McCartney’s ‘Hey Jude’ lyrics sell for $910G in online auction: reports Handwritten lyrics to one of the Beatles’ best-known songs sold for $910,000 on Friday in an online auction.


The words scribbled on paper by Paul McCartney were among about 250 items of Fab Four memorabilia available via Julien’s Auctions of Los Angeles, according to reports.

“It’s obviously a very iconic song that everyone’s familiar with,” Jason Watkins, music specialist for the auction house, told Reuters. “These handwritten lyrics were used in the studio as a guide when they were recording it.”

Beatles lore says McCartney wrote “Hey Jude” for John Lennon’s son Julian, who was 5 years old when Lennon and first wife Cynthia Lennon were separating.

But the “Hey Jude” sale – to an anonymous American buyer – fell short of the $1.2 million paid for John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to “A Day in the Life,” which were sold in 2010 via Sotheby’s.

Other items available Friday included a Ludwig bass drumhead featuring the Beatles logo that was used in a concert near San Francisco in 1964. It sold for $200,000, City News Service reported.

The auction was initially scheduled for the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City but was moved online because of the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported.