Apple To The Core | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Loosely inspired somewhat from meanmistermustard’s disdain for Granny Smiths, I thought that I’d make an ‘Apple’ thread here since I couldn’t find one anywhere else.  It’s a topic that covers quite the gamut of “experience” for sure, the seeds first planted in 1968 have now fully blossomed into an enormous tree with many branches upon branches of business ideals, but thankfully (or, perhaps not?) Paul, Ringo, Yoko & Olivia are still heavily rooted within the foundation of this, the most magnificent of all Apple Trees (sorry Macintosh, but yer a different barrel of fruit altogether, but you got potential for sure).

Going way back to 1968 when the seeds were first planted, I’m still quite astounded by the high calibre of seeds that first beared fruit for the Apple Tree.  The potential was there for this to become the single most successful music enterprise ever, the kind of talent presented during the first harvest was outstanding, to say the least, and only in one’s wildest dreams could one ever dream of having such shining apples in their first barrel:

1)  Straight up, the logo/name/brand was fabulous.  Instantly recognizable, fresh and the A-Side/B-Side “slicing” a stroke of pure artistic brilliance, perhaps inspired by one of Yoko’s art exhibits?  I seem to remember a story about her having an apple on a table at one of her earlier exhibits and John taking it upon himself to have a bite, much to Yoko’s dismay.

2)  The first two singles released (well, 2 of the infamous ‘Our First Four&#39 were two of the biggest selling singles worldwide, ever!  We’re all very familiar with the success of ‘Hey Jude ‘ for The Beatles, but how about the startling returns on Mary Hopkin’s ‘Those Were The Days’?  It nearly outsold ‘Hey Jude ‘ in fact, and between the two 45 rpms they totaled somewhere in the neighborhood of (forgive me for I’m reaching far into my memory here) 11,000,000 units sold worldwide, figures unheard of for two singles (if my memory is correct, ‘Hey Jude ‘ accounted for approximately 6 million to ‘Those Were The Days’ 5 million), not a bad start for a “fledgling” record label.  Of course, Paul McCartney is to be given much of the credit here, his driving out to see Cynthia & Julian, who John had recently distanced himself from, and writing ‘Hey Jules’ as a result.  I’ll give TV personality Twiggy some credit for referring Mary Hopkin to Paul, but how about his excellent arrangement and notion to earmark Gene Raskin’s classic song for Mary, that’s the kind of ‘Research & Development’ that comes at top dollar for most companies, outstanding.

3)  The Beatles spent a great chunk of 1968 (over 5 months I believe) on recording the ‘White Album ‘ which undoubtedly came at great cost for the company, but this venture was not to go unrewarded, for sales because of the higher priced double album went through the roof when it was released in late November to cash in on the Christmas rush.  Remember that in the UK, ‘Magical Mystery Tour ‘ had only been released as a double EP and demand for the first Beatles’ album since ‘Sgt. Pepper ‘ was staggering.

4)  Any fledgling company needs “young and upcoming” talent to sustain its growth, and while there were indeed many “cling-ons” to the coattails so to speak, how about Peter Asher’s discovery of James Taylor?  James’ (self-titled I believe) debut release in late 1968 was another golden ring for Apple, ‘Carolina In My Mind’ is still being played frequently throughout the world (I just heard it last week while grocery shopping).  There were many other promising acts being considered and, although Jackie Lomax didn’t quite achieve the success that The Beatles, Mary Hopkin, or even James Taylor had received, his George Harrison produced album echoed the promise that a lot of other Apple artists were displaying.

All this, and from the first six months of infancy for The Apple!  What a start!  So, what went wrong?

Well, that’s when the discussion blows wide open.  There are many factors to consider, but first and foremost I have to say that the single biggest problem (which still exists to this day) is that Apple lacked that lone figurehead to steer the ship, it was, and is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen.  The Beatles realised this themselves when seeking out Klein’s services only months later, but even then the four chefs could not agree on who to draft the menu…:-)