Apple Records

Apple Records was founded in 1968 by the musical group known as the Beatles, comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The label became successful, surviving the legal dissolution of the Beatles in 1974, and continuing to issue new material till 1976, although the holding company, Apple Corps.[?], Ltd., is still in existence. The label was resurrected around the time of the Anthology for use on all Beatles CDs.

Earlier Beatles albums had been released on Parlophone/EMI (and Capitol Records or United Artists Records in the US.)

This venture was reportedly due to the Beatles' need to invest money as a tax shelter. The British tax laws at the time were draconian. When George Harrison sang in his song "Taxman", "It's one for you, nineteen for me," he wasn't kidding. That was the exact amount they retained after taxes -- five per cent. As George added, "Should five per cent appear too small, be thankful I don't take it all."

During the 1974 proceedings dissolving the Beatles as an entity, a court ruling decreed that eighty percent of all profits from Beatles albums (as a group) would accrue to Apple Records, and five percent would go to each of the four members.

The label consistently made a profit through 1984, then lost money for several years.

At one point, Apple Records sued Apple Computer for trademark infringement because the computer company broke their earlier agreement not to add sound to its computers. The case was settled out of court. Apple computers ever since have included a sound labelled sosumi ("So, sue me").

The first LP release from Apple Records was the Two Virgins album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, released on November 11, 1968 (although the parent record companies refused to be involved because John & Yoko were shown naked on the controversial sleeve - it was distributed by Track Records[?] in the UK and Tetragrammaton in the USA). It was closely followed by the first Beatles album release, titled The Beatles but more commonly known as the White Album, released November 25, 1968.

The other Beatles albums released on the Apple label were:

• Yellow Submarine
• Abbey Road
• Let It Be
• Hey Jude
• 1962-1966[?]
• 1967-1970[?]

The label also released singles, the most successful (non-Beatle) of which was Mary Hopkin[?]'s "Those Were the Days", which was released in four languages.

View a list of Apple Records singles.

The success of Apple Records resulted in several similar names through the years, including:

• Bad Apple Records
• Big Apple Records
• Black Apple Records
• Crab Apple Records
• Mountain Apple Records
• Screaming Apple Records

Artists Recorded on Apple Records

Beatles-related artists

• Beatles
• John Lennon
• Plastic Ono Band
• Yoko Ono
• Paul McCartney
• Wings (band)
• George Harrison
• Ringo Starr

Others

• Ravi Shankar
• James Taylor
• Mary Hopkin[?]
• Badfinger (originally recorded as The Iveys)
• Billy Preston[?]
• Black Dyke Mills Band, under the name John Foster & Sons Ltd. Black Dyke Mill Band, performing "Yellow Submarine"
• Jackie Lomax[?]
• Ronnie Spector[?]
• Modern Jazz Quartet[?]
• Radha Krishna Temple
• Lon and Derrek Van Eaton
• John Tavener
• Jimmie Cliff[?]
• The Sundown Playboys
• Trash (band) (previously recorded as White Trash)
• Hot Chocolate Band
• Elephant's Memory
• Doris Troy
• Chris Hodge
• Elastic Oz Band[?]

See also: List of other record labels

External Links

Full Apple discography (http://schomakers.com/)