal	Time
Three Cool Cats	Lieber-Stoller	George	2:23
Crying, Waiting, Hoping	Holly	George	2:00
Besame Mucho	Velazquez-Wilson-Skylar	Paul	2:38
Searchin'	Lieber-Stoller	John	3:02
Sheik Of Araby	Smith-Snyder-Wheeler	George	1:40
Money	Gordy-Bradford	John	2:22

Side 2

Track	Composer	Lead Vocal	Time
To Know Him Is To Love Him	Spector	John	2:34
Take Good Care Of My Baby	Goffin-King	George	2:26
Memphis	Berry	John	2:20
Sure To Fall	Perkins-Cantrell-Claunch	John	2:01
Till There Was You	Wilson	Paul	2:58
September In The Rain	Warren	Paul	1:53

Further Issues of The Decca Auditions and Re-releases

Issue Date	Title	Label/Catno	Relevant Info
10th September 1983	20 Greatest Hits	Audiofidelity AFEP 20623	12 Decca audition tracks 8 Polydor recordings (with Tony Sheridan)
19th December 1983	The Audition Tapes	Breakaway BWY 72	12 Decca audition tracks (sleeve notes by Lewisohn)
6th January 1984	The Beatles Historic Sessions	Phoenix PHX 3-1	Triple L.P. set 12 Decca audition tracks 30 Star-club tracks
16th July 1986	The Silver Beatles	Overseas 30CT-55	First C.D. release of the 12 Decca audition tracks.
19th October 1987	Decca Sessions	Charly Topline TOPCD 523 TOP 181 (vinyl)	12 Decca audition tracks. Deleted 15th June 1988.

Label	Audio Fidelity
Catalogue No.	AFELP 1047
Release date	10th September 1982
Total time	28:17
U.K. Album Chart Detail :	Did NOT chart
Detail :	Neither "Complete", nor "The Silver Beatles" ... but this is the first official release of 12 of the 15 songs recorded by The Beatles at their Decca Audition of 1st January 1962. This session was held at the Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead studio's of Decca records in London, less than two miles from Abbey Road ! John, Paul, George and Pete Best (who had dropped the name "Silver Beatles" a year earlier) were met by Decca A&R man, Mike Smith at 11:00 and ran through 15 songs in under an hour. The songs were selected by Brian from the groups repertoire to reflect every aspect of their capabilities, and were recorded straight live, no over-dubs, onto two-track mono reel-to-reel tape. At the end of the audition, The Beatles were hurried out as Smith was also auditioning Brian Poole and The Tremeloes from Barking in Essex. Clearly there was not much between the bands, but Decca also took into consideration the local aspect of the "Trems" which meant less travel expenses, and this was a factor in their final decision ... The Beatles did NOT pass the audition. The order of the songs at the session was : Like Dreamers Do Money 'Till There Was You The Sheik Of Araby To Know Her Is To Love Her Take Good Care Of My Baby Memphis, Tennessee Sure To Fall Hello Little Girl Three Cool Cats Crying, Waiting, Hoping Love Of The Loved September In The Rain Besame Mucho Searchin' The missing three tracks from this official release, were the three Lennon-McCartney written songs, which are always left off of "Decca tapes" official releases ... probably to avoid any legal wranglings (songs, 1,9, & 12). To hear the entire audition complete and in order, there are many bootlegs abounding. An excellent example is "The Road To Fame", and a superb example of decent packaging can be seen in the "Deccagone" single releases of 1976 ! The C.D. issue of this L.P. was on 16th July 1986 on Overseas Records, catalogue number 30CT-55 See after the tracklisting below for further (re)releases of these tracks.