Apple Records

Following the death of their manager Brian Epstein, The Beatles launched the Apple Corps organisation in January 1968, which comprised a London boutique, an arts foundation, an electronics division and a record label

The band envisioned it as a creative, artist-friendly haven where established creators and avant-garde outsiders could bypass the music industry’s traditional, rigid corporate structures.

The label became famous for its distinctive visual branding. The “A-side” of every original vinyl release featured a bright, full, photo-realistic image of a green Granny Smith apple, while the “B-side” featured the same apple sliced clean in half.

Peter Asher, half of the duo Peter and Gordon and brother of actress – and later Paul McCartney‘s girlfriend – Jane Asher, headed A&R. He signed then-unknown American singer-songwriter James Taylor (pictured below) before moving to America.

Each of the Fab Four worked on projects for Apple, with artists such as Mary Hopkin (whose debut single, Those Were the Days, was produced by Paul McCartney and became a global #1 hit), Hot Chocolate, Billy Preston, Badfinger (who scored hits like Come and Get It – written and produced by McCartney – and No Matter What), Grapefruit and The Plastic Ono Band, but The Beatles couldn’t sign to the label themselves because they were committed to EMI.

However, starting with the 1968 release Hey Jude, their records all carried the famous Apple logo, although they still had Parlophone catalogue numbers.

Zapple Records was a short-lived, wildly experimental sub-label of Apple Records designed as a budget-friendly vehicle for spoken word, poetry, and avant-garde art.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon created it as an audio equivalent to the underground counter-culture literary magazines circulating in the late 1960s.

Only two official albums were ever released on the Zapple label, both debuting on 9 May 1969: Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and Electronic Sound by George Harrison.

By 1969, Apple Corps was haemorrhaging money because of chaotic financial mismanagement, and The Beatles hired aggressive American music executive Allen Klein to clean house.

He radically restructured Apple Records, dropping most of the non-Beatles roster (including James Taylor) to cut costs. Viewing Zapple as an expensive, self-indulgent hobby, Klein abruptly folded the sub-label overnight.

Following the bitter breakup of The Beatles in 1970, Apple Records became the exclusive vehicle for the solo albums of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.

Iconic solo masterpieces like All Things Must Pass, Imagine, and Band on the Run all bore the Apple label.

By 1975, The Beatles’ distribution contract with EMI expired, and the band members legally dissolved their partnership.

Apple Records effectively became a dormant label, completely stopping the release of new music from external artists.

Apple Corps still manages the incredibly lucrative Beatles archive, curating historical releases such as Anthology, The Beatles 1 compilation, and modern album remasters and stereo remixes.

For decades, Apple Corps was locked in high-profile legal battles with Steve Jobs’ tech giant, Apple Computer. The dispute centred on trademark infringement regarding the name and apple logo.

The two companies finally reached a trademark agreement in 2007, in which Apple Inc. acquired all trademark rights related to “Apple” and agreed to license certain logos back to the Beatles’ company.