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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

4. “Guitar Groups Are on the Way Out“

Mistakes - Richard 'Dick' Rowe in the early 1960s — Richard ‘Dick’ Rowe in the early 1960s. The College of Rock & Roll Knowledge

Epstein’s musicians set up, tuned and strung their guitars, cleared their throats, and performed about fifteen songs before Smith and his boss Dick Rowe. The group was nervous. What with the drive through a snow storm, their host’s late arrival, and the use of different amplifiers, they were not at their best. Still, they felt confident that had done well enough to secure a contract. After the audition, however, Rowe decided to pass on the group and declined to sign them, with the airy remark that “guitar groups are on the way out, Mister Epstein“. That might have been the worst face palm moment in the music business. Epstein and his group left Decca’s studios dejected that their New Year had begun with a rejection. Not so Dick Rowe, who figured that 1962 had started auspiciously for him and his label.

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.