BEATLES
Hard Day's Night
$5,000.00
1964 original gold LP presented to "Richard L. James", a.k.a. Dick James, the Beatles' UK music publisher for sales of one million copies. In 1958, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), as the official arm of the record business, began awarding gold albums to artists for sales exceeding 500,000 copies. Once a record met that sales minimum, all record companies that were members of the RIAA could submit the request with the applicable documentation of certification. “A Hard Day’s Night” would have been certified gold shortly after release and an RIAA White Matte award would have been issued to the Beatles and a small number of close associates responsible for the album (industry experts estimate that 10 to 15 RIAA White Matte awards were issued in 1964 per certified album).
Even years after the formation of the RIAA, many companies chose not to be members. United Artists was a company that was not an RIAA member in 1964 and therefore was not able to submit this album for RIAA gold record certification. While the United Artists “A Hard Day’s Night” album is one of the biggest selling titles in their history, U.A. never submitted it for official RIAA gold recognition. Of all the major United States Beatles albums released between 1964 and 1970 (“Meet The Beatles” through “Let It Be”), “A Hard Day’s Night” is the only album not to receive a “white matte” RIAA Gold Record Award.
Consequently, this "in-house" award is the only style award made for this United Artists title in 1964. This is only the second one to surface on the open market, the other being presented to Ringo Starr (actually owned by him), which recently sold for over $20,000 at auction.
When originally issued, this award had a gold wooden frame, which was later replaced with this gold metal frame by Dick James, according to Stephen James (Dick's son), who consigned it to Omega Auctions in the UK in 2022.
Amazingly, this award actually plays side one of the Hard Day's Night soundtrack album matching the label. Very few awards play the same record, but this actually does since the award manufacturer was supplied a metal stamper, presumably from United Artists Records or their distributor.
This award is in beautiful condition with some minor scratches and very minimal fading on the label detected, the only area being a red circle at the top, which is now pink.
OVERSIZED ITEM. PLEASE REQUEST A SHIPPING QUOTE.
Label: Apple
Condition: VG+
Item#: 37643
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