THE BEATLES came close to recording their landmark REVOLVER album at soul Mecca Stax but security concerns forced the Fab Four to scrap plans to head for Memphis, Tennessee.

The group’s manager Brian Epstein visited Stax’s base on McLemore Avenue, where the likes of Otis Redding and Booker T & The MGs cut albums, in 1966.

But, when news of the plans spread and was picked up by the local media, the idea was scrapped and The Beatles recorded Revolver at Abbey Road in London.

Former Stax publicist Deanie Parker, who now runs the Stax Museum on the site of the studios, admits the Beatles even had a two-week session booked for 09 April, 1966.

She tells Britain’s Mojo magazine, "I was seeing dollar signs. I talked to (Stax founder) Jim Stewart and said, ‘If The Beatles do come, will you give me permission to take the carpet up, cut it into squares and sell it?’" Stax songwriter Johnny Keyes reveals even Elvis Presley got involved, offering to put The Beatles up at his nearby Graceland mansion for the duration of their stay in Memphis.

He adds, "It went back and forth, and Epstein left town because he didn’t want to get in the middle of it. The session never happened." Booker T & The MGs star Steve Cropper, who actually met The Beatles briefly, muses, "Who knows what might’ve happened? Taxman could’ve been Staxman."