The Butcher Cover

The infamous Butcher cover is quite possibly the most well known amongst collectors, and due to their extremely colourful history they're regarded as treasures in collections. People are prepared to pay a lot just so that they can say "I have a butcher cover".

The Butcher Cover story started back in 1966 when the Beatles were commisioned for another photo shoot for their latest US LP, Yesterday... and Today. The photographer hired was called Robert Whittaker, who was known to be a bit of an off-the-wall photographer. The Beatles started the photo session as normal and soon became bored of doing another 'Beatle thing'. Robert, sensing this, decided to spice up the photo shoot a little by digging out some butchers smocks, some slabs of meat and 2 decapitated baby dolls. It was with this material that 12 photos were taken and developed.

Initially it was done to just relieve the boredom, but unfortunately Capitol didn't know this. They got hold of the butcher photos, and chose on one photo. This was to be the photo used on their latest LP.

Initially, 750,000 copies were printed and mailed out to DJs and Major stores for them to play the music and to get a sampling of the publics response. It was not good. People were not paying attention to the music but were instead transfixed with the cover. People hated it and DJs spent time on the air discussing it and it's vileness.

Capitol immediately began to recall all the copies it mailed out (with a couple leaking out into private collectors hands), and began the huge task of destroying them. Covers were either burned or buried at the local tip. Meanwhile, the Beatles were called back in for another photoshoot which churned out the more innocent looking Trunk Cover.

After Capitol had started destroying the covers, it soon transpired that it would cost a huge amount of money to destroy every single cover, and so a new idea had to be thought of. This idea resulted in simply pasting a new cover over the Butcher slick, hiding it forever. So the first 600,000 covers had the butcher slick underneath the new trunk slick.

When collectors got their copies of Yesterday... and Today, they tore the trunk cover off to see whether they had gotten an elusive butcher slick underneath. Those who did have a slick almost certainly ruined the butcher slick in the process.

Over time, the butcher cover has gained higher and higher status throughout the Beatles collecting world. Because of the mad rush and panic-peeling of collectors back in 1966, good peels of the cover are very hard to find, often reaching $500+. Even more rare are the copies where the trunk slick has not been touched and is still stuck solidly to the butcher slick.

It now transpires that there are 3 different 'states' of the butcher cover. These are:

1. 1st State - This is where nothing has been glued onto the butcher slick.
2. 2nd State - This is where the trunk cover has been left glued over the butcher slick.
3. 3rd State - This is where the trunk cover has been peeled off to reveal the butcher slick.

Due to its history, the butcher cover can quite rightfully demand high prices at auction. Below is a price guide (All prices are for mint copies)