“Lennon says, ‘Tell him we’ll put the guitar on our next album cover.’ The guy says, ‘Nope, sorry.’ The album was Sgt. Pepper’s”: The day the Beatles visited New York’s most legendary guitar store

The Beatles perform onstage at the Circus Krone-Bau in Munich, Germany on June 24, 1966.

Of all the storied guitar stores that once lined 48th Street in New York City, none had quite the pedigree of Manny's Music.

To list all of the store's notable clientele over the decades before its closure in 2009 would be a fruitless exercise – suffice to say, even the biggest of rock's big names walked through its doors at one point or another. And we do mean the biggest.

One day in the mid-’60s, with Beatlemania still raging, the Fab Four (sans George Harrison) strode into Manny's. It was a busy day, though, and they weren't about to get special treatment.

Speaking to Guitar World back in 1980, the shop's longtime owner, Henry Goldrich, recounted, “It must have been in the mid-’60s that they came in the store, and we were just too busy to take care of them. We asked if they would come back but they said they would wait and they sat in the back and amused themselves for about a half-hour until we could get a salesman free.”

As one might expect, the boys were looking for a guitar – though Goldrich, frustratingly, couldn't recall the make or model when telling GW the story. Either way, it's one hell of an anecdote.

A selection of memorabilia from Manny's that was auctioned in 2011 – including signed photos of customers including Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, The Ramones, and The Who (Image credit: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)

“They wanted a guitar for one of their albums,” Goldrich – who passed away in 2021 at the age of 88 – recalled. “So we called up the guy who owned the company, I can't remember the name, and told him what they wanted.

“The guy said, ‘I can't give them a guitar but we'll sell it to them for cost.’ So [John] Lennon says to me, ‘Tell him we'll put it on our next album cover.’ I tell him and the guy says, ‘Nope, I'm sorry.’ And they didn't end up using the guitar after all.

“Oh, and by the way,” the store's manager concluded, “the album they were talking about turned out to be Sgt. Pepper's.”

Though its physical location was closed in 2009, the Manny's trademark was owned by Sam Ash Music Store until that brand closed its own stores last year. Sam Ash then sold the Manny's trademark to Vista Musical Instruments, which subsequently opened a digital store under the Manny's name.