Beatles Lyrics Bring $1.2 Million

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 18th 2010 at 10:01PM

As we mentioned back in April, the John Lennon-penned lyrics to "A Day in the Life" were set to be auctioned off by Sotheby's New York today, June 18. "A Day in the Life" is the last song on The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and considered to be one of the best songs of all time. The lyrics sold for $1.2 million beating the estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. The paper shows Lennon's edits and corrections with some words scrawled out and annotations in red ink. The song has separate parts written by Lennon and McCartney connected by an orchestral score.

Three bidders competed for the lot with the winning bid being made by an unidentified American bidder over the phone. Sotheby's London sold the lyrics in 1992 and Bonhams in New York offered them in a sealed-bid auction in 2006 but they didn't sell. The most expensive Beatles handwritten lyric record still belongs to the lyrics for "All You Need Is Love" which sold for $1.25 million in 2005 at the Cooper Owen auction house.

Tags: beatles, LyricsBorn, music video, RockBand, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, sothebys, the beatles