Apple Records

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Apple Records is a record label, founded in 1968 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. by The Beatles. EMI and Capitol Records agreed to distribute Apple Records until 1975; Apple owned the rights to records by artists they signed, while EMI retained ownership of The Beatles' records.

Besides releasing the 1968-onwards work of The Beatles and the individual members (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr), Apple signed an eclectic roster of artists.

History

Apple Records was founded in 1968 as part of The Beatles' Apple Corps project. At this time, The Beatles were contracted to Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Capitol Records in the United States. In a new recording deal, EMI and Capitol agreed to distribute Apple Records until 1975. Apple owned the rights to records by artists they signed, while EMI retained ownership of The Beatles' records, though issuing them under the Apple label. Apple Records own the rights to all of The Beatles' videos and movie clips.

Apple signed an eclectic roster of artists; those who went on to have some considerable success include Badfinger, Mary Hopkin and Billy Preston. James Taylor's debut album was released on Apple. McGough and McGear's eponymously titled album was due to be released on Apple, but legal problems meant that it was released on Parlophone Records, where The Scaffold (who both members were a part of) were signed to.

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, mostly through continued issues of old Beatles records, then lost money for several years.

The familiar Apple label with its bright green Granny Smith made a high profile reappearance in the late 1980s, when used on all Beatles CDs. This was followed in the 1990s by The Beatles Anthology. In 2006 the label was again newsworthy, as litigation between Apple Records' parent company and California's Apple Computer was concluded (see Apple Corps v Apple Computer).

Zapple Records

Zapple Records, an Apple Records subsidiary run by Barry Miles, a friend and ultimately biographer of Paul McCartney, was intended as an outlet for the release of spoken word and avant garde records. It was active from October 1968 until June 1969, and only two albums were released on the label, one by John Lennon and Yoko Ono (Unfinished Music No.2: Life With The Lions) and one by George Harrison (Electronic Sound). An album of readings by Richard Brautigan was planned for release as Zapple 3, and acetate copies were pressed, but, said Miles, 'The Zapple label was folded by Allen Klein before the record could be released. The first two Zapple records did come out. We just didn't have [Brautigan's record] ready in time before Klein closed it down. None of The Beatles ever heard it.'^[1]. Brautigan's record was eventually released as Listening To Richard Brautigan on Harvest Records^[2]. A planned Zapple release of a UK appearance by comedian Lenny Bruce was never completed, and the label was shut down by Allen Klein, apparently with the backing of John Lennon^[3].

List of artists who recorded for Apple Records

Members of The Beatles and their bands

• The Beatles,
• John Lennon,
• Plastic Ono Band,
• Paul McCartney,
• Wings,
• George Harrison,
• Ringo Starr.

Other artists

• Badfinger (originally recorded as The Iveys).
• Black Dyke Mills Band (under the name John Foster & Sons Ltd. Black Dyke Mills Brass Band, they recorded "Yellow Submarine").
• Brute Force ('The King of Fuh').
• Elastic Oz Band (a one-off single, "God Save Oz", produced by John Lennon and Yoko Ono on behalf of Oz magazine),
• Chris Hodge,
• Mary Hopkin,
• Jackie Lomax,
• Modern Jazz Quartet, the only jazz group to have ever signed with the label,
• David Peel and the Lower East Side,
• Billy Preston,
• Ravi Shankar,
• Ronnie Spector,
• John Tavener,
• James Taylor,
• Elephant's Memory (also served as the Plastic Ono Band, during Lennon's stay in New York City),
• Hot Chocolate,
• Radha Krsna Temple,
• The Sundown Playboys,
• Trash (aka White Trash),
• Doris Troy,
• Lon and Derek Van Eaton.

Also released were the soundtracks to Come Together and El Topo (in the U.S only), plus the Son of Dracula soundtrack on Rapple (joint release by Apple and RCA, plus Phil Spector's Christmas Album and the Concert for Bangladesh

Discography

Main article: Apple Records discography

See also

• Apple Records category
• Apple Records discography
• Apple Corps v. Apple Computer
• List of record labels
• The Longest Cocktail Party, an inside account of Apple Corps by Richard DiLello

External links

• The Complete Apple Records
• Apple Sleevographia

Notes & references