If rock and roll was just a passed fad when he got out of the Army. Elvis said, “I’d starve to death.”

And they said it was a flop.

A Decca Records executive on rejecting the Beatles in 1962.

Because he obviously had no read on the buying public!

with George Harrison (after Beatlemania had broken out) he asked George which group he preferred.

Harrison said, essentially, these all suck. If you want to hear a great band, there's this group playing in London you should check out. They're called The Rolling Stones and we think they're great.

So he went to hear them and signed them for Decca, after which Lennon/McCartney wrote them their first (English) hit: I Wanna Be Your Man.

But Dick Rowe, the guy who supposedly said it, never lived it down. I say "supposedly" because there is some dispute about the accuracy of the quote, but it lives on regardless.

Happy New Year!