Butcher Comprehend – The Beatles' Best-Known Album

butcher cover promo poster
A promotional affiche for the Yesterday and Today album.

Tape collecting is a vast hobby, and frequently an obscure one. The prices that collectors pay for certain records would likely baffle a large segment of the public, and many valuable records are those past artists that aren't even well known to the public at large.

There's one huge exception to that, nonetheless. The original release of the album Yesterday and Today past the Beatles, with the so-called "Butcher cover", is ane of the most widely recognized valuable albums in the world, and ane that is known to many not collectors. It'south likewise an album that many people who don't specifically collect records by the Beatles would honey to accept in their collection…

…all because of the album's comprehend, rather than the musical content.

The Yesterday and Today album, released in June 1966, was originally printed with a cover depicting the Beatles dressed in butcher smocks, surrounded by pieces of raw meat and plastic doll parts. Due to public outrage, the album was quickly withdrawn and the embrace replaced past one with a more minor design.

The value of the copies of Yesterday and Today with a Butcher encompass lies with the encompass itself; the records within them are relatively common. For those interested in owning a Butcher encompass, at that place is both good news and bad news.

The practiced news is that Capitol Records produced the ameliorate part of a million copies of that album in 1966. The bad news is that many of those covers were either destroyed or altered, and the surviving examples can oftentimes sell for a breathtaking amount of coin on the collector's market.

In this article, we're going to discuss the infamous Butcher cover in detail, outlining the history of the album and cover, the various versions of the anthology that be, how to place one, and the value of the Butcher cover in the collector's market.

Browse past Category

Click any of the links below to jump to each category:

Yesterday and Today Anthology History
Vocal Listings
The Original Comprehend Design – The Butcher Cover
Butcher Covers Are Shipped And Withdrawn
Replacement Embrace Design
Album Release And Reception
Collectors and Butcher Covers
Butcher Cover Terminology
First State Butcher Covers
Second State Butcher Covers
Third State Butcher Covers
The Yesterday and Today Trunk Covers
Identifying A Butcher Cover
Is It a Beginning State or a Good Skin?
Should Yous Peel a Butcher Embrace?
Butcher Cover Values
The "Livingston" Butcher Covers
Canadian Butcher Covers
Counterfeit Butcher Covers
Conclusion

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Yesterday and Today Album History

yesterday and today
The final version of Yesterday and Today with the Trunk cover.

From January, 1964, when Capitol Records released Meet the Beatles in America, through the Baronial, 1966, release of Revolver, the Beatles' American albums differed in content, and sometimes in cover art and title, from their British counterparts. This was generally due to different industry practices within those 2 countries.

In Great britain, albums usually independent fourteen songs, and ordinarily did not comprise songs that had been previously released every bit singles. The reasoning for this was that the public might not be interested in buying expensive albums that contained songs that they had previously purchased as singles.

In America, albums normally independent twelve songs, and information technology was quite common for albums to contain songs that had previously been released as singles.

In Great britain, the Beatles and their record company, Parlophone, carefully planned out their releases, choosing songs that were intended to be released as singles while assigning others to albums. In the United States, Capitol Records, spurred on by the tidal wave of Beatlemania, was interested in releasing as many albums as possible, with twelve tracks, of form, rather than the fourteen used in U.k..

Fewer tracks meant greater profits and fewer royalties to pay, as the price of the anthology would be the aforementioned, regardless of how many songs were on it.

These independent decisions led to meaning differences in the Beatles' catalog in the two countries, with far more albums being released in the United states of america than in Britain. By putting singles and their B-sides on albums and by cutting the number of tracks from xiv to twelve, Capitol occasionally constitute themselves with enough tracks left over from various projects to release a unique album to be released merely in the Usa and Canada. 1 of these albums was Yesterday and Today, which Capitol scheduled for release on June 20, 1966.

Yesterday and Today was an anthology planned by the American tape company lonely and was compiled with little, if any, input from the Beatles themselves. The tracks were taken from a multifariousness of sources:

  • "Human activity Naturally" and "Yesterday" were originally on the UK version of the 1965 LP Help!, but had been omitted from the U.S. Version.
  • "Drive My Car", "If I Needed Someone", "Nowhere Man" and "What Goes On" were taken from the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland version of the 1965 LP Safety Soul and had been left off of the American version of the album.
  • "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out" had been released as a unmarried in both the U.S. and in the Britain, where those two songs had non been intended to announced on an album.
  • "And Your Bird Tin can Sing", "Medico Robert", and "I'grand Only Sleeping" were tracks intended for the then-unreleased Revolver album, which wouldn't be released until August, 1966.

The completed track lineup is listed below. The anthology was given the championship "Yesterday and Today" to have advantage of the song "Yesterday", which had reached #ane on the American charts in October, 1965.

The Beatles were reportedly unhappy with the way that Capitol records reconfigured their intended releases, merely were unable to practice anything well-nigh it. This was eventually resolved when the group signed a new contract in 1967, and all releases from that time frontward were identical in both the U.Due south. and the UK, equally per the Beatles' wishes.

As for Yesterday and Today, the Beatles likely knew every bit piddling as the American public most the content of the album prior to its release.

The back cover for all versions of Yesterday and Today
The back cover for all versions of Yesterday and Today

Song Listings

Side I

"Drive My Car" – 2:25
"I'm But Sleeping" – two:58
"Nowhere Homo" – two:xl
"Medico Robert" – 2:xiv
"Yesterday" – 2:04
"Deed Naturally" – 2:27

Side 2

"And Your Bird Can Sing" – ii:02
"If I Needed Someone" – 2:19
"We Tin Piece of work Information technology Out" – 2:10
"What Goes On" – 2:44
"Day Tripper" – two:47

With the track listings for Yesterday and Today all ready, the simply affair left for Capitol to do was come upwards with a comprehend design for the album.

The Original Cover Pattern – The Butcher Cover

As Yesterday and Today was intended to exist a N American-but release (it would also be released in Canada), Capitol had not received artwork from Parlophone, and requested that the band'due south management provided them with suitable artwork for the album embrace.

The photos supplied came from a photo shoot that the band had done in March, 1966 with photographer Robert Whitaker, which were originally intended to be used for a slice of conceptual art chosen "A Somnambulant Gamble." For these photos, the Beatles were dressed in butcher smocks and sat on or stood around a bench while surrounded with parts from plastic dolls and raw meat.

Though these photos were not taken with the intention of using them for an album cover, the band's management submitted them to Capitol, and ane of the photos was called to exist used for the comprehend of the Yesterday and Today album. Whitaker had no thought that he'd inadvertently created the Butcher encompass.

Butcher Covers Are Shipped And Withdrawn

butcher cover recall letter
A copy of the letter Capitol sent to reviewers asking for the albums to be returned.

As Beatles albums had continued to sell well since their inflow in America in early 1964, Capitol had high hopes for sales of Yesterday and Today. In anticipation of this, the company printed some 750,000 covers at their iii pressing plants – Los Angeles, California, Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Jacksonville, Illinois.

The forepart encompass slicks for the embrace were printed on a special newspaper with a slightly rough texture, and the photo used was given a slightly grainy appearance in order to make the finished cover look somewhat as though information technology had been painted on canvass.

At the time of the release of Yesterday and Today, record companies in America were notwithstanding pressing records in both stereo and mono, as stereo records were playable only on stereo equipment and most buyers only had mono record players. Because of this, approximately 80%-xc% of the finished covers were in mono, with the residue in stereo.

Several hundred copies of the finished Yesterday and Today album were shipped to radio stations and reviewers in lodge to help the album receive press attention prior to release. Most of the remaining copies were shipped to distributors effectually the country.

Due to the controversial prototype depicted on the cover, reaction to the anthology from the few people who received accelerate copies was predictably hostile, and distributors and retailers expressed business organization about the cover art. As the album's release date approached, Sir Joseph Lockwood, the chairman of EMI, the company that owned Capitol Records, made the decision to recall the album.

Distributors and reviewers were asked to return all copies of the album to Capitol Records, as described in an article in a contemporaneous article in Billboard mag about the struggles of distributors to return the albums with the Butcher cover to the record company.

It'southward worth noting that while the copies of the Butcher cover that were sent to reviewers ahead of the release date are valuable, so is the letter from Capitol requesting that the album be returned to them. While photocopies of the "Butcher cover recall letter" are common, originals are not, and collectors have paid several 1000 dollars for original copies of the recall letter of the alphabet.

Replacement Cover Pattern

yesterday and today 8 track tape
An alternating version of the replacement cover, used on the 8 rail record of Yesterday and Today

Capitol quickly came upwards with a replacement cover design; this 1 was much more innocuous and depicted the band surrounding a steamer trunk. This paradigm may have been considered for use as the original comprehend of the album, and several dissimilar prototype encompass slicks exist with slight variations on this image.

The conclusion then needed to be made as to what to do near the returned albums, that had the design that would soon be known as the "Butcher cover." The decision regarding what to practice almost the covers may take been fabricated at the corporate level or past individual constitute managers.

At the Jacksonville, Illinois, plant, all of the returned copies had the records removed and the covers were reportedly taken to a landfill, where they were dumped into a pigsty that was then filled with water.

At the Los Angeles and Scranton plants, a different decision was reached – the encompass slicks with the new artwork would be pasted over the existing "Butcher encompass" slicks.

This process proved to be less expensive than reprinting the covers completely, simply was also more time consuming. Not only was the process of precisely aligning a new slick over the old one a difficult task, but the finished covers also had to be trimmed at the oral fissure (the correct border) to account for any misalignment at the opening of the comprehend.

One time the covers were either reprinted (Jacksonville) or modified (Los Angeles and Scranton), the albums were once again shipped to distributors for their June xx, 1966 release date.

It has been estimated that the price (in 1966 dollars) of Capitol's recall of Yesterday and Today toll the company some $250,000, and finer wiped out any profits the visitor was likely to encounter from the album in the foreseeable future.

Information technology'south worth noting that the Butcher cover was released in the U.s. only in the vinyl format. Reel to reel tape and 8 runway record versions of the album were not issued until virtually a calendar month after the tape. By this time, the conclusion to apply the 2nd cover had already been fabricated.

Cassette copies of Yesterday and Today were not released until two years afterward and all of them were issued with the later body cover photo.

Album Release And Reception

Despite the issues with the cover, the album was released as scheduled, and promptly went to #ane on the American Billboard album charts, where it remained for five weeks. The album was soon certified golden for amassing more $1 1000000 in gross sales.

On the 24-hour interval of release, the anthology that most buyers saw in the stores was the 2d cover with the steamer trunk photograph. Probably half of those really had Butcher comprehend slicks underneath them. A small handful of original copies with the exposed Butcher encompass slick were sold at retail, though it has been estimated that merely a few hundred copies were sold this way.

In that location have been a couple of copies offered for auction on the market over the years that notwithstanding had both the original shrink wrap and price sticker intact, demonstrating that at least a few copies of the withdrawn original encompass did reach store shelves.

Collectors and Butcher Covers

alternate Yesterday and today cover
Reproduction of a proposed alternate anthology cover.

The fact that the original covers for Yesterday and Today were withdrawn and replaced wasn't a secret, and the public before long discovered that many of them had purchased albums that had a cover with a 2d cover underneath.

Non only that, but it was fairly easy to come across the one-time encompass nether the new one on about copies, as the new cover was by and large white and the encompass underneath was quite a chip darker.

In addition, due to the haste with which the new slicks were applied to the former covers, many covers had torso slicks that were slightly misaligned, making it even more obvious that there was some other cover underneath the trunk cover.

A few enterprising individuals discovered that steam from a tea kettle could be carefully practical to the cover, which allowed the body slick to exist removed and the Butcher cover underneath to be exposed.

With time, the mucilage used to attach the torso cover slicks became pretty secure, and attempts to skin the covers using steam became less successful, resulting in thousands of badly damaged and largely useless Butcher covers.

Within a few months, all of the "pasteover" copies of Yesterday and Today had been sold, and by the finish of 1966, all of the copies seen in stores were copies that had been manufactured with the trunk cover simply.

Butcher Cover Terminology

By Jan, 1967, four distinctly different versions of Yesterday and Today were in existence. These were the original issues with the "Butcher cover" photo, the second version of the album, with the torso comprehend slick pasted over the Butcher encompass, the buyer-created "peeled" versions with the torso embrace removed, and the fourth version, which was manufactured with the trunk cover slick.

While all versions of the album are currently sought out past collectors, the start issues are unquestionably the virtually prized and the most valuable. The second issue is also quite valuable, and the third issue may or may not exist, depending on condition. The fourth version is of interest just to hard-core Beatles collectors and people who only like the Yesterday and Today album, which, the stance of the Beatles themselves even so, is a pretty good collection of songs.

Commencement State Butcher Covers

first state butcher cover
A rare stereo First State Butcher encompass.

The original bug of Yesterday and Today, which never had the trunk slick pasted over them, are among the near valuable and sought out albums in all of record collecting.

While 750,000 of them were printed, most were either destroyed or had trunk cover slicks pasted over them. In the finish, simply a few hundred examples of these first issues survive today.

Among collectors, this version of Yesterday and Today is known equally a "Offset Country" outcome. These First State issues be in both stereo and mono, as do all afterward versions of the Yesterday and Today album pressed through early 1968. After that, the album was bachelor in stereo only (with the trunk cover, of course.)

First State stereo issues of the Butcher cover are much rarer than their mono counterparts, and outnumber them by a ratio of roughly ten:ane.

2nd Land Butcher Covers

second state butcher cover
A mono copy of a Second Country Butcher cover

The copies of Yesterday and Today that were shipped to stores with trunk encompass slick pasted over the Butcher encompass slick (and notwithstanding have them attached) are known as Second State Butcher covers.

2d Land issues are much more common than First State bug, every bit several hundred thousand copies were probably shipped to distributors and retailers in 1966.

While 2d State Butcher covers were mutual in 1966, they're significantly harder to find a half a century later. Over fourth dimension, many of these albums accept ended up in the trash, as albums often do, and quite a few of them were probable endemic and eventually discarded by people who had no thought that they endemic a version of the Butcher embrace.

Even among surviving examples of Butcher covers, Second State Butcher covers have become more than rare over time, as many people have peeled them to reveal the original Butcher embrace underneath, often with varying degrees of success.

Because of peeling and general compunction, Second Land Butcher covers are somewhat scarce today. Equally with First Country problems, Second State Butcher covers are significantly more common in mono than they are in stereo.

Third State Butcher Covers

third state butcher cover
A nicely peeled "third country" Butcher embrace.

The term "Third Country Butcher cover" refers to a Second State cover that has had the trunk cover removed. 3rd State copies of Yesterday and Today tend to come in the well-nigh wide range of atmospheric condition of all the variations of the album.

Third State versions that have been professionally peeled oftentimes appear, at first glance, to be First Land issues. On the other manus, Third Country copies that have been badly peeled past amateurs are frequently in horrible condition, and we've seen examples where parts of both slicks were removed, leaving bare cardboard in places that were originally covered by the Butcher cover slick.

On the plus side, poorly-peeled Third State examples of the Butcher embrace are often the most affordable variation for collectors, as poorly-peeled examples might sell for less than 10% of the price of a professionally peeled Third Country cover.

The Yesterday and Today Body Covers

yesterday and today
The final version of Yesterday and Today with the Body cover.

The concluding version, which is not referred to as a "Fourth State" version of Yesterday and Today, is simply known every bit the "Body Cover." These are the versions of the album that were printed after all of the Second State copies had been shipped. Torso encompass versions of Yesterday and Today have only one slick fastened to the front cover and never had the original Butcher cover slick mounted underneath.

The photos used for the trunk comprehend were from a photo shoot that was taken shortly after the shoot that produced the original Butcher embrace photos. Capitol printed test slicks of several variations of the body cover before settling on one that had an all white background. The version with the purple surrounding the torso was used on the 8 track version of the anthology, however.

This encompass was used on all copies of Yesterday and Today from June, 1966 until the belatedly 1980s, when the album was deleted by Capitol as part of the company'due south move to unify the American and British Beatles catalog.

Identifying A Butcher Cover

butcher cover
Closeup of a 2nd Land Butcher cover. Ringo's collar tin exist seen every bit indicated.

It would seem pretty straightforward to identify a Butcher encompass; later all, it has that photograph on the front, right? That's true of First Land issues, which are easily identifiable as Butcher covers. It'due south also true of Third State versions, every bit the trunk cover has been peeled to reveal the Butcher comprehend slick underneath.

On the other hand, information technology can be difficult to distinguish a 2d State Butcher cover from a later torso embrace issue, and we've seen numerous trunk cover copies offered for sale over the years past unsure sellers who listed information technology for sale with the phrase "may be a Butcher comprehend."

In one case you know how to tell the difference, it becomes quite obvious.

Parts of the artwork on the original cover were black, while large portions of the torso comprehend are white. On Second State problems, there is ane part of the embrace in particular where the original Butcher embrace can be seen through the white part of the trunk cover slick.

In the original Butcher cover photo, Ringo Starr was wearing a black turtleneck sweater underneath his white butcher smock and the role of the turtleneck that appears in that photo is triangular in shape. On Second State issues, the part of the torso cover slick that is directly to a higher place that black triangular expanse is all white.

On Second State covers, this black triangle is always visible through the trunk comprehend, and it appears about 2 1/iv" below the letters "oda" in the give-and-take "Today" in the anthology's title. Assuming that you're in a room with adept light or outside in sunlight, the triangular area will be plainly visible. Y'all won't have to strain or struggle to see it; if y'all can't see it, then you're holding a later on torso cover version of the album.

Many later on body encompass issues of Yesterday and Today take a scarlet keepsake in this aforementioned location, indicating that the album received a gold tape award from the Recording Industry Association of America for achieving more than $ane one thousand thousand in sales. If this emblem appears on the cover, then the album in question is NOT a 2d State Butcher cover.

If you practise find that you're property a Second State Butcher cover, it's also possible to tell which pressing plant made the album. If yous examine the lower right manus corner of the back comprehend, you will meet a small-scale logo for the RIAA. Next to this logo is a number. The number volition identify the pressing plant.

2 – A stereo cover that came from the pressing plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
three – A mono cover that came from the pressing institute in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
4 – (Jacksonville, Illinois)
5 – A stereo embrace that came from the pressing plant in Los Angeles, California.
half-dozen – A mono cover that came from the pressing plant in Los Angeles, California.

A Butcher cover from the Jacksonville, Illinois, pressing found would have the number four on the dorsum cover, but all but a scattering of First State issues from the Jacksonville plant are believed to accept been destroyed, meaning that in that location are no 2nd State Butcher cover issues from that particular pressing found. If there were, they would have a number 4 on the back embrace.

Is It a First State or a Good Peel?

While many Second State Butcher covers have been peeled by amateurs using steam or other methods, these results are often unreliable and can outcome in badly damaged covers. In that location are, withal, a few people who take constitute nondestructive methods for peeling 2nd Land issues that can result in a finished product that is virtually indistinguishable from a First Country issue.

The difference in price in the collector'south market betwixt a First State issue in exceptional status and a Tertiary State result in similar condition can be many thousands of dollars. How can 1 tell the difference?

There are several ways to tell if you're looking at a truthful Outset State Butcher encompass or are instead looking at a Tertiary Country version where someone has washed an infrequent job of removing the trunk cover slick.

Most covers that have had the trunk cover slick removed will have a some glue residue on them. Under bright calorie-free or sunlight, this mucilage residue can be seen in the form of streaks or rings on the cover. These streaks or rings may be faint, simply they can usually be seen under strong lite.

Some other mode to cheque is to go a piece of tissue paper and lightly moisten information technology (don't get it also wet!.) Identify the damp tissue on the cover and permit it to dry. Once it's dry, try to remove it. If the tissue sticks or offers resistance when you try to remove information technology, and so the encompass in question is a peeled Third Country upshot. If information technology removes easily or tin exist removed by only blowing on information technology, then you may, indeed, have a Offset State outcome.

All Second Land versions of the Butcher cover were trimmed prior to beingness compress wrapped. Considering of this trimming, which was done to address alignment bug at the correct side, or oral fissure, of the cover, a Second Country Butcher cover will non be quite equally broad as a First Land cover. Offset Land covers will be about i/8" wider than Second Land covers.

Should yous not have a Showtime Land embrace handy for comparing, and few of united states do, you could also compare the encompass in question to other Beatles albums of the same period. At the moment, we happen to take a 2nd State cover on hand, and information technology measures 12 i/4" wide. A copy of The Beatles Second Album that we have on the shelf measures about 12 3/8" wide in comparison.

As we've mentioned the deviation in toll betwixt a Commencement State outcome and a overnice Third State issue can be $10,000 or more. Exist certain yous know what y'all're buying before you purchase.

Should You Peel A Butcher Cover?

peeled butcher cover
A poorly peeled Butcher cover. Don't try this!

In 1966, it was ofttimes possible to turn a 2d State Butcher cover into a very presentable Tertiary State version by merely using steam from a tea kettle to remove the trunk slick from the cover. We've seen copies where this was done that looked nearly identical to First Land bug.

Those days are long gone; some l years of crumbling has pretty much rendered the adhesive impervious to steam. If you try that method today, you're probable to end up with a soggy mess and a ruined Butcher encompass.

Short version: Don't attempt to peel a Butcher cover yourself! Flow. Don't do it.

We've seen numerous horrible examples of covers that were ruined by amateurs who were attempting to pare their comprehend themselves. Consider this – a really nice Third State embrace in stereo can sell for equally much as several g dollars.

A ruined one might sell for $0.

In that location are individuals who have developed methods of removing the top slick using various chemicals. These processes usually piece of work quite well, and the results are often most duplicate from Outset State issues. Of form, these people who tin skin a Beatles Butcher encompass using these methods are professionals, and they charge a fee for the service.

However, if you own a Second State Butcher cover, it may (or may not; read on) be worthwhile to consider having it professionally peeled. Obviously, such a decision must prevarication with the individual, but there are several factors to take into consideration when because whether or non to skin a Second State outcome.

All versions of the Butcher cover are collectible, and collectors are interested in owning all three versions in the best possible condition. All three are relatively uncommon, and the Commencement Land versions are quite rare.

Second State versions, however, are condign increasingly rare, every bit many thousands of them have been peeled over the years. As these records were sold when new as Second State issues, they take value to collectors "every bit-is", that is, in their original unpeeled state.

If your Second State version is in pristine condition, be information technology all the same sealed or mayhap nevertheless in the original compress wrap, or even in mint condition, y'all should probably get out it alone. It'south worth the virtually information technology's ever going to be worth in its electric current status.

Keep in mind that Second Country Butcher covers are collectible in their ain right, as that's the way the anthology was sold when information technology was first released to the public. Every time someone peels one, in that location'due south one less 2nd State Butcher cover left in the world. As fourth dimension goes on, they're becoming increasingly rare.

On the other mitt, if there are whatsoever problems at all with the front cover, information technology may well exist benign to have information technology professionally peeled. Such problems might include either excessive front cover wear or maybe writing on the cover. Another example would be excessive foxing, which is an historic period-related deterioration of the newspaper that causes brown spots or blotches to appear on the cover. Foxing is near commonly seen on white paper, so it shows upward often on Second State Butcher covers that have been improperly stored.

Again, the decision is upwards to yous. Collectors are paying surprisingly high prices for Second Land problems in ameliorate than average condition these days. If your Second State Butcher encompass is in infrequent condition, you won't increase its value in any way by having it peeled.

If it has bug, however, y'all can plough a and so-so 2d State upshot into a very nice and more than valuable Third Land outcome by having it professionally peeled.

If in doubt, you might want to consult with someone who peels them professionally. They can brand a recommendation, and the pros volition tell you if you have an example that would be best left alone.

Whatever y'all do, don't effort to peel a Beatles Butcher cover yourself!

Butcher Cover Values

sealed butcher cover
A sealed, unopened mono 2nd Country Butcher cover.

With virtually records, establishing value is usually pretty easy. There is usually one version of a record that's collectible, and there's a "going rate" for mint copies, with copies in bottom condition selling for less, with the price adamant by the condition.

Establishing values for Butcher covers is a bit more complex, as the price is determined by many factors, instead of merely the status.

Here are the factors that help found the "value" of a Butcher cover:

State – Is information technology a First State, 2nd State, or Third State issue? Each version has their own price ranges.

Format – Is the anthology a mono version or a stereo version? Mono copies are substantially more common than stereo copies, so stereo copies volition sell for higher prices. On the other hand, the values don't correspond to their rarity. At that place may be ten times as many mono copies equally stereo copies, but stereo copies usually only sell for about twice as much money.

Condition – As with any collectible, condition is of the utmost importance in determining the value of a Butcher comprehend. The better the status, the higher the price.

Copies that are still sealed in their original manufactory shrinkwrap and have never been opened have sold for astonishing amounts of money. A sealed stereo Starting time Land Butcher cover sold for $75,000 in 2015. Sealed mono Kickoff Land versions have sold for as much as $xxx,000 (with exceptions; come across the next department about "Livingston" Butcher covers.)

Values for unsealed, opened copies of Commencement State issues take sold for anywhere from $5000-$25,000, depending on whether they are mono or stereo.

Collectors are also interested in still sealed Second Country issues. While Second Land versions are more than common than First Country issues, sealed copies are quite rare, as most people who bought the album in 1966 opened them and played them.

Sealed mono Second Country versions have sold for $5000-$7000 and stereo copies take sold of upwards of $x,000.

Pricing for Second State bug can vary widely, though overnice mono examples often sell for $500-$1500 and stereo copies from $one thousand-$3000.

The widest price ranges come with Tertiary State problems, as the condition for copies seen on the marketplace is all over the map. We've seen desperately peeled Tertiary State copies sell for as piddling as $50, and the condition was and then poor that nosotros thought even that cost was generous.

Then again, truly pristine, professionally peeled stereo Third State problems accept sold for as much every bit $3000, and we recently saw a nicely peeled mono Butcher embrace sell for most $2500. Information technology all depends on status.

One nice thing near Butcher covers is that the demand is always there, regardless of status. This is the one record that everyone seems to know about, fifty-fifty if they're not Beatles collectors or fifty-fifty record collectors. Almost tape collectors, regardless of their involvement in the Beatles, would similar to accept a copy of the infamous Beatles Butcher cover in their collection, and for those types of collectors, condition often doesn't matter.

We've institute that desperately peeled Third Land versions are often the easiest ones to sell, simply considering they're the most affordable for buyers. Few people have $25,000 at hand for a First State Butcher cover, just most everyone can find $100 or so for a badly peeled Tertiary State version. In one case you lot own one of those, yous can rightly claim that you ain perchance the nearly famous tape in all of tape collecting.

It's worth noting that the prices listed above are the highest examples of prices paid for pristine copies of Butcher covers in various configurations. Well-nigh copies offered for sale sell for less, though prices tin vary widely according to condition, state, format, and the fluid nature of the collecting market.

The "Livingston" Butcher Covers

livingston butcher cover letter
A re-create of the letter that accompanied some of the Livingston Butcher covers.

While a Get-go State Butcher encompass is generally regarded as the near desirable variation of the Yesterday and Today anthology, many collectors believe that the ultimate example to own would be to accept a copy of a so-called "Livingston" Butcher cover.

Alan Livingston was the president of Capitol Records in the 1960s, and he signed the Beatles to Capitol Records. He was also president of the label at the time of the release of Yesterday and Today, and he is the homo who ordered Capitol employees to discontinue distribution of the original version of the embrace.

Withdrawn they were, with well-nigh copies replaced with Second State problems with new encompass slicks pasted over the original. Earlier the covers were altered, Livingston put twenty four sealed copies of the Starting time State Butcher cover in a box and took them home. Nineteen of those copies were mono, and v were stereo.

Twenty years afterward, in 1986, Alan Livingston'due south son Peter appeared at a Beatles convention in Los Angeles with four sealed First State copies from his father's box – two in mono and two in stereo. He sold three of the four records that solar day, and eventually sold all of them.

Peter Livingston also arranged to have his father sign a notarized letter of the alphabet stating that he was the president of Capitol Records in the 1960s and that the accompanying tape came from his personal drove.

A so-called "Livingston" Butcher cover is now among the nearly highly sought out records in all of Beatles collecting. With so few of them available and the impeccable provenance that comes with the letter, the prices paid for Livingston Butcher covers accept steadily increased since Peter Livingston sold them for $1000 (for the mono) and $2500 (for a stereo copy) in 1986.

Information technology has been about a decade since either a mono or a stereo Livingston Butcher cover has appeared for sale, only the last mono copy sold for $44,000 and the last stereo re-create sold for $85,000. Nosotros personally know a collector who has offered $125,000 to one of the 5 owners of a stereo copy, and his offering was politely declined.

In time, it'southward possible that a stereo Livingston Butcher cover may sell for $250,000, though at least 1 of those owners has vowed never to sell. Yous can read more about the Livingston Butcher comprehend here.

Canadian Butcher Cover

Since the original release of Yesterday and Today in 1966, the album has been released in only two other countries – Canada and Japan. The Canadian release was contemporaneous with the American version and was intended to be issued with the same cover depicting the infamous Butcher photograph.

Unlike the American copies, which were already in transit to distributors and retailers at the time of the recall, the Canadian pressings were still in the production stage. Because of this, no Canadian versions of the Butcher cover were ever shipped to distributors or stores.

Paul White, old vice president of Capitol Records of Canada, had received two completed mono covers and a Butcher cover slick (not a completed cover) for the stereo version from the printer that was producing the embrace. He gave one of the mono copies to an associate and he kept the other one, along with the stereo slick.

To date, no other examples of a Canadian mono Butcher cover has surfaced, and no completed stereo covers are known to exist. All copies shipped to stores from the day of release used the trunk cover photo, there are are no Canadian 2nd State copies in being.

The Japanese version of Yesterday and Today was non released until 1970. All copies ever printed in that country used the artwork with the trunk comprehend.

Counterfeit Butcher Covers

counterfeit butcher cover
No, this re-create is not authentic…

Sooner or afterward, information technology always happens. When a manufactured commodity becomes rare and demand increases, someone tries to fill that demand. In the case of rare records, that always comes in the form of duplication, or counterfeiting.

Similar many rare Beatles records, such as Introducing the Beatles, the Kickoff State Butcher cover has been counterfeited on several occasions. About of these copies tin be easily detected by anyone with even passing familiarity with original 1960s Capitol Records Beatles albums.

The cover construction is usually different, and the printed covers usually have a slick, rather than a slightly rough, texture to them. The vinyl used on the records is usually thinner than those used on the originals, and many of the counterfeits are accompanied by colored vinyl records. All original examples of the Butcher cover were shipped with black vinyl records.

While most apocryphal Butcher covers are copies of the First State issue, there are as well counterfeit body covers that appear to be pasteover (Second State) bug, complete with a faint outline of Ringo's collar in the white area next to the trunk, as you lot would come across on a true pasteover.

The copies we've see like this have flimsy cover construction, poor print quality, and wrong acme measurements, equally they're about three/sixteen″ shorter than an accurate copy.

The most recent counterfeit pasteover that we've seen appeared to be a stereo event, and said so on the forepart and back cover, but had a number "6" in the lower right manus corner, which is ordinarily found on mono issues from the Los Angeles pressing plant.  A genuine stereo pressing from Los Angeles should have had a "5" on the back embrace, rather than a "half-dozen."

The number "half dozen" on the cover was printed in a smaller font than that used on genuine copies of the anthology.

The going price for current counterfeit pressings is about $40, and many collectors find that to be an acceptable price. Be enlightened, however, that these pressings are unlikely to increase in value in the future, every bit they're simply imitations and not the real thing.

Butcher Encompass Decision

Without a doubt, the Beatles Butcher cover is the near famous and infamous tape in all of record collecting. They are rare, they are interesting, and they just happened to exist a product of the nigh famous rock and roll grouping in the history of the medium.

All of those things combine to brand the Butcher encompass one of the near fascinating albums in the record collecting hobby, and it's probable that mint condition copies of all 3 "states" of the album will continue to rise in value in the futurity.

It's also amazing to look at the original cover photo some fifty years afterward the original release. To this day, the response from many remains unchanged from that of the public in 1966:

What were they thinking?

Click hither to view our selection of Beatles albums.

Click here to see if nosotros have a Beatles Butcher cover in stock. (We often do.)