Decca Records Said "Guitar Groups Are on the Way Out." The Beatles Disagreed.

On New Year's Day 1962, four lads from Liverpool drove ten hours through the night to audition for Decca Records in London. They recorded 15 songs. A month later, Decca's Dick Rowe delivered what would become the most catastrophically wrong rejection in music history. Decca instead signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes—a local band from Dagenham because, as Rowe later explained, "they were closer." The Beatles went on to become the best-selling music act of all time with over 600 million records sold, fundamentally reshaping popular music and culture. Brian Poole and the Tremeloes had a few hits and then... well, you probably had to Google them just now. Rowe earned the immortal nickname "The Man Who Turned Down The Beatles," which is like being known as "The Guy Who Passed on Electricity." To his credit, Rowe later signed the Rolling Stones after a tip from George Harrison, presumably having learned that maybe guitar groups weren't quite finished after all.