[8] John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best arrived at the audition, formally known as a "commercial test", to be headed by Mike Smith with Decca staff, on 1 January 1962 at 10 a.m.
However, Smith was late, suffering from a New Year's party hangover as well as cuts and bruises from a car crash three days before Christmas, slightly delaying the start of the audition.
[2] According to Lewisohn, the likely order of the songs at the session was as follows:[8] The Liverpool music paper Mersey Beat was the first to report on the Mike Smith visit, saying that the producer had made a tape of the performance (this amounted to the first "test"), and added "he is convinced that his label will be able to put the Beatles to good use.
[1] Some music historians have suggested, however, that the Beatles' work that day did not yet reflect their potential, and the "guitar" comment may have been intended as a polite letdown.
[12] Decca instead chose Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, who auditioned the same day as the Beatles, because they were local and would require lower travel expenses.
They eventually signed with an EMI subsidiary, Parlophone, after producer George Martin heard the Decca demos and decided to meet the band.
[15] Soon after the Beatles became popular in Britain, Dick Rowe appeared on Juke Box Jury alongside George Harrison, who reportedly raved to him about the Stones, his new favourite, who were an unsigned band.
The album released as a companion, Anthology 1, includes five of those songs ("Searchin'", "Like Dreamers Do", "Hello Little Girl", "Three Cool Cats", and "The Sheik of Araby"), along with many other outtakes and live performances.
[2] The original safety master tape the group recorded at Decca's London studios was auctioned by the Fame Bureau in December 2012 to a Japanese collector for £35,000.