The Biggest Loser in the Music Industry’s History?
Epstein and his group left Decca’s studios dejected to start their New Year with a rejection. Not so Dick Rowe, who figured that 1962 had started great. That same day, he listened to another band that came in for an audition, liked what he heard, and signed up Brian Poole and the Tremeloes to a deal with Decca Records. As Rowe recalled later, he had told his A&R subordinate Mike Smith to decide between Epstein’s group and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes: “He said, ‘They’re both good, but one’s a local group, the other comes from Liverpool.’ We decided it was better to take the local group. We could work with them more easily and stay closer in touch.“
So they went with the Tremeloes. It was not a bad business decision in of itself, as the band had some success. In 1963, they entered the UK charts with a cover of the Isley Brothers’ Twist and Shout, and followed it up with a UK chart-topping cover of the Contours’ Do You Love Me. A year later, they did a cover of Roy Orbison’s Candy Man that pleased the Brits, and a cover of the Crickets’ Someone, Someone, which made it to number 2 on the UK charts. What branded Rowe as an all-time industry loser was his rejection of the other band that had auditioned the same day as the Tremoloes: the Silver Beatles, who soon shortened their name to The Beatles.
