A quick one for a sultry summer morning when my brain is too fogged to find something more compelling or complex.
In 1995, Paul McCartney's handwritten lyrics to "Getting Better" were sold at auction, netting £161,000. Several years later, another set of handrwritten lyrics beat this auction record by more than double.
Who was the writer and what was the song?
The answer is within your heart, so Google not. Winner gets my increasingly large collection of useless business cards from real estate brokers who have failed to return phone calls.
Posted by BT at August 16, 2002 09:24 AMWell, in honor of the day Elvis died, I'm going to guess...I don't know. Lieber and Stoller just can't command that kind of scratch.
"Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins? Doubt it.
Posted by: boxjam on August 16, 2002 09:52 AM"Imagine" by John Lennon?
Posted by: Rory on August 16, 2002 09:59 AMJohn Lennon's "A Day in the Life"?
Robert Plant's "Stairway to Heaven"?
Falco's "Der Kommissar"?
No, no, no, no, and no.
Posted by: BT on August 16, 2002 10:12 AMMick Jagger's "Satisfaction"?
Patrick Hernandez's "Born to Be Alive"?
The Spice Girls' "Wannabe"?
(that last one isn't a joke, actually--British Spicemania was something to behold)
Posted by: Gavin on August 16, 2002 10:49 AMBillie Jean, by Mr. Jackson
I Dream of Jeanine, by Stephen Foster
or
Material Girl, by Ms. Ciccone
If I win I would prefer the head of the broker rather than his or her card.
Posted by: bootsy on August 16, 2002 11:08 AMNooooooooooooh!
I guessed, I doubted, I Googled, and I was right. Have pity on me, o File, for victory was within my grasp.
Posted by: Rory on August 16, 2002 11:33 AMJohn Lennon, "Hey Jude"?
Posted by: KF on August 16, 2002 11:34 AMDuh. I mean Paul McCartney.
Posted by: KF on August 16, 2002 11:35 AMJust out of curiosity, was there anything different about the handwritten lyrics to the McCartney song? Did he finally admit that Ringo was the Walrus?
My guess: Paul McCartney, "Let it Be." Or I'll steal KF's thang ("Hey Jude") and replace the Lennon with the McCartney. But really, those are my only two guesses. Except for Paul McCartney, "Maybe I'm Amazed."
D'oh. So the other two, then.
Ah, Rory, temptation. So sorry.
No right answers yet.
It wasn't, incidentally, a Beatle.
Posted by: BT on August 16, 2002 12:07 PMPurple Haze, by Jimi Hendrix
It's gotta be by someone dead.
Posted by: scott on August 16, 2002 12:17 PMWas it a Walrus, anyway?
Bernie Taupin, dead Di version of "Candle in the Wind"
I thought fer sure it would be "Hey Jude." I recall that being auctioned very recently.
Not a Beatle, huh? Stu Sutcliff write anything? I think Tommy Moore and Norman Chapman were mostly Silver Beatles, but that's a lot of bling.
Was it Steve Albini's "Super Pussy?"
Posted by: teenidol on August 16, 2002 12:48 PMAn almost casually executed fadeaway jumper by Hackly! Nothing but net!
Yes, Bernie Taupin's handwritten rewrite of "Candle in the Wind" went for $400,000 at Christie's in L.A. And now that I type this, I realized I phrased that backward in the question - it should have been "not quite twice that", since 161,000 pounds was more like $250K. Oops.
And yes, I'm as dumbfounded as you are.
FWIW, the Steinway on which Lennon composed "Imagine" sold for much more. But at least you could sit down at that and say "I'm playing John Lennon's piano! Look at Me!" It's much harder to pretend your Bernie Taubin by picking up a pencil and scribbling emendations to his lyrics.
Posted by: BT on August 16, 2002 01:19 PMSweeeeeeeeeet . . . I promise to harass every broker with high pitched renditions of that song and the one about the honky cat.
Posted by: hackly_fracture on August 16, 2002 01:25 PMHe will, too. 'Sbeen practicing the Elton on me for years now. Hackly's a HUGE EJ fan.
Posted by: bootsy on August 16, 2002 02:09 PMThat's right: I'm not the man they think I am at all, no no no no.
By the way, Rory, you clearly got it way before me. Excellent teeth gritting and general mouse restraint. Truly, I guess that's why they call it the blues, but thanks all the same.
Posted by: hackly_fracture on August 16, 2002 02:21 PMNot so much restraint as refusal to believe the tune niggling away at the back of my head, so the victory is rightly yours, hackly. But I'm still standing.
Apparently the handwritten lyrics for 'Imagine' went for six thousand pounds at auction in 1980. I reckon if it went up today it would beat Elton's jingle.
Posted by: Rory on August 16, 2002 02:56 PM