A remarkable 1964 recording of the Beatles' most comprehensive raw interviews after landing in the United States for the first time is up for auction at Gotta Have Rock And Roll.
The two-hour recording on two reel-to-reel tapes is anchored by Murray Kaufman, known as Murray "The K," who hosted an evening show on WINS radio in New York at the time.
Kaufman was invited by Beatles manager Brian Epstein to go along on the first leg of the band's U.S. tour and got inside access that seems hard to believe. He broadcast his show from the Beatles' Plaza Hotel suite before the group went on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the first time on Feb. 9, 1964.
He then followed the Beatles to Washington for their next concert. Before the Beatles' second "Ed Sullivan" appearance in Miami, Kaufman roomed for a few days with George Harrison.
The recording features Kaufman making small talk with the Beatles and also appears to have pieces of on-air clips of Murray helping John Lennon and Paul McCartney DJ his show, "The Swingin' Soiree."
"We've had recordings before, but with music it gets complicated because the winner, of course, doesn't own the copyright," Gotta Have Rock And Roll's Dylan Kosinski told cllct. "This is something that can be owned, which is why I think the buyer could use this for a movie or use it in a greater project with a historical archive."
Bidding starts at $150,000, which is the reserve Kosinski says the consigner has requested, emanating from a Christie's appraisal within the last decade.
The recording is not only remarkably clear for its time, but it gives fans a glimpse into the early Beatlemania phenomenon. Of the screaming crowds? Ringo tells Kaufman "we didn't expect any of this."
When Kaufman asks Lennon why they turned down performing at Madison Square Garden, Lennon replies: "I think our manager doesn't want to over expose us, so that we can come back."
The recording also includes Kaufman broadcasting live from their concert in Washington: "The Beatles have just taken the stage to the most tumultuous ovation that we have ever heard inside a theater," Kaufman says. "All they are doing is waving around to the crowd. They haven't started playing yet. They are just tuning up and as soon as they do, we'll move out of here and get back into the regular show."
Kaufman gave the tapes to Jack Good, who produced the first TV Beatles special. Good forgot about the recordings for three decades. Good says no content from these tapes have been used or mentioned in any other Beatles programming to date.
Recordings like this are rarely sold.
The only original copy of the Apollo 11 moon landing was confused in a batch of tapes at a NASA surplus sale in 1976. The man who bought them for $200, sold them in 2019 for $1.8 million.
The Gotta Have Rock And Roll Auction takes place Aug. 23 and 24.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.