In this auction:

“SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND” LP by the Beatles

This LP is Capitol Records MAS - 2653.

This LP was issued June 1, 1967.

This is a MONO (monaural) PRESSING.

In fact, THIS IS A FIRST MONO PRESSING OF THIS LP. We know this because:

“Subsidiary” is not in the label’s perimeter printing.

The Side 1 label has the shortened song title “A Little Help From My Friends”. (The second Mono pressing has the CORRECT TITLE “With a Little Help From My Friends”.)

First Pressing Covers do NOT credit Maclen Music or NEMS Enterprises on the rear. (Later covers added this information to the lower right corner on the rear of the cover in vertical print.)

The vinyl comes in its properly marked MONO COVER (MAS – 2653)

The VINYL has a triangle (△) containing the letters “IAM” in the trail-off. This is the symbol Capitol Records used to identify vinyl pressed at its Scranton Pressing Plant.

The COVER is in VG CONDITION. There is moderate overall wear. The front cover image is nice with some wear evident at the top in the sky area. There is some light to moderate wear on the edges, spine and corners. The red rear cover has light overall wear with partial ring wear primarily near the top. (The red rear covers of Sgt. Pepper LPs were often prone to show wear more easily than the front cover.) There is a small split in the center inside the gatefold cover resulting in a small 1 ½ -inch repaired split on the center of the spine. There is some flaking on the top 2 seams of the gatefold cover with some intermittent paper loss, but NO seam splitting.

The VINYL is in VG to WEAK VG CONDITION with numerous light surface hairlines and scuffs (four of them are “feel-able”). There is still a lot of gloss.

It comes with its ORIGINAL CUSTOM RED, PINK and WHITE PAPER INNER SLEEVE that has a 3 ½ -inch split on the bottom edge in the middle and the LP artists and tile written lightly in blue ballpoint on one side near the top opening.

It also comes with its ORIGINAL POSTER-BOARD INSERT OF CUT-OUTS on stiff posterboard with light to moderate signs of wear/handling including several light creases near the top of the insert and light aging/foxing on the back.

The MONO version of this LP, especially the FIRST PRESSING, has become VERY DESIRABLE and HARDER-TO-FIND.

A FIRST MONO PRESSING OF THIS BEATLES’ LANDMARK LP to add to your vinyl collection.

(I read somewhere that John Lennon once remarked that you haven’t really heard “Sgt. Pepper” as it was intended to sound if you haven’t heard it in the original Mono.)

Thanks to the Price Guide for the Beatles American Records by Perry Cox and Frank Daniels for some information about this LP.

FYI: I used the COVER/SLEEVE GRADES and RECORD GRADES listed and described on page 8 of the Price Guide for the Beatles American Records. These grades are Poor (Pr), Fair (Fr), Good Minus (G-), Good (G), Good+ (G+), Very Good Minus (VG-), Very Good (VG), Very Good+ (VG+), Near Mint Minus or Very Good++ (NM- or VG++), Near Mint (NM), Mint Minus (M-), and Mint (M or MT) to VISUALLY grade this LP, so please know the descriptions of these grades before bidding. Please ask any questions BEFORE bidding. And please check my other auctions for more records you may want to add to your collection. Be high bidder on several and combine shipping on auction items that finish on the same weekend. (NOTE: If more than 1 auction is won by the same bidder, please do NOT make payment until I send an invoice with combined shipping cost.) Winning bidder must remit payment within 5 days of auction close. Add $4.00 for shipping to a U.S. address via media mail with tracking.