Full Description
The Beatles
pioneered so much in the recording studio during their short time together that
it's easy to forget that they formed their own record company in April 1968.
Their business plan: to find and fund new musical talent. By the end of the
year Apple had signed James Taylor and struck lucky with Mary Hopkin. The
much-admired Badfinger followed, along with albums by obvious associates (Billy
Preston, Ravi Shankar, Yoko Ono) and not-so-obvious (John Tavener, Modern Jazz
Quartet, Radha Krishna Temple) with mixed financial and artistic success.
But The Beatles were not businessmen and the
early optimism of shiny newness soon soured into chaos. Major acts such as 10cc
and Crosby, Stills & Nash slipped through their fingers. Allen Klein was
appointed to sort out the mess, but disenfranchised nearly everybody. Paul left
The Beatles and sued the others. In 1975, The Beatles' partnership was legally
terminated and Apple Records, a vanity label in all but name, was quietly put
to sleep.
Apple Of My Eye revisits each of the albums
and singles released by Apple between 1968 and 1975, underpinned by the
business and legal context of the last days of the world's greatest band.
