Lennon's lyrics to go under hammer

John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to "A Day in the Life", considered one of The Beatles' greatest songs and the final track on Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, will go on sale in New York.

Sotheby's, which described it as "the revolutionary song that marked The Beatles' transformation from pop icons to artists", expects the manuscript to fetch between $500,000 (£330,000) and $700,000 when it goes under the hammer on 18 June.

The single sheet of paper features a rough draft of the lyrics, including crossings out and a spelling error where "film" is written as "flim". On the reverse side is a neater version written in capital letters and with fewer corrections. Apparently added later is the line, "I love to turn you on", for which the song was banned by the BBC when it first came out in 1967 because the words were deemed to be a reference to taking drugs.

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band topped the US and British charts and won four Grammy awards in 1968. "A Day in the Life" is ranked No 26 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The lyrics provide a glimpse into the band's methods, with Lennon noting where Paul McCartney would insert his more upbeat verse. The lyric sheet once belonged to Mal Evans, The Beatles' road manager.