From rootkits to hair-metal, from suing Neil Young to ditching Bob Dylan, from nuking Napster to passing on the Beatles, Blender Magazine rounds up the 20 worst gaffes of the record industry, going all the way back to Tom Edison’s dismissal of Jazz.
#2 Decca Records A&R exec tells Fab Four, “No, thanks”
Dick Rowe was not the only record-label executive who passed on the Beatles in the early ’60s, but he was the only one who brushed off their manager, Brian Epstein, with the astute prediction that: “Groups with guitars are on their way out.” Epstein begged Rowe to reconsider, so Rowe hopped a train to Liverpool to check out the band live. When he arrived at the Cavern, he found a mob of kids trying to force their way into the club in the pouring rain. Annoyed, he smoked a cigarette, went home and signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead.
Unintended consequence: The Monkees
(Thanks, Barry!)