BEATLES HELLO LITTLE GIRL/'TIL THERE WAS YOU ACETATE - (***Please notify the auctioneer by email/phone of your intention to bid on this lot otherwise your bid may not be accepted on the day***) this unique 10" 78RPM acetate record featuring 'Hello Little Girl' on one side and 'Til There Was You' on the other was cut in the Personal Recording Department of the HMV record store on Oxford St, London. Brian Epstein had the disc cut from the Decca audition tapes before presenting it to George Martin (EMI) on 13th February 1962 in his desperate attempt to get them a recording contract. This meeting, despite Martin's initial reticence, was to eventually lead to the breakthrough they were looking for.
The disc was later given to The Fourmost to record their own version of Hello Little Girl (recorded 3 July 1963) and then to Les Maguire of Gerry & The Pacemakers (recorded Hello Little Girl 17th July 1963). This is the first time it has come to the marketplace, having been tucked away in Maguire's loft until now.
Epstein's handwriting on the labels reads as follows: side 1 Hullo Little Girl, John Lennon & The Beatles, Lennon,McCartney' and side 2 'Til' There Was You Paul McCartney & The Beatles'. The acetate is in VG (Very Good) condition with light scuffs and scratches - nothing heavy. It has been played through once when digitally recorded at BBC studios and it played through well with crackle but no skips or jumps.
In his book Tune In, the leading Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn said of the disc, 'Its uniqueness is enhanced by Brian Epstein's handwriting on the labels, and the recognition of what it led to - making it one of the rarest and most collectable of all Beatles records.'
According to Ian Shirley, Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide Editor "This is one of those Holy Grail items like the original Quarrymen acetate that the band recorded themselves. This acetate is a unique item that, in many respects, helped Brain Epstein to start the ball rolling to musical world domination'.
Interviews with Mark Lewisohn and Ian Shirley can be found on our website.
The lot also comes with a CD containing the digital recording taken from the disc at BBC studios on 19th February 2016. This is understood to be the first time the disc had been played since the 1960s.
Background Information
Extracted with permission from Tune In by Mark Lewisohn (volume one of The Beatles: All These Years), pages 1105-1108. Text © Mark Lewisohn
Brian's April 1961 visit to Hamburg and Hanover as a guest of Deutsche Grammophon had already proven fruitful in getting My Bonnie released in Britain, and now it paid dividends a second time. Another delegate on the course was Robert Boast, manager of His Master's Voice (HMV), the self-proclaimed world's largest record store, situated on Oxford Street in the heart of London. After Decca's rejection, Brian took the opportunity to renew Boast's acquaintance; he had no obvious plan in mind, but Boast was an address-book contact and he was exploring every possibility. Brian had with him the Beatles' Decca tape and sat in Boast's office saying his boys would become very big stars if only someone would take a chance with them.
'He said he'd had a very wearing two days visiting record companies. It seems they just weren't prepared to listen. I was, though it was beyond my powers to help him. But at that time we had a small recording studio on the first floor, where budding artists could make 78rpm demonstration discs. I took Brian there and introduced him to our disc cutter, Jim Foy.'
It made sense for Brian to pitch the Beatles from discs rather than a reel of tape. Every recording manager had an office gramophone (as they were still called), not everyone had a tape deck. The first floor at HMV included the Personal Recording Department, a smart counter beyond which customers could make one-strike records of personal greetings. Musicians used it too (the room contained a grand piano) and it was here, in 1958, that Cliff Richard recorded Lawdy Miss Clawdy c/w Breathless, which prompted Norrie Paramor to sign him to EMI's Columbia label.
Jim Foy and Brian Epstein chatted while a lathe cut the Beatles' sound into 78rpm acetate discs of heavy black lacquer. As Foy would remember:
'I remarked that the tape sounded very good, to which he replied, rather proudly, that some of the songs were actually written by the group, which was uncommon. I asked whether they had been published, and when he said they hadn't I told him that the office of Ardmore and Beechwood, one of EMI's music publishing companies, was on the top floor of the shop. Should I fetch the general manager, Sid Colman? He said yes, Sid came down, listened to the tape and he too expressed interest. When I'd done the cutting, he and Brian went back up to the office.'
...George Martin's desk diary for 13 February 1962 includes Judy Lockhart Smith's lightly-pencilled untimed entry for 'Bernard Epstein'.
Brian was chancing his arm at EMI, trying to wrest a Yes where there'd been a No. The recording managers had already turned down the Beatles on the basis of their appearance on the Tony Sheridan disc; Brian must have been hoping this wouldn't be remembered, and that he might score a better result with a personal approach and different product. It could also be that he was after any appointment at EMI House and George Martin was the only man available - two of his three A&R colleagues, Norman Newell and Norrie Paramor, were on holiday this week.
George wasn't there when Brian arrived, so the first person he met was Judy. She would always remember appreciating how well-dressed, well-mannered and well-spoken he was, not at all like the other managers who came into the office, while Brian would later write, genuinely, of how he and Judy developed 'an instant friendship.'
George's day was filled with appointments, and when he arrived he wouldn't have been able to give his visitor much time. The two sat across a desk - one man aged thirty-six, the other twenty-seven, both in smart suits and ties, and with polite, cultured voices that had benefited from self-improvement. Brian was desperate but trying not to seem so, George was tolerant, pleasant and in a position of power. Brian told him about the Beatles, saying how big they were in Liverpool and affecting surprise when George said he hadn't heard of them. This somewhat riled his host: as George would reflect, 'I almost asked him in reply where Liverpool was - the thought of anything coming out of the provinces was extraordinary.'
By interpreting the way Brian remembered the meeting, there was probably time to hear only one of his new-cut records - a ten-inch 78 acetate with Hello Little Girl on one side and Till There Was You on the other. He'd written the essential details on the labels in blue fountain-pen. With limited space, and constantly keen to demonstrate the Beatles had more than one singer, he wrote that Hullo Little Girl [sic] was John Lennon & The Beatles - adding too the songwriting credit Lennon, McCartney - and that Til There Was You [sic] was Paul McCartney & The Beatles. Brian's recollection two years later was:
'George liked Hello Little Girl, Till There Was You. Liked George on guitar. Thought Paul was the one for discs'.
