Music Friday: Beatles Sing, ‘Give Back Your Ring to Me, And I Will Set You Free’

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great throwback songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. In today’s selection, John Lennon of The Beatles performs the lead vocals to “Anna,” the third track of the legendary group’s 1963 debut studio album, Please Please Me.

In the song, Lennon woefully accepts the fact that his girlfriend is in love with another man. He also insists on the return of the shining symbol of his affection, singing, “Anna, just one more thing girl / You give back your ring to me / And I will set you free / Go with him.”

Written and originally recorded by Arthur Alexander, “Anna” was a favorite of Lennon, who recommended that The Beatles cover it for Please Please Me.

When Alexander released his version 60 years ago in September 1962, it peaked on the Billboard chart at a modest #68. Less than a year later, it would be included on one of the most famous albums of all time — a work that would launch the careers of The Fab Four.

The album Please Please Me was released in the UK in March 1963 and in the U.S. in January of 1964 by Vee-Jay Records under the name Introducing… The Beatles.

Interestingly, the U.S. version stalled for nine weeks at #2 on the Billboard album chart. The #1 album during the same period was Meet The Beatles on Capitol Records.

Music critics noted that Lennon’s raspy vocals on “Anna” reflected a “tortured pain.” One explanation is that Lennon had a terrible cold during the historic session of February 1, 1963, when The Beatles recorded 11 songs in 10 hours.

Another oddity about the song is its subtitle (Go to Him). The lyrics of both Alexander’s and The Beatles’ versions clearly state, “Go with him.”

The Beatles went on to become the best-selling band in history, with 177 million certified records in the US and 600 million records worldwide. In 2004 and again in 2011, the group topped Rolling Stone magazine's list of the Greatest Artists in History.

The two surviving Beatles are Paul McCartney (80) and Ringo Starr (82). John Lennon was shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City in 1980. He was 41. George Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001 at the age of 58.

We invite you to enjoy the audio track of Lennon and The Beatles performing “Anna.” As a bonus, we've also included Alexander's original version. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along.

“Anna (Go to Him)”
Written by Arthur Alexander. Performed by The Beatles.

Anna, you come and ask me girl
To set you free, girl
You say he loves you more than me
So I will set you free
Go with him
(Anna)
Go with him
(Anna)

Anna, girl, before you go now
I want you to know now
That I still love you so
But if he loves you more
Go with him

All of my life I’ve been searching for a girl
To love me like I love you
Oh, now
But every girl I’ve ever had
Breaks my heart and leaves me sad
What am I, what am I supposed to do?
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Anna, just one more thing girl
You give back your ring to me
And I will set you free
Go with him

All of my lifeI’ve been searching for a girl
To love me like I love you
But let me tell you now
But every girl I’ve ever had
Breaks my heart and leaves me sad
What am I, what am I supposed to do?
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Anna, just one more thing girl
You give back your ring to me
And I will set you free
Go with him
(Anna)
Go with him
(Anna)
You can go with him girl
(Anna)
Go with him

Beatles Version 1963

Arthur Alexander Original Version 1962

Credit: The Beatles with Ed Sullivan by CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Gold Rush-Era Sunken Treasure Was Destined for E. Coast Jewelry Stores

For more than 130 years, the sunken steamer known as the Ship of Gold, rested undisturbed in the Atlantic Ocean 7,200 feet beneath the surface, about 200 miles off the coast of South Carolina.

The side-wheeler, also known as the SS Central America, met its watery demise in 1857 when it got torn up by a hurricane while transporting precious cargo from Panama to Philadelphia via New York City. Onboard were 30,000 pounds of Gold Rush-era treasure and 578 passengers.

Only 153 people survived the disaster and all the cargo was lost. Headlines across the country declared the sinking of the 280-foot SS Central America as the country’s worst peacetime disaster at sea. The loss of the gold cargo was a major factor in the economically devastating financial Panic of 1857 in the United States.

The long-lost ship was back in the news in 1988 when an inventor named Tommy Thompson spearheaded a recovery operation, which involved sending down to the ocean floor a remotely operated vehicle named Nemo. Recovery from the shipwreck site occurred in several stages between 1988-1991 and again in 2014, according to Fred Holabird, president of Holabird Western Americana Collections.

Artifacts from the site included dozens of 1850s gold rings, stickpins, cufflinks, a gold belt buckle, and several recovered pocket watch cases and covers. Some of the recovered rings have heart shapes waiting to be engraved with lovers’ initials once they reached their destination. California gold quartz items, such as cufflinks and brooches, were also found.

“Much of the gold jewelry was part of a commercial shipment, either carried by one of the jewelers on board or by a separate shipment transported on the voyage going to New York," explained Holabird. "Gold nugget stickpins were found still attached to their original thick paper boards, ready for resale on the New York or eastern seaboard jewelry market.”

On December 3, 2022, selected artifacts from the Ship of Gold will highlight a public auction at the Reno Convention Center in Nevada. Bidding will also take place online at www.HolabirdAmericana.com.

A second auction of hundreds of additional artifacts retrieved from the famous shipwreck will be offered in February 2023 (Exact dates to be announced).

“Many collectors have been waiting for these extraordinary items to come on the market since the legendary SS Central America was located in 1988 and Life magazine proclaimed it America’s greatest treasure ever found,” said Holabird.

According to a press release, insurance claims for the loss were paid in the 1850s, and the company that discovered and retrieved the treasure starting in 1988 settled with the insurers and their successors in 1992. With court approval, California Gold Marketing Group acquired clear title to all of that remaining treasure in 1999 as well as all the items recovered in 2014.

Credits: Images courtesy of Holabird Western Americana Collections.

Mysterious, Otherworldly Black Diamonds Take Center Stage on Halloween

Hey, it's Halloween, so let's take a deep dive into the curious, otherworldly origins of black diamonds — the spookiest variety of the world's hardest material.

Black diamonds are also known as “carbonado diamonds,” and gemologists believe that they likely formed in outer space and were brought to earth by meteorites. Earth-formed diamonds often display a crystal structure, while carbonado diamonds — in their natural, unpolished form — have an irregular surface that resembles charcoal.

Black diamonds are also different than other colored diamonds because they do not get their color from trace amounts of nitrogen, hydrogen or boron in the gem’s chemical makeup. Instead, black diamonds owe their color to numerous dark inclusions (mostly graphite). Their opaqueness is caused by a “polycrystalline” structure that inhibits the reflection of light.

Black diamonds are also known to be "tougher" than conventional diamonds.

Leibish Polnauer, the founder of New York-based Leibish & Co. and world-renowned authority on fancy color diamonds, told us in 2020 that natural black diamonds are extremely difficult to cut and polish.

“Black diamonds are exceptionally hard,” he said. “They actually eat up the polishing wheels.”

A rough diamond is cut and shaped by placing it on a polishing wheel, where a large stone disc covered in a layer of solidified diamond powder rotates and sands down the diamond in short bursts.

Polnauer explained that diamond cutters use diamond powder on their polishing wheels, since the only material that can be used to mechanically cut a diamond is another diamond.

Even so, the diamond powder used on the wheels is often no match for black diamonds.

Polnauer said that black diamonds are heavily included and contain hard nodes that eat away at the polishing powder, forcing the cutters to replenish the powder more often than when polishing other types of diamonds.

Polnauer explained in a column titled “The 18 Most Asked Questions About Black Diamonds,” that natural black diamonds are somewhat different from most other diamonds in that they are entirely opaque.

“These stones are incredibly precious, absolutely beautiful and considered quite valuable,” he wrote. “Still, even with all the hype of black diamonds, these stones are more affordable than most other natural fancy colored diamonds.”

Carbonado diamonds are found in only two places on earth — Brazil and the Central African Republic. (During the Earth’s history, the eastern coast of Brazil may have been connected geographically to the western coast of Africa before breaking apart due to continental drift).

The polished diamond shown, above, is the 555.55-carat black carbonado diamond previously known as “The Enigma.” The 55-facet gem was renamed the Hex.com Diamond after Richard Heart, the founder of cryptocurrency company Hex, submitted the winning bid of $4.29 million at a Sotheby's online auction in February of 2022. The transaction was completed in cryptocurrency.

In 2006, The Enigma officially entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Largest Cut Fancy Black Diamond.”

Credits: Enigma image via Instagram / Sothebysjewels. Carbonaro rough diamonds image by James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.