Top Gear tape sold

An early Beatles tape which captures John Lennon and Paul McCartney cracking jokes in a recording studio sold at auction in Britain for 9,800 pounds (12,400 euros, 19,000 dollars) on Tuesday, with some dealers at the auction casting doubt on its authenticity.
The recording, which was found in an attic and dates from 1964.
At one point, the tape captures Lennon telling McCartney: “I’m not looking at you” and McCartney replying: “You were.” Lennon then says: “It’s just going to get funnier and funnier as the evening goes on,” and “It’s 11 o’clock, you know.” McCartney adds: “Let’s just try this once more and if it’s the last one, that’s hard lines.”
The seller wished to remain anonymous. He was the son of a man who had worked in the music industry and found the tape when he was clearing his father’s attic. Auctioneers Cameo in Midgham, Berkshire, southern England said the buyer, who bid over the Internet, also requested anonymity.

A new look of what’s actually on this tape:

Side 1

1 Don’t Put Me Down Like This (Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers)

2 I Feel Fine (from radio show “Top Gear”)

3 She’s A Woman (from radio show “Top Gear”)

4 Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby (from radio show “Top Gear”)

5 Honey Don’t (from radio show “Top Gear”)

6 I’ll Follow The Sun (incomplete) (recording session for “Top Gear”)

Side 2

1 I’ll Follow The Sun (incomplete) (recording session for “Top Gear”)

2 I’m A Loser (from radio show “Top Gear”)

3 I’ll Follow The Sun (complete) (recording session for “Top Gear”)

4 Too Much Monkey Business (The Hollies)

5 Nitty Gritty (The Hollies)

6 Somethings Gotta Hold Of Me (The Hollies)

7 I Shall Not Be Moved (The Hollies)

The auction house was unable to identify the contents correctly (apart from the song titles), and the buyer may have been unaware that the tape was not exclusively a Beatles recording.

Auctioneer John King, of Cameo Auctioneers speculated that The Beatles played all tracks, which lead to him stating to the Liverpool Echo last week: “Among the numbers they cover on the tape is a recording of ‘Don’t Put Me Down Like This’. Our research shows that there is no other known recording of the Beatles playing that number.”

And there still isn’t. They probably never covered that song. The recording of the song on this tape is by noted sixties group Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers. And the final four tracks on side 2 is by another sixties group, The Hollies. An expert on The Hollies believes that the end of this tape likely contains tracks recorded for the Saturday Swings BBC radio programme, recorded 11 Nov 1964 and broadcast 28 Nov 1964. This particular show is not in the BBC radio archives and does not circulate among collectors of The Hollies radio recordings.

The Beatles tracks were recorded on a BBC session on 17 November 1964 for transmission on the Top Gear radio programme (a pop music programme, not to be confused with the current motor sports TV show). Most of it circulates among collectors of Beatles radio recordings, but the three takes of “I’ll Follow The Sun” and the in-between chat seems to be previously unbroadcast.