THE BEATLES - The Beatles Broadcasts / The Decca Tapes

Item Description

2 x Vinyl,
Unofficial Release LP Compilation

Sides A+B: Pop Go The Beatles
Sides C+D: Decca Records Audition Tapes

Fifteen songs recorded at the audition on 1 January 1962 -three Lennon/McCartney compositions and twelve cover versions. Five of the songs were included on Anthology 1.
Fourteen of the fifteen tracks appeared on a series of coloured vinyl singles with picture sleeves, released in 1978 on the Deccagone label through Joe Pope's fanzine Strawberry Fields Forever.
Due to the questionable copyright status of these performances (recorded prior to the group's EMI contract), the Decca audition was commercially distributed in various configurations starting in 1981; some of these "grey market" albums omitted the three Lennon/McCartney songs. By the late 1980s, legal action by The Beatles had halted commercial availability of the albums. In addition to continued inclusion on bootlegs, a small U.S. record label issued the songs on CD through mail order in 2007 as The Lost Decca Sessions, which it described as legal and licensed.