The first recording contract of the celebrated rock n' roll band the Beatles will be up for auction in New York come Sept. 19.
Heritage Auctions will facilitate the bidding of the band's first recording contract for $150,000 which is owned by the estate of German graphic designer and Beatles historian Uwe Blaschke, who died in 2010.
The six-page document signed in Germany features the signature of James Paul McCartney, George Harrison, JW Lennon and drummer Pete Best who was replaced by Ringo Starr the following year. The Beatles was signed up with British singer/guitarist Tony Sheridan as "the Beat Boys" since their agent at the time believed that the band name "Beatles" would not be well embraced by their German audience, The Australian reported.
German record producer Bert Kaempfert signed the band with Sheridan to make a rock n' roll version of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" after the producer heard them play in the Hamburg Top Ten Club owned by the band's booking agent at the time, Daily News wrote.
The Daily News also reported that "My Bonnie" netted the Beatles a mere $80 and narrated that a copy of the said record was sent to Liverpool, England where music fans requested disc jockeys to play more of the record. It was then that Brian Epstein decided to hear them at the Cavern Club. Upon immediately seeing their potential, the Liverpool record shop owner secured the quartet a contract with EMI.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the auction will also include other Beatles memorabilia such as a postcard that Ringo Starr sent his grandmother while in Hamburg, a 1962 signed record of their first single "Love Me Do" and a Swiss restaurant menu card signed by the group in 1965.
The auction will be conducted just in time with the 50th anniversary of the band's record-breaking Shea Stadium stint in Queens, New York.
