Watch Tommy Quickly performing ‘Stagger Lee’ in 1964 here:

All but forgotten today, Liverpool vocalist Tommy Quickly was once set to follow the Beatles’ road to stardom. Their manager, Brian Epstein, spotted his talent while he was performing in his band the Challengers and signed him to his company NEMS as a solo artist when Quickly was only 18, teaming him up with another act in his management stable, the Remo Four. Although his voice was best suited to R’n'B, Epstein pushed him into a poppier direction, but despite recording a number of singles in 1963/64, including a Lennon-McCartney composition ‘Tip Of My Tongue’, Quickly only had a minor hit with the country standard ‘The Wild Side Of Life’ (later also covered by Status Quo). He was given another Lennon-McCartney song ‘No Reply’ to record, but, by now dogged by drug and alcohol problems, he was reputedly so drunk during the session that his version was out of tune and the Beatles recorded the song themselves for their fourth album, ‘Beatles For Sale’. Disillusioned, Quickly retired from the music industry in 1965.