| Apple Records | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Apple Corps |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Founder | The Beatles |
| Distributor(s) | Capitol Records EMI Music Group |
| Genre | Rock Experimental Indian Classical |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Official Website | www.applerecords.com |
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston. In practice, by the mid-1970s, the roster had become dominated with releases from the former Beatles. Allen Klein ran the label in 1969. It was then run by Neil Aspinall on behalf of the four Beatles and their heirs. He retired in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Jones.
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Apple Corps was already conceived by Brian Epstein and The Beatles by 1967 when the Beatles had released their Magical Mystery Tour film under their new Apple Films division. Apple Records was officially founded in 1968 as another sub-division of The Beatles' own Apple Corps, which was established as a small group of companies (Apple Retail, Apple Publishing, Apple Electronics and so on). At this time, The Beatles were contracted to Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Capitol Records in the United States. In a new distribution deal, EMI and Capitol agreed to distribute Apple Records until 1975, while EMI retained ownership of The Beatles' recordings. Recordings issued on the Apple label carried Parlophone R-prefixed catalogue numbers. Apple Records owns the rights to all of The Beatles' videos and movie clips, and the rights to recordings of other artists signed to the label. The first catalogue number, Apple 1, was a one-off pressing of Frank Sinatra singing "Maureen Is A Champ" (with lyrics by Sammy Kahn) to the tune of Lady Is A Tramp for Ringo Starr's then-wife Maureen.
Initially, Apple Records and Apple Publishing signed a number of acts whom The Beatles personally discovered or supported, and in most cases one or more of The Beatles would be involved in the recording sessions. Several notable artists were signed in the first year including James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Billy Preston, The Modern Jazz Quartet and The Iveys (who later became Badfinger).
In 1969, the Beatles were in need of financial and managerial direction and Lennon was introduced to Allen Klein through Mick Jagger, as Klein was managing The Rolling Stones at the time.[1] Klein went on to manage Apple, by virtue of his three-to-one support from the Beatles, Paul McCartney the only group member opposed to his involvement. (McCartney had suggested his then new father-in-law Lee Eastman for the job.)
After Klein took control of Apple, several sub-divisions, including Apple Electronics, were shut down, and some of Apple Records' artistic roster effectively dropped. Thereafter, new signings were not so numerous, and tended to arrive through the individual actions of The (ex-)Beatles, with the formal approval of the others. (e.g., Elephant's Memory were recruited through John Lennon, Ravi Shankar through George Harrison, etc.) Paul McCartney had little input into Apple Records' roster after 1970. Klein managed Apple Corp. until March 1973 when his contract expired.
Original U.K. versions of all standard Beatles albums were released worldwide on CD in 1987 and 1988 on the Parlophone label with no Apple logo, even including albums originally released on Apple. Previously, Abbey Road had been issued on CD by the EMI-Odeon label in Japan in the early 1980s. Although this was a legitimate release, it was not authorised by the Beatles, the main EMI company or Apple Corps. As a result, very few were made. It was not until the 1962–1966/1967–1970 reissues, BBC sessions and The Beatles Anthology series that Apple labels started appearing on the CDs. Subsequent releases have been on the familiar Apple label or at least had the Apple logo, including copies of the 1987 and 1988 catalogue. It was after the Anthology project (spearheaded by Neil Aspinall) that the company resumed making significantly large profits again and began its revival.
In 2006 the label was again newsworthy, as the long-running dispute between Apple Records' parent company and Apple Inc. went to the High Court (see Apple Corps v Apple Computer). In 2007, the company settled a dispute with EMI over royalties, and announced that long term chief executive Neil Aspinall had retired and been replaced by American music industry executive Jeff Jones.[2] These changes led to speculation that the Apple Records catalogue — and most importantly The Beatles discography — would soon appear on Apple Inc.'s iTunes online music store,[3] and that a remastering and reissue program of The Beatles' CDs might be forthcoming (Jones having worked on reissues at Sony).[2] On 1 July 2010, it was reported that Capitol Records was planning a re-release strategy for most of Apple's back catalogue.[4] This would include re-releases of material by artists who worked at Apple including Badfinger, James Taylor, Billy Preston and Mary Hopkin. On November 16, 2010, Apple Inc. launched an extensive advertising campaign that announced the availability of The Beatles entire catalog on iTunes.[5]
Standard Apple album and single labels displayed a bright green Granny Smith apple on the A-side, while the flipside displayed the midsection of the apple cut in half. The bright green apple returned for Beatles CDs releases in the 1990s, following initial CD releases on Parlophone. However, on the U.S. issue of the Beatles' Let It Be album, the Granny Smith apple was red. The reason was that in the United States that album, being the soundtrack to the movie of the same name, was, for contractual reasons, being manufactured and distributed by United Artists Records and not Capitol Records, so the red apple was used to mark the difference. The red apple also appeared on the back cover, and on the 2009 remastered edition back cover. In the late 70s, Capitol's parent company EMI later purchased United Artists Records and Capitol gained the American rights to the Let It Be soundtrack album (along with the America rights to another, earlier, UA Beatles movie soundtrack LP, 1964's A Hard Day's Night). Aside from the red apple, there have been other examples where the apple has been changed, notably on George Harrison's Extra Texture (Read All About It), where it is eaten away apple core (this was intended to be a joke because it was released at a time when Apple Records was beginning to fold). And there were some more: in 1970 for George Harrison's All Things Must Pass triple album two records that have orange apples and one with an Apple Jam jar; in 1970 for John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band black and white apple labels; in 1972 for Ringo Starr's Back Off Boogaloo blue apples; in 1975 for Ringo Starr's Blast From Your Past red apples. Also other type of apples were used: in 1971 for John Lennon's Imagine and Yoko Ono's Fly, in 1973 for Yoko Ono's Approximately Infinite Universe and the singles that were released from those three albums.
Zapple Records, an Apple Records subsidiary run by Barry Miles, a friend and ultimately biographer of Paul McCartney, was intended as an outlet for the release of spoken word and avant garde records. It was active from October 1968 until June 1969, and only two albums were released on the label, one by John Lennon and Yoko Ono (Unfinished Music No.2: Life With The Lions) and one by George Harrison (Electronic Sound). An album of readings by Richard Brautigan was planned for release as Zapple 3, and acetate disc copies were cut, but, said Miles, "The Zapple label was folded by Klein before the record could be released. The first two Zapple records did come out. We just didn't have [Brautigan's record] ready in time before Klein closed it down. None of the Beatles ever heard it."[6] Brautigan's record was eventually released as Listening To Richard Brautigan on Harvest Records, a subsidiary of Apple distributor EMI, in the US only.[6] According to Miles, a spoken word album by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, which had been recorded and edited, would have been Zapple 4, and a spoken word album by Michael McClure had also been recorded.[6] A planned Zapple release of a UK appearance by comedian Lenny Bruce was never completed. An early 1969 press release also named Pablo Casals as an expected guest on the label. As noted above, Zapple was shut down in June 1969 by Klein, apparently with the backing of John Lennon.[7]
Also released were the soundtracks to Come Together and El Topo (in the U.S.), the onetime Philles Records compilation Phil Spector's Christmas Album and the multi-artist The Concert for Bangla Desh. Cassette and 8-track tape versions of Bangla Desh were marketed by Columbia Records, in a deal that permitted the inclusion of Bob Dylan, a Columbia artist, on the album.
Artists who went on to have considerable success in the pop and rock world (though in some cases, for their post-Apple work) include Badfinger (originally known as The Iveys), James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Hot Chocolate, Yoko Ono and Billy Preston.
Artists who were to appear on the label, but did not make it, include:
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