A handwritten lyric sheet for All You Need is Love used by John Lennon in 1967 was sold for mpre than $NZ1.5 million at an auction in London.
The manuscript was part of a pop memorabilia sale featuring clothes, paintings and musical instruments from Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and others.
The All You Need Is Love lyric sheet was used by Lennon during a television performance by the Beatles and could be seen on film footage dropping to the floor after the song was performed, said a spokesman for auctioneers Cooper Owen.
A girl working for the BBC at the time retrieved the manuscript from beneath Lennon's music stand. She provided a letter of authenticity for Thursday's sale.
"The atmosphere really was quite something, especially when the manuscript was sold for 600,000 pounds," a Cooper Owen spokesman said. The buyer's identity was not revealed.
A military-style tunic worn by Lennon that inspired the Beatles' famous Sergeant. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band record cover fetched $NZ256,000.
A pair of Lennon's trademark round wire spectacles was sold for $NZ140,000.