It was big news for all fans of The Beatles when two seemingly new early recordings surfaced on YouTube in early December 2025. The two are a solo acoustic demo of Paul McCartney’s self-penned “Love of the Loved,” and the first recording of Lennon-McCartney’s “Misery.” While the source is not fully known, it seems they were found on an endless run of the band’s bootleg albums.
“Love of the Loved” previously existed only on the legendarily shaky Beatles audition for Decca Records, which they famously failed, on Jan. 1, 1962. The newly surfaced demo was auctioned in 1991 by Christie’s, but it has never appeared until now.
The version of “Misery,” purportedly from a Jan. 30-31, 1963, rehearsal at an empty Cavern Club (the Beatles’ early concert stronghold), was long reported to exist. A snippet of it was played by Beatles author Mark Lewisohn during his lecture tours, but this is the first appearance of the full song.
In the Decca audition, the group (with Pete Best on anemically recorded drums), assay “Love of the Loved” with McCartney doing a deep, quasi-Elvis voice. The newly discovered demo features a clear, “normal” McCartney vocal, backed with acoustic guitars presumably played by McCartney plus John Lennon or George Harrison (or all three). The demo is believed to have been done specifically for popular Liverpool chanteuse and Beatles’ friend Cilla Black, who released it in October 1963.
“Misery,” with full band including Ringo Starr, had been written just days prior to the newly found recording, which features different lyrics, including: “The world is treating me bad, misery/I’m the kind of girl/who used to love the world/The world is treating me bad, misery…” It was reportedly written as a request by pop star Helen Shapiro, who toured with the Beatles at the time, but she turned it down and it was released instead by one Kenny Lynch (it failed to chart).
