Paul McCartney’s “Hey Jude” Manuscript Auctioned for $ 910,000

The document, written by McCartney and used during the recording of the classic in 1968 at London’s Trident Studios, sold for five times more than estimated.

Los Angeles-based Julien’s Auctions traded the sale of some 250 Beatles memorabilia online due to the coronavirus pandemic, with fans around the world bidding on guitars, vinyls, and autographed items.

Friday was exactly half a century since the interview in which McCartney announced the end of the mythical gang, considered one of the most influential in history.

McCartney wrote “Hey Jude” after a previous split, Lennon’s divorce from his first wife Cynthia after his affair with Japanese artist Yoko Ono.

The song was composed to comfort Lennon’s son Julian, during their parents’ breakup, and was initially titled “Hey Jules.”

The document sold contains a partial letter next to annotations that include the word “break” used to assist in recording the song.

Among the auctioned items, the drum patch from the 1964 concert at Cow Palace San Francisco, which opened the band’s first tour in the United States. It was sold for $ 200,000, four times the estimate.

A handwritten filming script page for the 1967 “Hello, Goodbye” music video sold for $ 83,200 and a brass ashtray used by Ringo Starr on the Abbey Road recordings in the 1960s went for $ 32,500.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “BAGISM” drawing, which appears in the couple’s 1969 documentary “Bed in Peace” as a demonstration against the Vietnam War, was auctioned for $ 93,750.

(With information from AFP)