Listen to Yes playing The Beatles' classic Eleanor Rigby

Yes sharing a sofa in August 1969 — (Image credit: George Wilkes/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Rare audio of prog icons Yes playing a version of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby has emerged online. The recording, which was made in February 1969 during sessions at Polydor Studios in London with producer John Anthony, was uploaded to YouTube late last week.

"This particular recording has never been publicly released before," reports YouTuber Ian Hartley, who uploaded the track. "Here is the first (failed) take of the ER run-throughs as recorded in raw form at the time. Apart from some speed correction, no remastering was done to the master tapes."

Harley, who describes himself as a "60-something Bootleg record collector and classic rock fan interested in coloured vinyl records of all sorts," and uses the 'pig' logo of famed Californian bootleg label Trademark Of Quality as his avatar, says that the release of further such recordings may follow.

The performance finds Yes upping the original's tempo significantly, with a lengthy psychedelic intro from guitarist Peter Banks and keyboardist Tony Kaye giving way to Chris Squire's rumbling bass and a short vocal from Jon Anderson, before the singer calls a halt to proceedings just before the two-minute mark.

The precise origins of the recording remain unclear, although in 2009 Bonhams auction house in London listed a tape recorded with John Anthony on February 14, 1969, that included three other songs: a cover of Stephen Stills' Everydays, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's Something's Coming, and Dear Father.

Yes signed to Atlantic Records in March 1969 and released their self-titled debut four months later. None of the songs known to have been recorded during the sessions with Anthony made the final tracklist, although versions of Everydays, Something's Coming and Dear Father appeared as b-sides of Yes's first three single releases.

According to the YesFans forum, there are three known recordings of Yes playing Eleanor Rigby in the studio, although none have been officially released.

YES - RARE STUDIO RECORDING - ELEANOR RIGBY 1969 - FAILED TAKE 1 - YouTube

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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.