The Beatles‘ first-ever recording is one of the most valuable records on the planet, and Paul McCartney only got it back in 1981. The little shellac disc contains a cover of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” and their own “In Spite of All the Danger.” It doesn’t seem like much. However, it embodies The Beatles’ early days. The single recording was integral to their transformation into one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands.
How The Beatles’ first-ever recording came to be
In the summer of 1958, The Beatles were called The Quarry Men. It was John Lennon, Paul, George Harrison, drummer Colin Hanton, and Paul’s school friend, piano player John “Duff” Lowe. The Quarry Men, who would become The Beatles in four years, wanted to make their first-ever recording.
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that he and the band found an ad for a little recording studio owned by Percy Phillips in Kensington, Liverpool. It cost only five pounds to record something on shellac. They split the price and set out to Phillips’ recording studio, which turned out to be a small room with a microphone.
The soon-to-be Beatles then waited their turn to make their first-ever recording. They rehearsed it once and only had one shot at recording it. They chose “That’ll Be the Day” as the A-side. Their “self-penned epic,” “In Spite of All the Danger,” was the B-side.
Paul and John had a few songs by then, but Paul admits they weren’t very good. “In Spite of All Danger” was one of their better tunes.
The most important thing to know about “In Spite of All the Danger” is that it is the only “McCartney-Harrison” writing credit on record. “This was really before we understood writing credits,” Paul explained. “George made up the solo but some of it did come from John. It was the first song we ever recorded, the first thing on which our names appeared, the first official recording of what later became The Beatles.”
The Beatles’ first-ever recording is valuable, but Paul only got it back in 1981
When The Beatles’ recorded their first-ever recording, they only received one copy. However, the five musicians happily shared the disc, with the deal that they’d each have it for a week. Paul wrote, “We’d play it for all our relatives and say, ‘Look at this. This is what we did.’ We were quite thrilled just to hear ourselves on a record because we’d never really done that before.”
Paul, John, George, and Hanton each had the 10-inch 78 rpm record for a week. However, when Lowe received it, he accidentally kept it for the next 23 years.
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Paul said he and the rest of the group “more or less forgot about it” after each of them had had the record for a week. There wasn’t much more to do with it after that. They didn’t have promoters or managers to play it to. The soon-to-be Beatles only made their first-ever recording for themselves and their families.
Paul got the only copy back in 1981 and made a few copies for friends and family. He revealed the original is virtually unplayable now because the shellac would wear out. “It’s said to be one of the most valuable records in the world, but really, for me it’s about the memories in those grooves,” Paul said.
Paul is right. The Beatles’ first-ever recording is extremely valuable. According to Mental Floss, Lowe did call the then-famous Beatles to tell them he still had their first recording, but his call was never returned. Mental Floss also claims that Paul had to buy it off Lowe for an undisclosed price. He then pressed 50 more copies for friends and family and gave them out as Christmas presents. He also gave George and Ringo Starr copies.
The double-sided single is “the rarest record in the world.” It’s estimated to be worth somewhere between $150,000 and $300,000.
‘In Spite of All the Danger’ isn’t John’s ‘cry for help’
Paul also explained where The Beatles’ first-ever recording came from. Many believe “In Spite of All the Danger” is a “cry for help, that it somehow reflects John’s angst about everything.” That angst escalated when his mum Julia died only days after the group recorded the song and its A-side.
However, John wasn’t initially involved in the song’s creation. Paul wrote, “I realize that many of our songs, especially the very old ones, are thought to come from me, as in ‘I Saw Her Standing There,’ which did start with me, with John helping me fix a couple of lines. It’s true that while some of these songs did start from me, and others began with John or us collaborating.”
Fans have been able to hear The Beatles’ first-ever recording since the 1990s when the group released the two songs on The Beatles Anthology discs. However, the only original copy is still in Paul’s possession, nestled somewhere safe where he can treasure those groves for the rest of his life.
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