The first recording contract signed by The Beatles was sold at a New York auction Saturday for $75,000.
The 1961 contract was signed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best, yet to be replaced by Ringo Starr, and resulted in the single “My Bonnie,” a rock-and-roll adaptation of a children’s song. The Celebrity Cafe first covered the upcoming auction in August.
The song was released under the band name Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, as the iconic group had been backing British singer Tony Sheridan in Hamburg at the time.
“My Bonnie” never blew up in Germany, but caught the attention of record store owner Brian Epstein back home, who would become The Beatles’ manager over many years.
"Had they not spent this time in Hamburg, they may have not become the musical force that they did," Dean Harmeyer, director at Heritage Auctions where the contract was sold, said of The Beatles.
The six-page contract was put up for auction by the estate of German Beatles collector Uwe Blaschke, who died in 2010, according to the BBC.
The winning bid for the contract was placed online by an anonymous bidder, for a total price of $93,750 after factoring the 25 percent buyer’s premium on the $75,000 bid.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com