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Who really said it

Beatles Rejection: We Don't Like Their Sound. Groups of Guitars Are On Their Way Out

Not Brian Epstein — actually Decca’s Dick Rowe Dick Rowe 1921–1986 · British record producer, head of A&R (Singles) at Decca
Disputed In copyright

Brian Epstein is the source of this anecdote, not its author — in it, he is the man being turned down. Epstein’s 1964 memoir A Cellarful of Noise quotes Decca’s Dick Rowe telling him “Not to mince words, Mr. Epstein, we don’t like your boys’ sound. Groups of four guitarists are on the way out.” The tidier sentence people share today is a later compression, and Rowe rejected the whole attribution until he died in 1986.

Last verified 29 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Beatles Rejection: We Don't Like Their Sound. Groups of Guitars Are On Their Way Out” Dick Rowe of Decca Records, as reported by Brian Epstein in A Cellarful of Noise (Doubleday, 1964), chapter 5, page 46. Rowe denied saying it. The shorter “groups of guitars are on the way out” is a later paraphrase. — Quotle.info · Verbatim: “Not to mince words, Mr. Epstein, we don’t like your boys’ sound. Groups of four guitarists are on the way out.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Brian Epstein. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The estate of Brian Epstein and the publishers of A Cellarful of Noise). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Dick Rowe — British record producer · head of A&R (Singles), Decca Records. Theme: "Beatles Rejection: We Don't Like Their Sound. Groups of Guitars Are On Their Way Out". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Beatles Rejection: We Don't Like Their Sound. Groups of Guitars Are On Their Way Out". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Earliest documented source
A Cellarful of Noise
Author & edition
Brian Epstein · Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1964 (LCCN 64024896)
Located at
Chapter 5, “No!”, page 46 — the locator Quote Investigator gives, verified there against scans
Speaker named in it
Dick Rowe, head of A&R (Singles), Decca Records — who denied ever saying it

We had coffee, and Mr. Rowe, a short plump man, said to me: “Not to mince words, Mr. Epstein, we don’t like your boys’ sound. Groups of four guitarists are on the way out.” I said, masking the cold disappointment which had spread over me: “You must be out of your mind. These boys are going to explode. I am completely confident that one day they will be bigger than Elvis Presley.”

As transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗ from the 1964 Doubleday edition, page 46. Note the wording: groups of four guitarists, not the “groups of guitars” that circulates now. The Internet Archive’s copy of that edition is lending-restricted, so we did not read the page ourselves.

Quote Investigator: the citation trail, 1964 to 2012

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator ↗ names the earliest evidence as Brian Epstein’s A Cellarful of Noise (1964), chapter 5, page 46 — verified there against scans — where the words belong to Dick Rowe and read “Groups of four guitarists are on the way out.”
  • The same survey shows the compact modern wording entering print fifteen years later, in Stephen Pile’s The Book of Heroic Failures, first published in 1979 — page 215 of the 1981 Futura reprint Quote Investigator verified — credited to no person at all but to “Decca Recording Company”. Compare the versions ↗
  • Wikipedia’s entry for Dick Rowe ↗ (9 June 1921 – 6 June 1986) confirms he ran Decca’s singles A&R desk, that Epstein’s book is where the remark is pinned on him, and that he denied ever having said it.
  • The Internet Archive’s catalogue record for the 1964 Doubleday first edition ↗ (Garden City, N.Y.; LCCN 64024896) matches the edition Quote Investigator scanned. Its scan is lending-restricted, so the page-46 locator here rests on Quote Investigator, not on our own reading.
In copyright

The quoted passage comes from A Cellarful of Noise, first published in 1964 — well inside US copyright, which now reaches only works published before 1931. It is reproduced here as a short quotation for fact-checking. Dick Rowe’s spoken words of 1962 survive only inside that book, so there is no separately published source to place in the public domain.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Often misattributed

Two separate things get muddled here: who said it, and what was actually said.

Brian Epstein Reported, not written

Quote Investigator’s own list of candidate speakers includes him, and it is his book the line lives in — but Epstein is the source of the story, not its author. His 1964 memoir is where the remark first appears, and in it he is the man on the receiving end. Quote Investigator traces the line to that book ↗

“Decca Recording Company” Corporate shorthand

The crisp version entered circulation through Stephen Pile’s The Book of Heroic Failures (1979), which pins it on the company rather than a person; later quotation collections copied that framing. See the 1979 and 1998 citations ↗

“Groups of guitars are on the way out” Paraphrase

Epstein’s book has “Groups of four guitarists are on the way out”; Hunter Davies’s 1968 authorised biography renders it in reported speech. The direct quotation people share is a tightening of both. Compare the wordings ↗

Dick Rowe Documented but unverified

Rowe is the man Epstein names, and he is the best answer available — but he is not a corroborating witness. He rejected the attribution for the rest of his life, as his biography records ↗

Best evidence: Decca’s Dick Rowe told Brian Epstein his boys’ sound was not wanted and that “groups of four guitarists are on the way out” — as Epstein set it down two years later in A Cellarful of Noise ↗. Everything tidier than that is later polish.

Context

Why it mattered

Decca did not fumble the Beatles out of pure stupidity. On 1 January 1962 the band came down from Liverpool to Decca Studios in West Hampstead and cut fifteen songs — an unusually long test — and the label then had to choose between them and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, who were based nearer London and would be easier to work with. Decca took the Tremeloes.

What makes the sentence immortal is not simply that it was wrong, but that it was so specifically, so quotably wrong, at the exact moment the guitar group was about to swallow popular music whole. That is also why it kept getting shorter: a line that good gets sanded smoother every time it is retold.

Groups of four guitarists are on the way out.

Read the full story

Epstein’s memoir appeared in 1964, by which point the Beatles were the biggest act on earth — which is to say the anecdote was first written down at the moment it was most enjoyable to tell, by the man it made look prescient. That does not make it false. It does mean the only witness account in existence is a two-year-old memory recorded by an interested party, and that the man it accuses spent the rest of his life contradicting it.

Rowe’s reputation survived rather better than the joke suggests. He went on to sign the Rolling Stones — on George Harrison’s recommendation — along with Van Morrison, Tom Jones, the Moody Blues and the Animals, which is why the trade called him the man with the golden ear rather than the man who turned down the Beatles.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Failure Change Doubt

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigatorquoteinvestigator.com

The full citation trail, from Epstein’s 1964 memoir to the compressed wording now in circulation.
Dick Roween.wikipedia.org

The Decca A&R chief Epstein named — and who denied the remark until his death in 1986.
The Beatles’ Decca auditionen.wikipedia.org

What actually happened at Decca Studios on 1 January 1962, and the rejection that followed.
A Cellarful of Noise (1964)archive.org

Catalogue record for the Doubleday first edition that Quote Investigator scanned.
Brian Epsteinen.wikipedia.org

The Beatles’ manager (1934–1967), who recorded the line rather than spoke it.

The author

About Dick Rowe

Dick Rowe

1921–1986 · British record producer · head of A&R (Singles), Decca Records

Richard Paul Brutton Rowe ran Decca’s singles A&R department from the 1950s to the 1970s and was known in the trade as “the man with the golden ear” — he discovered or signed the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Tom Jones, Cat Stevens, the Moody Blues, Procol Harum and the Animals. Popular music history remembers him for one decision instead: the Beatles auditioned for Decca on 1 January 1962 and were turned down in favour of Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. He spent the rest of his life denying he ever said the sentence that made him famous.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Epstein, Brian. A Cellarful of Noise. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964. Chapter 5, “No!”, page 46 — the earliest documented appearance, per Quote Investigator ↗

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Beatles Rejection: We Don't Like Their Sound. Groups of Guitars Are On Their Way Out’?” Last verified 29 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/beatles-rejection-we-dont-like-their-sound-groups-of/

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