S.J. Hoover
Member
Whether urban legend or not, the 1966 Beatles Capitol album YESTERDAY & TODAY had come out with its infamously famous (original) "Butcher" cover on 6/15/66 and...(reputedly) was prominently displayed -most often- in Illinois locations of the now all-but-dead SEARS department store.
Well, after John Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" quip (from the prior March) must've just added fuel-to-the-fire over the situation (even though the same photo had been used in the U.K. to promote the Paperback Writer/Rain single without fanfare)...the "butcher sleeve" was withdrawn within a week of release and reissued in a ho-hum "trunk cover" on 6/20/66; creating an entire cottage memorabilia industry of: a couple hundred-thousand "second state pasteovers" which remain in various, haphazardly peeled motifs.
Anyhow; a private stash of still-sealed copies unearthed by one of former Capitol Records' president Alan Livingston's children, netted $40,000 five years-ago. Collectors smart enough to leave the known pasteovers on ("2nd states")..now have an item valued between $800-$1500.
However, one *not* need a "Butcher" Yesterday & Today to strke gold: the RAREST copies of this record (numbering in the dozens) are, actually, 1971 pressings from Capitol's Jacksonville, Illinois plant with a RED "TARGET" LABEL (like the kind Canadian pressings were using at the time...though, obviously, with American fine print). These can *start* at $10,000(!).