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Face Palm Moments: Some of History’s Most Embarrassing Mistakes

Khalid Elhassan March 23, 2025 16 min

Mistakes - Cain, by Henri Vidal, in the Tuileries Garden, Paris — Cain, by Henri Vidal, in the Tuileries Garden, Paris. Wikimedia

6. A Shortsighted Recording Industry Titan

Decca Studios, in West Hampstead. Ham High

Few wielded more influence in Britain’s music industry than did Richard “Dick” Rowe in the 1950s and 1960s. The head of Decca Records’ A&R (artists and repertoire), Rowe was responsible for finding promising new artists. Although he became famous – or infamous – for an epically bad decision, Rowe was overall pretty good at his job. The artists he signed include The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Cat Stevens, The Animals, and Them, the band that launched Van Morrison. Unfortunately, Rowe’s reputation and name would be forever tied marked with a face palm moment tied to the biggest group he refused to sign. It began on New Year’s Day, 1962, when Brian Epstein, manager of an unheralded musical group, took his young talents to audition with Decca at their studios in West Hampstead, North London.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.