Hand-written John Lennon lyrics head to auction

John Lennon's hand written lyrics to "A Day in the Life," the haunting final song on the 1967 "Sgt.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album, are to go on sale at Sotheby's this June.

The auction house estimated that the double-sided page of writing, inscribed with corrections, will sell for between 500,000 and 700,000 dollars when it goes under the hammer on June 19 in New York.

The album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts" spent 27 weeks at the top of the British charts and 15 weeks at the top of the US Billboard 200 chart.

Sotheby's described "A Day" as "the revolutionary song that marked the Beatles' transformation from pop icons to artists."

The lyrics sheet, which includes the dark line "he blew his mind out in a car," formerly belonged to Beatles road manager Mal Evans.

The BBC banned the song when it came out because of criticism that the lyrics encouraged drug use.