Apple Records

• 1. Introduction

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  Apple Records was founded in 1968 by the four members of the Beatles, and its origin story begins with a painting. Paul McCartney had become an admirer of Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte, and in 1967 a friend bought him a work called Le Jeu De Mourre. The painting showed a green apple with the words Au Revoir placed across it. When McCartney first saw it, he was struck by the simplicity of the image. That single green apple would become one of the most recognizable logos in music history.

  But Apple Records was never just a logo. It was an attempt by the most famous band in the world to take control of their own creative and financial lives. How that attempt unfolded, who fought over it, and what it left behind raises questions that run through the entire history of popular music. What happens when artists try to run a business? What happens when the business starts to overshadow the art? And what do you do when your label outlives the band that built it?

• 2. A Company Built from Grief

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  Apple Corps Ltd took shape in 1967 after the death of the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein. Epstein had been developing a plan to create a tax-effective business structure for the band through a cluster of smaller companies. Apple Retail, Apple Publishing, Apple Electronics, and other divisions were all part of that original framework.

  The first project the band released under the Apple umbrella was the film Magical Mystery Tour, produced through the Apple Films division. Apple Records itself came into being after the Beatles returned from India in 1968, as yet another branch of the expanding corporate tree.

  At the time, the Beatles remained under contract to EMI. A new distribution arrangement meant EMI and its American subsidiary Capitol Records would handle Apple releases through 1976, though EMI kept ownership of the recordings. In Britain, Beatles releases on the Apple label carried Parlophone catalogue numbers; in America, they bore Capitol numbers. That split arrangement would later shape a tangle of rights disputes that lasted decades.

• 3. The Green Apple and Its Variations

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  Standard Apple releases featured a bright green Granny Smith apple on the A-side of a record, with a cross-section of the apple on the reverse. The image was clean and instantly identifiable. McCartney still owns the Magritte painting that inspired it, the 1966 work he acquired in 1967.

  But the label's designers found reasons to alter that apple more often than listeners might have guessed. On the American pressing of Let It Be, the apple was red. The album was manufactured and distributed by United Artists Records rather than Capitol Records, and the color change was used to signal the contractual difference. George Harrison's All Things Must Pass triple album used orange apples on the first two discs and a jar label reading Apple Jam on the third.

  John Lennon's album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono's album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band both used black and white apples. Ringo Starr's single "Back Off Boogaloo" carried a blue apple. Harrison's album Extra Texture (Read All About It) depicted the apple in a shrunken cartoon form, eaten away at its core. Harrison intended that image as a joke: the album came out at a time when Apple Records was beginning to fold. For Lennon's Imagine and Ono's Fly in 1971, the apples bore photographs of Lennon and Ono respectively.

• 4. Allen Klein and the Takeover

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  In 1969, John Lennon was approached by Allen Klein, who had previously managed the Rolling Stones. The Beatles needed financial and managerial direction, and Klein came with a reputation for getting artists better deals. Three of the four Beatles supported bringing him in. Paul McCartney was the only member who opposed the appointment; he had put forward his father-in-law Lee Eastman for the role instead.

  Klein moved quickly once he took control. He shut down several Apple sub-divisions, including Apple Electronics, and trimmed the label's artist roster. New signings slowed considerably and tended to arrive through the personal connections of individual former Beatles rather than through any coordinated strategy. Elephant's Memory came through Lennon; Ravi Shankar came through Harrison. McCartney had little meaningful input into the label's roster after 1970.

  One of Klein's more consequential decisions involved the Beatles' pre-Apple Capitol catalogue. In May 1971, every album and single from Meet the Beatles! through Magical Mystery Tour, and from "I Want to Hold Your Hand" through "Lady Madonna", was reissued on the Apple label. The album covers stayed the same, Capitol logos and all. Klein's contract expired in March 1973, at which point he departed and Neil Aspinall took over management of Apple on behalf of the four Beatles and their heirs.

• 5. Zapple: The Short-Lived Experiment

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  Apple Records gave birth to a short-lived subsidiary called Zapple Records, run by Barry Miles, a friend of McCartney. Zapple was conceived as a budget outlet for spoken word and avant-garde recordings, structured more like a literary magazine than a conventional record label.

  Miles began the first recordings in January 1969, capturing field recordings of poets in their homes on a portable tape recorder as he toured the east coast of America. Among those recorded were the poet and Fugs drummer Ken Weaver and the Black Mountain poet Charles Olson. A spoken word album by Lawrence Ferlinghetti had been recorded and edited; it was set to become Zapple 4. An album by Michael McClure had also been recorded, as had a planned release from comedian Lenny Bruce and a project from American author Ken Kesey, who was given a tape recorder to document his impressions of London.

  Only two records ever appeared on the label. The launch releases were Lennon and Ono's avant-garde Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and Harrison's Electronic Sound. A third album, readings by Richard Brautigan, reached the stage of acetate disc copies and test pressings, but Klein shut Zapple down before it could be released. Miles later recalled that none of the Beatles had ever heard Brautigan's record. Brautigan's album eventually appeared on Harvest Records, a subsidiary of Apple's distributor EMI. Zapple existed as an active label from the 3rd of February 1969 until June 1969, a span of just a few months.

• 6. Artists Who Passed Through

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  The roster Apple assembled in its early years cut across genres in ways that reflected the individual enthusiasms of each Beatle. Mary Hopkin was discovered after appearing on a UK television talent show, with the model Twiggy suggesting her to the label. Her recordings, produced by McCartney, included the Lennon-McCartney original "Goodbye" and her hit version of "Those Were the Days". She also released a Eurovision Song Contest entry on Apple titled "Knock, Knock Who's There?"

  Badfinger, originally called the Iveys, came to the label after road manager Mal Evans brought in demo tapes and received approval from McCartney, Harrison, and Lennon. The band recorded five albums for Apple and scored several top 10 hits in both the UK and US, including the McCartney song "Come and Get It".

  Billy Preston was brought into the studio in January 1969 for the "Get Back" and "Let It Be" sessions, then signed as a solo artist. Harrison produced Preston's recordings, including the 1969 hit single "That's The Way God Planned It", which featured Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Preston's recording of Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" was released on Apple before Harrison's own version appeared.

  Not every artist who came close made it onto the label. The Delaney and Bonnie album Accept No Substitute was pressed in England before Apple discovered the band were already contracted to another label. No covers were ever printed. The discs exist today as high-value collectibles.

• 7. Reissues, Lawsuits, and Survival

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  Apple Records' distribution deal with EMI expired in 1976. At that point, control of the Beatles' catalogue reverted to EMI, along with solo recordings by Harrison, Lennon, and Starr made to that date. McCartney had separately acquired ownership of his solo recordings when he re-signed with Capitol in 1975.

  The original UK versions of the Beatles' albums arrived on compact disc through EMI on the Parlophone label in 1987 and 1988. Abbey Road had appeared on CD earlier, in Japan in 1983 on the Toshiba-EMI label, though that release was not authorised by the Beatles, EMI, or Apple Corps.

  A ten-year lawsuit between Apple and EMI was settled in 1989. The settlement opened the door to new projects, including the Live at the BBC album and the Beatles Anthology series. The Anthology, spearheaded by Neil Aspinall, brought the company back to significant profitability.

  A separate dispute with Apple Inc. reached Britain's High Court in 2006, in the case known as Apple Corps v Apple Computer. Aspinall retired in 2007 after decades running the label. The Beatles' catalogue was remastered and reissued in September 2009, then made available on iTunes in November 2010. Apple Records published what would become their final album in June 2009: Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison. When Universal Music Group acquired EMI and the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, a new entity called Calderstone Productions was formed in 2012 to administer the catalogue going forward.