Rare Beatles Single Goes Up For Auction This Week

A rare early Beatles single is expected to sell for up to $11,300 at auction after it attracted interest from bidders worldwide.

The Beatles' 1962 demonstration record contains the band's hit songs Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You, and what makes this one so rare is that it is only 1 of 250 in the world.

This isn't the first time Sir Paul McCartney has been the subject of a headline misspelling his name. It is unique because his sir name is incorrectly spelled as "McArtney."

"Pual" McCartney misspelling on the right of the record. The 45' single is from Paul & Linda McCartney's "RAM," LP before Paul started the band WINGS years later.

The seven-inch vinyl would go under the auction block at Stacey's Auctioneers' sale in Chelmsford, Essex, on Monday, June 24th, 2024.

Several tracks were pressed and distributed locally to TV and radio stations before the record's release on 5 October 1962. This makes it an especially rare Beatles single from the earliest days of the band’s career.

The vinyl was estimated to sell for between $8,000 - $11,000 US.

The Beatles' 1968 self-titled album, known as 'The White Album,' tops the list. The four band members were each given one of the first four pressings of the album, each unit with its serial number on the front, and Ringo Starr's copy (No. 0000001) sold for a record-breaking $790,000

It's one of the most important albums ever recorded. The Beatles White Album Pressing No. 0000001 was given to Ringo Starr upon the album's completion, with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison receiving Nos. 0000002-4. It was pressed from the very first masters.

We get research e-mails all.the.time. A lot of the research is based on Google searches. Instead of saying it's the "most searched" something, it's the "most popular" something. I get it. I'm not here to split hairs, until now: What are Michigan's most popular Beatles songs?  I'm sorry, Google, but I beg to differ.

To be clear, I'm not here to crap on any Beatles songs.  I'm actually here to celebrate Global Beatles Day (June 25th).  Global Beatles Day is a day to celebrate Beatles' music and their messages of peace and love.  That doesn't mean every song had that message, but a lot of them did.

On June 25th, 1967, The Beatles performed the song "All You Need Is Love" on the BBC's Our World Program. This program was designed to show how our world could communicate using satellite technology. Contributions from 18 countries comprised the 120-minute program.  As part of the UK's contribution, the Beatles performed (for the first time) "All You Need Is Love," a song that John Lennon wrote for the program.  The program was viewed on 170 million televisions around the world.

The Beatles wanted a natural concert setting for the song so they invited some friends.  Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, and Grahm Nash were among the attendees (from nightswithAliceCooper.com)  Now back to my previous scheduled question:

According to greatlakesstakes.com these are the most popular Beatles songs (based on Google searches).

How can you not respect "Let It Be?" Paul McCartney wrote it for his mother, Mary who passed away when he was just 14 years old. According to Paul, he was inspired to write the song by a dream. He was anxious and troubled and his mother came to him in the dream to "whisper words of wisdom." Paul talks about the inspiration behind "Let It Be" and so many other songs in the most amazing episode of Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. I'm pretty sure I've watched this a dozen times and I still love it.

"Come Together" started out as a campaign song for Timothy Leary's run for Governor in California back in 1969.  Interesting side note:  When "Come Together was recorded, it was the first recording session where John Lennon was an "active" attendee since a car accident he and Yoko On had gotten into two weeks before.  John got 17 stitches.  Yoko Ono was pregnant and being more closely monitored.  John wanted her to be at the recording session...to the point of having a bed brought in for her so that she could get the bedrest doctors had advised (beatlesbooks.com) and be present at the session.

"Love Me Do" was The Beatles' first release.  John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this when they were teenagers which is amazing.  It's a great song, but I would not rate "Love Me Do" as the most popular Beatles song in Michigan.  Would it not make sense that the writing of The Beatles evolved and improved throughout their career? Below I give some examples of other metrics that explain why I feel this info might be flawed.

Back in May of this year, "Here Comes the Sun" became the first Beatles song to cross the one billion stream mark on Spotify. Speaking as a Michigander, it definitely one of my favorite / most popular Beatles songs.  This song is nothing but good vibes.  George Harrison was the most underrated of the Beatles in my book.  You can check out the amazing story of how George wrote the song when you CLICK HERE.

As far as the charts go, "Hey Jude" is the Beatles' most popular song.  It stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 19 weeks... 9 of those at number one (faroutmagazine.co.uk).  That makes it the longest-charting single of any Beatles song.

Highest selling doesn't necessarily equal most popular, but here, in the States, "She Loves You" was the Beatles' highest-selling song according to officialcharts.com. I think it's worth noting though, singles sales are just one metric.  People who bought whole albums don't factor into this.  The highest-selling Beatles album is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with more than 32 million copies sold (Faroutmagazine.co.uk).  The White Album is number three and Abbey Road is number two.  Also worth noting, in this time-frame, singles were everything.  The move to album-oriented rock had not been established.

Having watched the Beatles documentary, Get Back, this song truly holds a lot of meaning. I don't know if that's a factor with other YouTube users too, but the most popular (viewed) Beatles song on YouTube is "Don't Let Me Down" with more than 440 million views. The difficulty with YouTube is that there are multiple entries for pretty much EVERY Beatles song.

As far as being the "most popular" (most requested) song on the WCSX request lines... yep, it's "Birthday."  If it's the most requested Beatles song, why don't you hear me playing it?  I will tell you what I tell people who call and want to request it for their birthday or someone else's: We all have a birthday.  If I play it for one, why shouldn't I play it for another?  It opens a giant can of worms where "Birthday" gets played every day.  We do play a snippet of the birthday song as part of an intro for our classic rock artists' birthdays, but as far as the whole song...  It's the most requested Beatles song that I never play.  I know I sound like a jerk, but people who call in are actually very cool and understanding about the reasoning.

Honestly, I'd be hard-pressed to answer.  I love "Blackbird," "Here Comes The Sun," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as far as the more mellow Beatles songs go.  My personal favorite that no one ever mentions is actually "Tomorrow Never Knows." It was written by John Lennon who referred to it as "my first psychedelic song." (Songfacts.com)