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The Beatles · S9 E2
Apple Corps
The Beatles start their own company: a record label, a boutique, a film division. A beautiful utopian idea that will collapse under the weight of its own idealism
May 14, 1968. John Lennon and Paul McCartney sit in front of reporters at a press conference in New York City and announce that the Beatles are launching their own company. They call it Apple, and their pitch is simple: come to us with a talent and we'll fund it, no strings attached.
"The Ballad of John and Yoko" (The Beatles, 1969). By the time this promo film was made, Apple Corps was already burning through cash and the utopian dream was fraying. Only John and Paul play on the recording because George and Ringo weren't available. The song captures the restless energy of John's new life with Yoko and the media circus that surrounded everything Apple touched.
The Ballad of John and Yoko, The Beatles (1969)
Recorded in a single session on April 14, 1969, with just Lennon and McCartney in the studio. Paul played drums, bass, piano, and maracas while John handled guitars and vocals. The speed of the recording matched the speed of the events it described: John and Yoko's marriage in Gibraltar, their Amsterdam bed-in, the media frenzy. Listen for how loose and almost live the performance sounds, two old friends rattling through a song like they're back in the Cavern.
Sources
Lewisohn, Mark. "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions." Hamlyn, 1988.
MacDonald, Ian. "Revolution in the Head." Chicago Review Press, 2005.
The Vision
Apple Corps Ltd. was supposed to be a different kind of company. The Beatles wanted to create a place where artists, filmmakers, and inventors could walk in off the street and get funding for their ideas. No bureaucracy, no suits, no record-label nonsense. Paul described it as "a kind of Western communism" where creativity came first and profit was an afterthought.
Sources
Miles, Barry. "Many Years From Now." Secker & Warburg, 1997.
The Beatles. "The Beatles Anthology." Chronicle Books, 2000.
“We're in the happy position of not needing any more money, so for the first time the bosses aren't in it for the profit. If you come to me and say, 'I've had such and such a dream,' I'll say, 'Here's so much money. Go away and do it.'”
— John Lennon
TAP TO REVEAL: What happened to the Apple Boutique on Baker Street?
3 Savile Row, London
Apple Corps headquarters from 1968 to 1975, a five-storey Georgian townhouse in the heart of London's tailoring district. The basement was converted into Apple Studios, and the rooftop would later host the Beatles' final live performance.
Apple Corps
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, The Beatles (1968)
Paul drove John crazy with this song: it took weeks of sessions, multiple arrangements, and several furious arguments before the band settled on the bouncy ska version. Lennon hated it so much that one night he stormed into the studio, sat at the piano, and hammered out the intro at double speed. That angry piano take is the one they kept. Released as a single on Apple Records in several countries, it became a number-one hit in multiple markets.
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, The Beatles (1968)
"Desmond has a barrow in the marketplace, Molly is the singer in a band." The title came from a phrase used by Jimmy Scott, a Nigerian conga player Paul knew from the London club scene. Scott later sued for a songwriting credit but settled out of court. In the final verse, Paul accidentally swaps the names ("Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face"), and when the others pointed it out, he decided the mistake was better than the original.
What was the first single released on Apple Records?
Summer 1968. Thirty songs, four increasingly separate artists sharing one studio, Yoko Ono sitting on an amplifier next to John's microphone, and Ringo Starr walking out for two weeks because he can't take it anymore. The White Album sessions are about to tear the Beatles apart.
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