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Rating: "Apple is a sort of Western communism managed by free people for free people who can no longer stand men in gray." This is how in 1968 John Lennon and Paul McCartney in a press conference announced the birth of Apple Corps. The name was derived from a painting by Magritte, the logo, which later became legendary, was a green apple on side A and an apple cut in half on side B, and the idea was to finance and promote new talents and artistic vanguards, as well as to invest their own earnings bypassing taxes.
A substantial advertising campaign stated: "This man has talent. One day he sent a demo to Apple and today he owns a Bentley..." Apple Corps was divided into different branches: Apple Music (with the Zapple outlet that dealt with vanguard), Apple Films, Apple Electronics, Apple Boutique located in Baker Street, and Apple Publishing. At Savile Row, the headquarters, the Apple Studio was also realized, modeled after Studio 2 of Abbey Road. Each of the Beatles chose the artists, but even their trusted men like Derek Taylor, Mal Evans, or Peter Asher could propose contracts. The management was not only free but rather cheerful, and in the span of two or three years, everything ended in chaos: the Apple Boutique even closed earlier, on the brink of bankruptcy after becoming the subject of theft and shoplifting, as anyone could take away undisturbed the expensive silk clothes or Indian tunics. The dream definitively faded when, Allen Klein, a gray man from New York, was hired to bring order (Klein was also one of the main causes of the Beatles' breakup, but that's another story).
But among the tons of tapes that lay unheard in the offices, Apple produced many valid artists and much good music, besides, of course, the Beatles' own records. Zapple produced only two experimental albums, one by John (Life With The Lions) and one by George (Electronic Sounds), even though there were really interesting things in the pipeline like "spoken" albums by Richard Brautigan, Ferlinghetti, and Lenny Bruce. John brought, of course, the inevitable Yoko Ono, the Elephant's Memory Band, Hot Chocolate Band, David Peel, and the Elastic Oz Band, a group created specifically to support the Underground magazine "Oz" in a battle with the establishment. Paul hired Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, and the jazz ensemble Black Dyke Mills Band. George, very active, took on Doris Troy, Jackie Lomax, Brute Force, the Radha Krishna Temple, Ravi Shankar, Billy Preston, and Ronnie Spector, ex-Ronettes and wife of the infamous Phil. Ringo signed John Tavener, Chris Hodge, the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Sundown Playboys, and Lon & Derrek Van Eaton. The best group was, however, discovered by Mal Evans and Klaus Voorman, the Iveys, who would soon become Badfinger. It's needless to say that many of the Apple artists' records featured the participation of one or more Beatles.
Some of these artists deserve a special mention: authors of five excellent Apple albums and Without You, the galactic hit by Harry Nilsson, Badfinger was abandoned shortly after the decline of the Apple empire and pursued a career with few highs and many lows. The two leaders, Pete Ham and Tom Evans, both died by suicide a few years apart (1975 and 1983).
Mary Hopkin recorded two albums, one of which, Post Card, was entirely curated by McCartney (aided by Donovan), and the other with English folk music, as well as a handful of high-chart singles.
The Radha Krishna Temple also cut an album (quite good by the way) and ended up on Top Of The Pops!
David Peel was brought in by Lennon, who, against the advice of all the others, produced The Pope Smokes Dope for him, arousing a huge scandal, so much so that the album was released only in America.
James Taylor needs no introduction, in light of his career following his debut with Apple, and the same goes for people like Ravi Shankar and Billy Preston.
Although Apple had only produced records until 1974, the company continued to exist, though with thousands of legal controversies, including the historic one with Apple Computer for trademark infringement reasons, after which the computing giant was forced to pay substantial compensation. Apart from producing various Beatles-related projects (Anthology, One, Live at the BBC, the 2009 Remasters, etc.), in the '90s Apple reissued many of the original albums on CD and today is about to release a box set with 17 remastered albums with bonuses and rarities, but unfortunately, it is not complete since it omits many records. The most delectable thing is an amazing album with 21 of the most beautiful tracks in Apple's entire history (always excluding the Beatles, of course): Come And Get It, so to speak, come and get it because they are all there.
Noteworthy:
Mary Hopkin - Those Were The Days, arranged and produced by McCartney based on an ancient Russian melody, was an outstanding success at the time: 8 million copies sold and recorded in many languages, including our version Quelli Erano Giorni;
James Taylor - Carolina On My Mind, with Paul on bass;
Elastic Oz Band - God Save Oz - written by Lennon - John plays and sings.
Badfinger - Day After Day, featuring a stratospheric slide by Harrison;
Govinda - Radha Krishna Temple, with George and Paul. Can you believe it? The Hare Krishna in the best-sellers chart!
Mary Hopkin - Goodbye, a piece by Paul, who plays all the instruments
Black Dyke Mills Band, Thingumybob, written by Paul;
Ronnie Spector - Try Some Buy Some, written by George - Harrison plays the guitar, and three years later, he included it in the album Living In The Material World using the same track;
Brute Force - King Of Fuh, featuring Harrison; a piece not released at the time due to censorship (if you try to reverse the words King Of Fuh you'll magically get Fucking...);
Jackie Lomax - Sour Milk Sea, by Harrison, with George and Clapton on guitars, Paul on bass, Ringo on drums (practically almost the Beatles...);
Badfinger - Come And Get It, written and played by Paul;
Billy Preston - My Sweet Lord, soul version of George's famous hit; of course, he also plays;
Hot Chocolate Band - Give Peace A Chance, reggae version of John's piece;
Lon & Derrek Van Eaton - Sweet Music, with Ringo and George.
The album is recommended to:
-those who already have the original albums and don't want to purchase the expensive box set;
-those who prefer compilations with various artists;
-those who adore the Beatles but, after listening to their records a million times, want to hear them in other people's songs too;
-those who love good music.
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