December 28, 1957 - Boston Pops Conductor Arthur Fiedler in St. Louis said rock & roll was a passing

[thucythucy]

10. Nope. Instead, while attending a Liverpool "battle of the bands"

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!