Let it be? Yes, it was.
A rare piece of Beatles memorabilia — the Fab Four’s audition tape —was discovered at a small record store in Vancouver.
The precious find was made by Rob Frith, owner of Neptoon Records, who at first thought the reel-to-reel tape labeled “Beatles 60s Demos” was just a bootleg. In fact, he didn’t even bother to play it until years after acquiring it.
Unbeknownst to him, it was a direct copy of the band’s original 1962 audition tape for Decca Records — a shocking realization that he just had after finally playing it.
“I just figured it was a tape off a bootleg record,” Frith wrote on Instagram. “After hearing it last night for the first time, it sounds like a master tape. The quality is unreal. How is this even possible to have what sounds like a Beatles 15-song Decca tapes master?”
Indeed, it was the mother of all discoveries: The tape is believed to be a copy of The Beatles’ audition session recorded at Decca Studios in London on Jan. 1, 1962 audition session.
But it wasn’t meant to be with Decca Records: The label rejected the quartet, which then included Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Pete Best — before Ringo Starr replaced him on drums.
However, the group would eventually be signed to Parlophone by George Martin, who would become The Beatles’ producer — known as the “Fifth Beatle” — from their 1963 debut LP “Please Please Me” through the rest of the group’s legendary run.
Firth marveled at uncovering what he thought was just a run-of-the-mill reel-to-reel.
“It seemed like the Beatles were in the room,” he told British Columbia’s CBC about the crisp sound quality.
Music preservationist Larry Hennessy verified the authenticity of the tape.
“The way that’s wound on the tape, you can see that it separates the tracks … it’s not a fast copy or a bootleg,” he told CBC.
After Firth’s post on social media, he was connected with Jack Herschorn — former owner of Vancouver’s Mushroom Records — who acquired the tape from a producer on a work trip to London in the early ’70s. But he decided not to release it.
“I took it back and I thought about it quite a bit,” Herschorn told CBC. “I didn’t want to put it out because I felt — I didn’t think it was a totally moral thing to do.”
The tape found its way to Firth, who isn’t planning on selling his unburied treasure.
“People say it could be really valuable,” he said. “I’m glad it’s preserved.”
Content shared from nypost.com.