Post Love Me Do, it was policy not to trash Beatles tapes. She Loves You fell through the cracks [ie, got lost] somehow...
That policy seems to have come later, there are some missing session tapes from the first two LPs, it wasn't until 1964 that they began to save everything.
It's not necessarily as cynical as it seems. Often when people perform things live, something might go wrong and people will like it - it'll then be repeated. It often happens with stage shows - I've seen plays where someone misses their cue and you think it's awful and everyone laughs at the mistake, but you find out that it did happen once, and the laughter was so great for the show that they decided to keep it in, so what you're seeing is now part of the show.
John or George. There's not a lot where they've drummed, though, making it hard to tell. Ringo is certainly the best and I think it'd be hard to argue for putting Paul under #2 when his drumming was readily accepted by the general public and was complimented by Keith Moon.
Very little, if any at all -- the bulk of the studio work done at Lansdowne on their early hits was handled by Bobby Graham. According to interviews with the participants, Clark requested that Graham keep the recorded parts simple to allow Clark to play them convincingly during live appearances.
Early on, they were likely using Pyramid strings from Germany (which were also used by Hofner on their new instruments). Pyramids were imported into the UK under the brand names Hofner and also Selmer. John is said to have strung his Gibson 160E acoustic jumbo with flatwound Pyramid strings for recording and performing.
Possibly yes: "That Means A Lot" which they never finished recording because they couldn't sing it properly. Lennon: "This song is a ballad which Paul and I wrote for the film (Help!) but we found we just couldn't sing it. In fact, we made a hash of it, so we thought we'd better give it to someone who could do it well."
This was a sad revelation for me. The most powerful and unique sounding thing about the earliest (and best) DC5 records was the drumming. Clark has really turned out to be..well...not a very cool guy at all on a number of levels.
The drum sound was the product of a combination of close miking and compression -- no surprise really, as Adrian Kerridge, who engineered these early sessions, had been mentored by none other than Joe Meek. Agree with you also that DC suffers from some distinct character flaws.
...another revelation, albeit an expected one at this point...I *had* read that Clark was the "producer" of those great records hence, supposedly giving him credit for the sound of the drums..I had my doubts about that as well.
As long as we're at it: DC5 vocalist Mike Smith composed or co-composed several early and mid period songs, but either didn't receive credit, or royalties, or both. DC filled his own pockets with Smith's songwriting proceeds for quite some time. Not sure if it was all sorted out, ever.
Dave Clark is basically the answer to the question "What if Allen Klein had been a member of the Stones instead of just managing them?" Or another way to look at it is that Clark blended Pete-Best-level musical talent with Klein-level mangerial acumen.
