Extremely Rare Beatles Album Discovered

A recently uncovered copy of the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' -- one of approximately 100 that were pressed as gifts to Capitol Records employees more than 40 years ago -- may be the rarest Beatles album in the world. Found by record collector John Tefteller, the album has the same tracklisting as the original, but the famous faces on the cover were replaced with photos of the label's higher ups.

"At first look I thought, 'OK, this is a standard 'Sgt Pepper' LP,'" Tefteller, who found the album in a stack of vinyl sold to him by the widow of a label executive, told the Guardian. "And then as I [looked] at it closely, I [went], 'Whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. There's no Beatles on here. Who are all these people?"

The seller's late husband worked for Capitol in Los Angeles and, according to Tefteller, had a collection of "mainly jazz and easy-listening LPs." "I don't normally go out to look at something like that because I'm not really into either of those categories," Tefteller told the paper, "but I just thought, 'Well, all right. Capitol Records? Maybe there's something else in there.'"

When he took the unique version of 'Sgt. Pepper' -- retitled 'Sgt. Pepper's Capitol Employees Band' -- to a fellow collector known as Stan "the Beatleman" Panenka, he discovered just how rare the disc was. Just a few of these Beatles albums have been uncovered in the last 30 years and none were found in the last decade. "From what I understand, those copies were fairly well used, whereas this one is factory-sealed in the original shrink and still in perfect condition," Tefteller said.

Because of the small number of these discs produced, Tefteller said "determining a value for this find is difficult". Still, he was able to sell the rare long player to Panenka for an unknown amount.