Lost Paul McCartney recording sells for £18,000 after 52 years in Cilla Black’s collection

A LONG-LOST demo disc recorded by Paul McCartney that was given to Cilla Black has gone under the hammer for £18,000 at a Beatles memorabilia auction in Liverpool.

The recording was believed to have been lost or destroyed until Cilla Black’s nephew found it after her death last year. Black, whose birth name was Priscilla White, had a UK top 10 hit in 1964 with the song It’s for You, which was written by McCartney and John Lennon.

But earlier that year, McCartney had recorded his own version of the song, delivering it to Black while she was performing at the London Palladium. Black’s nephew, Simon White, said that he thought his aunt had given the disc to his late father in the mid-1960s.

He told the BBC: “My father was an avid record collector who took great care of his record collection, and he personally created the cardboard sleeve in which the acetate demo has been stored for more than 50 years.” When Mr White took the disc, along with other demos by Cilla Black, to be valued at The Beatles Shop in Mathew Street, Liverpool, he had assumed the recording was his aunt’s version.

But when Stephen Bailey, who manages the store, played the disc, he realised it was not Black singing.

He said: “We got to the last one, and as soon as I heard it, I thought, ‘Oh God, that’s not Cilla Black, it’s Paul McCartney.’

“I was shaking with excitement and speechless.”

Mr Bailey said of the 52-year-old recording: “Apart from a few crackles, which you get with acetates, the quality is fine. It’s a wonderful recording. I can’t think of finding anything better unless I discover there is a sixth Beatle.”

The disc fetched £18,000 at the Beatles Memorabilia Auction at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool, but with commission the unknown buyer will pay £21,060.