The Beatles' 5-Hour Recording Session That Made History

Thursday, October 9, 2025

There are a few sayings that you need to keep handy when record collecting. The chase is better than the catch. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. And in a recent month at Discogs, the online database of audio recordings and marketplace, one saying stands true: beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Or more accurately, a record's worth is really how much a person is willing to pay for it. And it might shock you how much someone paid for an EP by an Irish quartet, and how it outsold The Beatles.

When Discogs revealed its monthly "The 25 Most Valuable Records Sold" report for September 2025, it was surprising to see that an ultrarare copy of The Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me, came in at second place. At No. 1? The debut release from U2.

U2 (Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.) experienced their breakthrough success in the 1980s with albums like War, The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree. But in 1979, they were just starting out, releasing their debut EP, Three.

The band pressed 1,000 copies of their three-song EP, each coming with a hand-numbered sticker on a CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) sleeve. This particular copy has the band's name spelled as "U-2" on the label. The member's names are inscribed on the records' runouts, STEREO is eplled in all caps, and the "correct spelling of their native 'Ireland.'

Source: Jason Brow/yahoo.com