Read the News Today: 'A Day in the Life' Lyrics Sold for $1.2 Million

By
Stephen Nessen
WNYC News | Jul 13, 2010

The double sided sheet of paper with lyrics to "A Day in the Life" (Photo by Emmanuel Dunard /AFP/Getty Images)

The double sided sheet of paper with lyrics to "A Day in the Life" (Photo by Emmanuel Dunard /AFP/Getty Images)

An American collector purchased John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to 'A Day in the Life,' the last track on the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Friday for $1.2 million.

The winning bid for the paper with Lennon's scrawled lyrics was placed by phone at Sotheby's auction house, which declined to identify the buyer. The price exceeded the pre-sale estimate of $500,000 to $800,000.

The double-sided sheet of paper features Lennon's edits and corrections in his own hand--in black felt marker and blue ball point pen, with a few annotations in red ink.

You can see the front page of the lyrics here.

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Stephen Nessen

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