A single copy of the Beatles notorious, withdrawn Yesterday and Today album could be sold for as much as £60,000.
Sotheby’s is selling the album in their Popular Culture auction, which runs in London and online until September 12.
The album carries an estimate of £40,000 to £60,000 and you’ll need £35,000 to make the opening bid.
It was owned by Capitol Records president Alan Livingstone and is being sold with a letter from him.
The album, a compilation of singles and tracks from The Beatles UK albums Help, Rubber Soul, and Revolver, was a US-only issue.
It was fronted with a photograph showing The Beatles, wearing white coats and adorned with dismembered dolls and cuts of raw meat.
A statement from Alan Livingstone confirming the album’s authenticity.
The image caused Livingstone pause, but promotional distribution went ahead and 60,000 copies of the album of the 750,000 printed were sent out.
The photograph, by British photographer Robert Whitaker, caused immediate outrage. DJs complained, and stores said they wouldn’t show the record on their shelves.
The record was recalled and a new picture pasted onto the cover.
The withdrawal created one of the greatest Beatle rarities.
Livingstone kept 24 copies of the record, all sealed, 20 of them mono, four stereo.
These are known as “first state” covers and are the most valuable copies of Yesterday and Today. “Second state” copies with the new image pasted on are also highly collectible.
Mono versions are generally less valuable. Sealed copies are the most desired. A mono sealed copy was sold in 1974 for $457.00. They now reach 10s of thousands of dollars.
Livingstone’s copies are the most sought after Yesterday and Today copies. In 2006 one was sold in the US for $39,000. In 2016, a mint condition “first state” stereo Yesterday and Today in its original shrink-wrapping was sold for $125,000.
This mono copy will not make that amount, but will almost certainly become one of the most valuable single Beatle records ever sold next month.
