From: dlm3@quads.uchicago.edu (saki)
Subject: Re: The Fabs first EMI contract
Reply-To: dlm3@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 23:26:28 GMT

1992Oct1.102847.1414@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu> marulanda@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:
 
>More: When Brian Epstein took the Beatle's to their first 
>audition at EMI, the Studio considered they were OK, but that the only 
>good things they sang were covers.  (This is when the F-F did their 
>standard routine covers of Twist and Shout, Rock and Roll music and 
>others).  Eventually with She Loves Me and Love me Do they convinced 
>somebody they could write, but for a some time EMI refused to sign 
>them as its artists unless they agreed to have a songwriter asigned to 
>them! 

This isn't really accurate. See Lewisohn's "The Complete Beatles
Recording Session" (The Book) and "The Complete Beatles Chronicle"
(The Chron) for details.

In brief, The Book reports that the Fabs recorded four songs at their
"audition" (we'll see whether that itself is an accurate term in a
moment), "Besame Mucho" (of which a tape actually exists, though not
in the EMI vaults), "Love Me Do", "P.S. I Love You", and "Ask Me Why".
These are *three* Lennon-McCartney (or McCartney-Lennon, as they were
then calling it :-) originals to *one* cover. They may have played more
covers or originals without actually recording them; studio
documentation reflects only these titles for the session held on
Wednesday 6 June 1962. But the Beatles felt they'd been led astray
before at the Decca audition (which they failed earlier that same
year) when Brian Epstein put too great an emphasis, they felt, on
their cover and "old-standard" work. An unknown band auditioning for
EMI with their own material was quite unusual, but they did it anyway.

Producer Ron Richards was observing the session for George Martin, who
was elsewhere during the initial songs, but when Richards heard "Love
Me Do" he was sufficiently impressed to call in his boss. Note that it
was a L&M original that caught their attention. Of course Martin was
looking for another Cliff Richard and the Shadows type band, as he
later admitted, and already had in mind a pre-written pop song for the
Beatles---"How Do You Do It?", written by Mitch Murray, who'd done
songs for other British singers like Petulia Clark; the Boys
grudgingly recorded this during their first official session as
full-contract performers at EMI, on 4 September 1962, but they 
eventually persuaded Martin that their own composition "Love Me Do"
was a better offering.

According to The Chron (and a nice bit of sleuthing, this), Lewisohn
discovered that George Martin had drawn up a contract for the Beatles
as early as 18 May 1962, almost three weeks before he was to hear them
in studio and make his decision about whether they were marketable
(he'd already heard some acetates of the Beatles' Decca auditions,
which Brian had had made, as early as 9 February, and was reported to
be favorably impressed with "Hello Little Girl"---another L&M
composition---and "'Til There Was You"). To my knowledge, there was no
recalcitrance on the part of EMI to refrain from signing the group
till there was a songwriter attached to them, and I don't think
there's any EMI paperwork indicating such a thing.

Now why the contract before the fact? Lewisohn speculates this was to
make it easy to sign the group immediately, on the spot, without
waiting for EMI's administrative office to finish the contract. But
note this as well, says Lewisohn: "...George Martin promptly
[following a 9 May 1962 meeting at Abbey Road with Brian] offered
Brian Epstein's group a recording contract without first seeing them
in person. He wasn't *guaranteeing* the Beatles a contract, just
offering them the best chance yet.... From a historian's perspective,
the 18 May contract request finally explains why the Beatles thought
that the 6 June session was arranged so they could record their debut
single, not merely audition for the company" (The Complete Beatles
Chronicle, p. 56). They weren't officially signed yet, but damn
near...and nobody was asking the Fabs to withhold their own musical
compositions.

No question that Martin was considering whether the Boys would be
better as cover artists or front-men for other songwriters, but he was
obliging enough to tell them that when they wrote material as good as
"How Do You Do It?", he'd be happy to produce it. It took only till
their second session, 11 September, to convince Martin that "Love Me
Do" might have its own natural, unique charm...and only one more
recording session (26 November) to convince all who heard it that
"Please Please Me" was a sure-fire number-one.

And it was. No further argument from EMI on *that* score. :-)
-- 
"The Lana Sisters, clad in pink, added a welcome feminine flavour.
'Much better than those Beatles' I heard one gentleman remark."
------------------------------------------------------------------
saki (dmac@math.ucla.edu---despite appearances to the contrary)