The son of the man who famously turned down the Beatles has now acquired John Lennon and Paul McCartney's early hits as a partner at boutique music publisher Round Hill Music.
Richard Rowe, whose father DICk passed on signing the Fab Four when he was an executive at Decca Records, and Round Hill founder Joss Gruss have landed the songs She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, Misery, From Me to You, There's a Place and I Wanna Be Your Man - one of the first hits for The Rolling Stones - among a catalogue of classics as part of a new partnership with Adage Classics.
The catalogue also contains other songs including Come Go with Me by the Del-Vikings and Gene MCDaniel's 100 Pounds of Clay.
Rowe says, "Although my father was head of A&R for Decca Records and signed the Rolling Stones, Cat Stevens and others, he was mainly remembered as the man that turned down the Beatles... To have this opportunity to acquire these early major Beatles songs has been a dream come true."
Richard Rowe also made the deal with Michael Jackson and John Branca, the lawyer who was the become the executor of the King of Pop's estate, to create Sony/Atv, which included most of the Beatles catalogue.
Round Hill Music will now administer the North American rights to the early Beatles songs.