Missed opportunity

Upon returning from the UK with the profits from his British tour, singer Tommy Roe also brought with him a promo pack for the Please Please Me album by the Beatles, including the album itself.

During coffee in New York City on April 9th, 1963 with ABC-Paramount’s president Samuel Clarke, national sales manager Larry Newton and the company’s A&R man Don Costa, the LP was put to a test spin on the turntable, starting with that killer opening “I Saw Her Standing There”.

After a few minutes and less than complimentary looks passing between the execs, Sam suddenly snatched up the record and frisbeed it into the trash bin saying, “Gentlemen, that was crap!”

Sourced from Martin Creasy’s book “Beatlemania! The real story of The Beatles UK tours 1963-1965”. Now available for Kindle.