The Beatlespioneered so much in the recording studio during their short time together thatit's easy to forget that they formed their own record company in April 1968.Their business plan: to find and fund new musical talent. By the end of theyear Apple had signed James Taylor and struck lucky with Mary Hopkin. Themuch-admired Badfinger followed, along with albums by obvious associates (BillyPreston, Ravi Shankar, Yoko Ono) and not-so-obvious (John Tavener, Modern JazzQuartet, Radha Krishna Temple) with mixed financial and artistic success. But The Beatles were not businessmen and theearly optimism of shiny newness soon soured into chaos. Major acts such as 10ccand Crosby, Stills & Nash slipped through their fingers. Allen Klein wasappointed to sort out the mess, but disenfranchised nearly everybody. Paul leftThe Beatles and sued the others. In 1975, The Beatles' partnership was legallyterminated and Apple Records, a vanity label in all but name, was quietly putto sleep.Apple Of My Eye revisits each of the albumsand singles released by Apple between 1968 and 1975, underpinned by thebusiness and legal context of the last days of the world's greatest band.
