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Apple Records
Parent company	Apple Corps
Founded	1968
Founder	The Beatles
Distributing label	Capitol Records EMI Music Group
Genre	Rock Pop Experimental Indian Classical
Country of origin	United Kingdom

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, and Ringo Starr), Apple signed an eclectic roster of artists. Allen Klein later took over the running of the label, keeping some artists while getting rid of many others.

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, issuing them on the Apple label but with Parlophone R-prefixed catalogue numbers. Apple Records owns the rights to all of the Beatles' videos and movie clips.

Standard Apple album and single labels displayed a bright green Granny Smith apple (with the exception of the original US version of the Beatles' Let It Be, which used a red apple because the album was a movie soundtrack distributed by United Artists instead of Capitol/EMI), distinctively marked their affiliation with the Beatles.^{[citation needed]}

Apple signed an eclectic roster of artists: those who went on to have some considerable success include Badfinger (then known as The Iveys), Mary Hopkin and Billy Preston.

Mal Evans, an employee of The Beatles' label, took up The Ivey's cause, which enabled them to be signed with The Beatles' record company. They were accepted by Apple in 1968, after several demo tapes were brought in by Mal Evans, finally getting approval from McCartney, Harrison and Lennon.

Hopkins' debut single, Those Were the Days, produced by McCartney, was released in the UK on 30 August 1968 (catalogue number APPLE 2).

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, to which The Scaffold (of whom both members were a part) were signed.

Peter Asher, A&R director of newly formed Apple Records, was ordered by George Harrison in 1969 to look up the American band, Raven (U.S. band) and offer them a recording contract.^[1] Asher did so in the kitchen of the popular New York nightclub, Steve Paul's Scene. ^[2]

Outside of the mainstream pop-rock sphere, the various Beatles also signed or sponsored releases by several diverse artists highly noted in their repected fields. These included the famous English brass band The Black Dyke Mills Band; Respected jazz ensemble The Modern Jazz Quartet; Avant-garde artist (and Lennon's partner) Yoko Ono; Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar; and leading English classical composer John Tavener.

Lennon was introduced to Klein through Mick Jagger, as Klein was managing The Rolling Stones at the time.^[3]

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.^{[citation needed]}

The familiar Apple label with its bright green apple 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 the long-running dispute between Apple Records' parent company and Apple Inc. went to the High Court (see Apple Corps v Apple Computer). In 2007, the company settled a dispute with EMI over royalties, and announced that long term chief executive Neil Aspinall had retired and been replaced by American music industry executive Jeff Jones.^[4] These changes lead to speculation that the Apple Records catalogue - and most importantly The Beatles discography - would soon appear on Apple Inc.'s iTunes online music store,^[5] and that a remastering and reissue program of The Beatles' CDs might be forthcoming (Jones having worked on reissues at Sony).^[4]

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 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."^[6] Brautigan's record was eventually released as Listening To Richard Brautigan on Harvest Records, a subsidiary of Apple distributor EMI, in the US only.^[6] According to Miles, a spoken word album by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, which had been recorded and edited, would have been Zapple 4, and a spoken word album by Michael McClure had also been recorded.^[6] A planned Zapple release of a UK appearance by comedian Lenny Bruce was never completed. As noted above, Zapple was shut down in June 1969 by Klein, apparently with the backing of John Lennon.^[7]

Rapple Records was the name given to a one-off joint venture between Apple and RCA Records, which released the soundtrack LP to the Apple Films movie Son of Dracula. The film featured Ringo Starr and RCA recording artist Harry Nilsson. In the US, the album was distributed by RCA and assigned an RCA number.

While the A-sides of singles and albums showed the familiar green Granny Smith apple, the flipsides displayed the apple cut in half. This example shows the German release of The Iveys' album Maybe Tomorrow. The first use of this was the release of the Beatles' own White Album.

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

• Black Dyke Mills Band (under the name John Foster & Sons Ltd. Black Dyke Mills Brass Band, they recorded "Yellow Submarine") - McCartney employed them for the one-off "Thingummybob" single which he recorded on location near Bradford.
• Brute Force ("The King of Fuh") - Harrison attempted to have this released through Apple. EMI refused to handle it due to its risky references to the "Fuh king". Apple manufactured a small number of promotional copies.
• Elastic Oz Band (a one-off single, "God Save Oz", produced by John Lennon and Yoko Ono on behalf of Oz magazine) - Worked with Lennon and Ono in the early 1970s, during their 'political' phase. The track appears to have been written as "God Save Us" before being altered to fit the situation.
• Elephant's Memory (also served as the Plastic Ono Band, during Lennon's stay in New York City) - Recruited by Lennon and Ono, and released one album on Apple.
• Chris Hodge - Discovered by Ringo Starr, they shared an interest in UFOs
• Mary Hopkin - Brought to McCartney's attention, who worked with her on her early releases, including the Lennon-McCartney original "Goodbye" and her hit recording of "Those Were the Days".
• Hot Chocolate - Released one single, "Give Peace A Chance" after Lennon heard and liked it.
• Jackie Lomax - Known via his Brian Epstein connections, he recorded with Harrison, McCartney and Starr at various times. His first single "Sour Milk Sea" features all three and was written by Harrison.
• Modern Jazz Quartet - The only jazz group ever to have signed with the label. Released two albums ("Under the Jasmine Tree" and "Space") on Apple, but did not work with the Beatles.
• Yoko Ono - Recorded extensively with Lennon and released several singles and albums herself, with Lennon usually performing, and directing the band.
• David Peel and the Lower East Side - arrived via Lennon in early 1970s, during his 'political' period.
• Billy Preston - Brought in to work with the group on "Get Back", and signed at Harrison's insistence as a solo artist. Harrison worked on some of Preston's recordings.
• Radha Krishna Temple, the London Hare Krishna temple - Recorded for the label via Harrison, who produced them.
• Ravi Shankar - Another of Harrison's finds. His Apple album In Concert features Ali Akbar Khan.
• Ronnie Spector - Worked with Harrison, via her husband Phil Spector, who separately worked with the Beatles and solo Beatles around 1970. Harrison and Lennon appear on her only Apple single "Try Some By Some" (Lennon performs only on the B side, "Tandoori Chicken").
• The Sundown Playboys - A French-language cajun band from Louisiana. Beatles involvement uncertain but seem to have been brought in by Starr in the early 1970s. Their only Apple single "Saturday Night Special" was recorded prior to this and released on the label.
• John Tavener - a classical composer. His brother, a builder, worked on Starr's house and Starr took interest in Tavener. Apple released two pieces by him, "The Whale" and "Celtic Requiem".
• James Taylor - Recorded with McCartney, who appears on his first Apple LP (and the first of Taylor's career).
• Trash (aka White Trash) - Brought to Apple via Tony Meehan, formerly of the Shadows, who knew the Beatles. Their second release was a cover of "Golden Slumbers" which McCartney was against, but Lennon ensured it came out.
• Doris Troy - Worked with Harrison, and also Billy Preston.
• Lon and Derek Van Eaton - Brought in during 1970s by Harrison, who worked on their Apple album.

Also released were the soundtracks to Come Together and El Topo (in the U.S.), the Son of Dracula soundtrack (on Rapple), the onetime Philles Records compilation Phil Spector's Christmas Album and the multi-artist The Concert for Bangla Desh. Cassette and 8-track tape versions of Bangla Desh were marketed by Columbia Records, in a deal that permitted the inclusion of Bob Dylan, a Columbia artist, on the album.

Main article: Apple Records discography

• Angelo, Marty (2006). Once Life Matters: A New Beginning. Impact Publishing. ISBN 978-0961895440. 
• Brown, Peter (2002). The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles . NAL Trade; Reprint edition. ISBN 978-0451207357. 
• DiLello, Richard (2005). The Longest Cocktail Party. Canongate Books. ISBN 1-84195-602-3. 
• Lennon, Cynthia (2006). John. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-89828-3. 
• Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4. 
• Spitz, Bob (2005). The Beatles: The Biography. Little, Brown and Company (New York). ISBN 1-84513-160-6. 
• The Beatles (2003). The Beatles Anthology (DVD). Apple records. ASIN: B00008GKEG (Bar Code: 24349 29699). 
• Wenner, Jan (2000). Lennon Remembers. Verso (London). ISBN 1-85984-600-9. 

• The Complete Apple Records
• Apple Sleevographia
• Financial background of Apple
• Once Life Matters: A New Beginning - Impact Publishers (2005-2006), author Marty Angelo, (ISBN 0961895446) - Raven (U.S. band)

• 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