ATR UPDATE: Rare Beatles LP Nets $115K

Auction House Says Price May Be a Record

A one-of-a-kind LP copy of Meet the Beatles sold at auction today for over $115,000. As we noted here on ATR last week and on our most recent podcast, the album was given to Louise Harrison, sister of George Harrison, as the Fab Four were on their way by train to Washington, D.C. for what would be its first paid gig in the U.S. It was February 11, 1964 - just two days removed form their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show - the band had just released Meet the Beatles, their first American release, and band manager Neil Aspinall presented Louise with a copy signed by her brother. John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.

The album was purchased by an unidentified buyer for a total of $115,228.82, including buyer's commission. Mark Zakarin, president of the online auction company ItsOnlyRockNRoll.com told the Associated Press today that he believes the sale set a record price for a signed Beatles album purchased at a public sale.

By way of correction, we reported here that this item would close last Saturday (12/18), when, in fact, we should have noted that that was merely the opening day of this auction. However, ATR's Frank Higginbotham did state in our latest podcast that this rare LP would sell for "a boat load of money" and, hey, we got that part right.

Caricature by John Pritchett as it appears on his web site.