Entertainment

Paul McCartney’s handwritten Hey Jude lyrics fetch huge price at auction

More than 250 Beatles-related items were for sale at an auction to mark 50 years since the band broke up.
More than 250 Beatles-related items were for sale at an auction to mark 50 years since the band broke up. More than 250 Beatles-related items were for sale at an auction to mark 50 years since the band broke up.

Sir Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics for The Beatles’s 1968 hit Hey Jude have sold at auction for 910,000 dollars (£731,000).

Sir Paul had written the words in black felt tip pen and the lyrics sheet was used during a recording session by the Fab Four at London’s Trident Studios.

The sale amount smashed the guide price of 160,000 dollars (£128,000). The buyer wished to remain anonymous.

The Beatles
The Beatles This signed picture of The Beatles was among more than 250 items sold at an online auction to mark 50 years since the band broke up (Julien’s Auctions/PA)

Sir Paul’s lyrics were among more than 250 Beatles-related items up for grabs during a Julien’s Auctions online sale to mark 50 years since the band broke up.

The auction also included never-before-seen memorabilia, guitars and instruments, autographed items and other rare collectables.

A vintage Ludwig branded bass drumhead, bearing the The Beatles logo and used during a performance at the Cow Palace Arena in San Francisco on August 19, 1964, fetched 200,000 dollars (£161,000), four times its estimate.

That performance was the opening concert of The Beatles’s first North American tour.

Following the concert, the backup kit was returned and the skin bearing The Beatles logo was removed and later given to Coast Wholesale VIP client Ken “Kenny” Williams, owner of the San Francisco store Drum Land, where it was then displayed on the store wall for three decades.

A script page for the Hello, Goodbye music video, complete with handwritten drawings, notes and ideas from John Lennon, George Harrison and Beatles roadie Mal Evans, fetched 83,200 dollars (£67,000).

An original lacquer disc recording of Beatles album Get Back, believed to have been created by producer Glyn Johns, sold for 32,000 dollars (£26,000).

Also sold was an original stage from the first Beatles performance at Lathom Hall in Liverpool on May 14 1960. That fetched 25,000 dollars (£20,500).

Artwork from Sir Paul, created while he was a student in Liverpool, sold for 28,000 dollars (£22,500), more than 14 times the guide price.

And Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “BAGISM” drawing, featured in the couple’s 1969 Bed In Peace documentary as part of their demonstration against the Vietnam War, sold for 93,750 dollars (£75,000).