Unheard Lennon recordings sold at auction

Two previously unheard recordings by John Lennon have been sold for £134,000 (€216,000) when they went under the hammer at an auction of pop memorabilia.

A tape of the late Beatle improvising songs and telling stories to Kyoko, his six-year-old stepdaughter by Yoko Ono, fetched £75,250 (€121,000).

Recorded during the summer of 1969, it features Lennon reciting nursery rhymes and telling the little girl a tale of a dwarf who lived in the garden.

A 25-minute cassette of Lennon developing the melody and lyrics for She Said, She Said in 1966, which was later released on the Revolver album, went for £58,750 (€95,000). Lennon gave the tape to Tony Cox, Ono's first husband, during a visit to Cox's home in Denmark.

It contains lyrics which never made it into the finished version, including: "When I was a little boy, I never had no toy... and I might be green, I might be green." Both were bought by a private collector from the US at the sale at Christie's auction house in central London.

The rare Lennon recordings were the star lots in what proved to be Christie's best ever sale of pop memorabilia, which grossed a total of £532,642 (€862,000).