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Question: I have a John Lennon Roots LP and was wondering what would be the best way to sell and approximate the value. The vinyl is in excellent condition, as it was played only twice and then not all the way through. It is an original, as I bought it from a TV ad in the mid '70s.
- Larry Lampron
Answer: The Roots album was one of the strangest events in Lennon's career. First, some background:
After John Lennon paid homage to Chuck Berry by quoting two lines from Berry's hit "You Can't Catch Me" in the 1969 Beatles hit "Come Together," the owner of the publishing rights, Morris Levy, sued for infringement. Levy won an initial judgment, and as part of the settlement, Lennon agreed to record three songs that were owned by Levy's publishing house, Big Seven Music.
In 1973, Lennon began recording a collection of rock 'n' roll oldies with producer Phil Spector. After the sessions broke down, Lennon moved on. He returned to the project, without Spector's involvement, in late 1974. Most of the tracks from these sessions would finally see official release in 1975 on Apple Records under the name Rock 'n' Roll.
Somewhere during this process, Levy claimed that Lennon had agreed to allow this collection of oldies to be released on Levy's mail-order label, Adam VIII Ltd., as further settlement to the "You Can't Catch Me" lawsuit.
Eventually, a court ruled that no such agreement existed, and that Levy had no right to release the album, which he called John Lennon Sings the Great Rock 'n' Roll Hits: Roots. Before that, it was very briefly advertised on independent TV stations in early 1975, but the ads stopped after a quick cease-and-desist order from Capitol/Apple. According to court documents, exactly 1,270 copies of Roots were sold.
An authentic copy, which our reader appears to have, is a true collector's item worth hundreds of dollars. I'd suggest contacting any of the fine Beatles-related sellers who advertise regularly in...