Apple to the Core Trivia Quiz

Answer: Merchandising

Both Alistair Taylor and Cyn Lennon said that Brian originally envisioned Apple primarily as a merchandising company selling Beatles-branded items. However, according to Taylor, the Beatles themselves thought that idea was the most boring thing possible. Accordingly, in 1967 Brian had also set up corporations for Apple to publish songs and make films.

But Brian passed away in August 1967 before a primary direction or leadership for Apple had been decided. Without Brian, the Beatles took over running the project themselves and went off in a variety of directions.

Answer: Granny Smith

All of the varietals listed are green, but Granny Smith apples were already a part of The Beatles' story. In 1966, 19-year-old Geoff Emerick became The Beatles' primary recording engineer, replacing Norman "Hurricane" Smith (who became an EMI producer). Immediately after he started, George Harrison recorded a new Indian-influenced composition that he hadn't yet named (which eventually became "Love You To"); Emerick gave it the working title of "Granny Smith", after his favorite variety of apple. Later that year, John Lennon went to see an avant-garde artwork called "Apple", and the apple displayed in the art was a Granny Smith.

More importantly, the artwork was done by a Japanese artist named Yoko Ono, who soon became an intimate part of John's life. So when The Beatles thought "apple", the Granny Smith apple was top-of-mind for them.

Answer: Magical Mystery Tour

In early 1967, Paul McCartney had an idea to make an unscripted improvisational movie about taking a "mystery tour", and The Beatles recorded the theme song for the movie in April. In addition, American movie producer Al Brodax, who had made a children's TV cartoon series of The Beatles for the US market, wanted to make a movie-length cartoon featuring them (which became "Yellow Submarine", most decidedly not a child-oriented project), and they also recorded some new songs for that at the same time. Obviously, The Beatles needed a movie company at once. But everyone also needed time off after finishing "Sgt. Pepper" at the end of a five-year run of commitments, and so filming the "mystery tour" movie was booked for two weeks in September -- and the group then took a four-month vacation.

As it happened, filming the "mystery tour" began less than three weeks after Brian's death. The movie had already been licensed to the BBC for Christmas TV airing -- but the movie, which depended heavily on psychedelic colors for effect, was aired in black-and-white. The lack of color and lack of plot led to a disastrous reception for the project -- which would become far too common for Apple projects.

Answer: The master tape was never submitted to the record company

Grapefruit was named by Lennon after Yoko Ono's book of the same name, and Lennon referred to "Lullaby" as "Circus Sgt. Pepper". Three different explanations have been offered for why the tape wasn't submitted to RCA as Lennon and McCartney had intended. One theory contends that NEMS Enterprises (Epstein's company) couldn't locate the tape when RCA requested it in August 1967, right after Epstein's death.

Another theory says that NEMS wasn't sure if Lennon and McCartney had finished the tape, and they were isolated with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the time.

A third theory says that Grapefruit preferred to submit one of its other songs, the self-produced and "sunshine pop"-oriented "Elevator", and took advantage of Epstein's death and the Beatles' absence to do so.

But "Elevator" didn't become a hit, and after one more single, a minor hit (a cover of "C'mon Marianne"), RCA dropped Grapefruit. The Lennon & McCartney-produced version of "Lullaby" finally resurfaced almost 50 years later and was released by Cherry Red Records in 2016.

Answer: Shoplifting

Paul McCartney called the Apple Boutique "a beautiful place where beautiful people can buy beautiful things". But buying wasn't on the mind of a sizable number of its many customers, including The Beatles themselves, their girlfriends and other friends, and more than a handful of the general public.

In its short life, the Apple Boutique lost almost £200,000 (about £3.5 million in 2020 money), mostly due to shoplifting (including by its owners, who felt free to take anything that caught their fancy without having it recorded).

The Beatles themselves had vetoed employing security or police to stop or detain shoplifters due to the bad publicity, and Shotton and his assistant Jenny Boyd (George's sister-in-law) both resigned as the losses mounted.

The Beatles soon decided to close the store and give away all the remaining merchandise (that they didn't take themselves). Despite the failure of the Apple Boutique, Shotton later became a millionaire on his own by founding the Fatty Arbuckle's restaurant chain in the UK.

Answer: Apple Electronics

Magic Alex was a former electronics technician (Beatles' associate John Dunbar, who introduced him to The Beatles, called him a "TV repairman") turned conman, skilled in convincing others that he was so talented that he could accomplish electronic miracles. In 1967, The Beatles were still recording on 4-track tape machines at EMI Studios on Abbey Road (later Abbey Road Studios) in London, although Ampex 8-track tape machines had become common in the US starting in the late 1950s (and EMI Studios was about to install one). But then, Ampex debuted the world's first 16-track machine at Mirasound Studios in New York in summer 1967 (where the first group to record on it was Vanilla Fudge). Magic Alex convinced John that he could build a 72-track studio for Apple, dwarfing Mirasound, and John set up Fiftyshapes and hired Alex to do just that, along with creating other "inventions".

George Harrison -- who had insisted that The Beatles use Apple Studios to film "Get Back" in January 1969 to get them out of Twickenham Film Studios -- said "Alex's recording studio at Apple was the biggest disaster of all time." Everything Alex had done had to be torn out, and George Martin sent over an emergency mobile unit from EMI so that filming could proceed. By the time Magic Alex was fired, according to Beatles' biographer Duncan Campbell, Apple's losses associated with Apple Electronics were far greater than the losses of the Apple Boutique, likely over £300,000 (or over £5.25 million in 2020 money).

Answer: Peter & Gordon

Although Peter Asher from Peter & Gordon was named as the initial head of Apple A&R in 1968, his duo never recorded for the label. Instead, Asher spent much of his time that year signing and producing a young American singer/songwriter named James Taylor, whose first album ("James Taylor") was the first non-Beatle-related album released by Apple in December (and the single "Carolina in My Mind" included Paul and George as backing musicians). Mary Hopkin was signed and produced by Paul McCartney, and her first single, "Those Were the Days", was released as one of the initial single releases (Apple 2) in August and went straight to number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, behind only The Beatles' "Hey Jude"/"Revolution", which was released the same day by Apple. And November's "Maybe Tomorrow" by the Iveys, who were initially signed to Apple Music Publishing and then to Apple Records, was the first single released by Apple Records after its initial releases. Later, after the band had changed its name to Badfinger, the same recording of "Maybe Tomorrow" appeared on the first Badfinger album, "Magic Christian Music".

The Beatles were able to transfer their success to Apple in one area, at least.

Answer: Zero

Zapple ultimately released only two albums, both of which were experimental music done by Beatles: George Harrison's "Electronic Sound" and John & Yoko's "Unfinished Music Part 2: Life With the Lions". By early 1969, Miles had recorded spoken word records with counterculture icons Richard Brautigan, Charles Olson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Michael McClure, and a taped Lenny Bruce project, featuring one of his UK performances, was also being prepared.

The Brautigan record was being readied for release as Zapple 3 and the Ferlinghetti record had been assigned Zapple 4 -- when the entire Zapple project was terminated overnight by Apple.

The Brautigan record was eventually released as "Listening to Richard Brautigan" by a different EMI-affiliated label, Harvest Records, in 1973 -- but the rest were never released, and many of the tapes were lost.

Answer: Allen Klein

Klein, who was both a shrewd businessman and a crook (he later spent time in jail for tax fraud), had already maneuvered the copyrights to The Rolling Stones' early releases (through 1970) into the hands of his company ABKCO (which still holds them), and he longed to manage The Beatles to tap into their huge revenue stream.

In fact, he had been trying to undercut Brian Epstein during Brian's lifetime, and Epstein indeed had worried about the threat posed by Klein. After Lennon's interview, Klein directed his sales pitch entirely to John and Yoko, since he knew of Paul's connections to entertainment lawyer Lee Eastman through Paul's girlfriend Linda, Lee's daughter. Paul had been trying to convince the other Beatles to turn Apple management over to the Eastmans, but Klein sold Lennon on his own services, saying that he wouldn't defer to Paul the way that the Eastmans did. John loved hearing that, and he and Klein sold that to George and Ringo as well, despite Paul calling Klein a "trained New York crook". Ultimately, The Beatles voted 3-1 in favor of hiring Klein as manager of Apple.

Answer: Geoff Emerick

Bringing Emerick from EMI to Apple Studios was Paul's last major hire on behalf of Apple. While Emerick did indeed turn Apple Studios into a state-of-the-art studio with a 16-track tape machine and quadrophonic mixing facilities by the time it was completed in September 1971, and his skills were respected by all of the band, he became stigmatized within Apple by the perception that he was "Paul's guy", especially after Paul sued to break up the partnership. John and George had Phil McDonald, another former EMI engineer working for Apple, engineer their solo records.

The resentment turned out to be mutual; later, when Emerick wrote his autobiography, he went out of his way to trash George and John and praise Paul.

Answer: Neil Aspinall

Klein actually fired Aspinall, Apple's president and the band's longtime road manager (and Paul and George's classmate at the Liverpool Institute), but John and George blocked it, and Klein backed down. But all of the others were quickly canned. Despite his colossal failures, none of The Beatles had wanted to fire Magic Alex, so Klein did. The dismissal of Barry Miles and termination of Zapple Records was done by Klein with Lennon's support, probably because Miles was Paul McCartney's friend. Klein also fired Ron Kass so that he could be de facto head of Apple Records, and a month later Peter Asher decided to leave with Kass, taking James Taylor with him. After its brilliant start, Apple Records never developed another successful recording artist. (Kass reacted to the turmoil by getting divorced and soon marrying the actress Joan Collins.)

Interestingly, Miles was in New York City recording an album for Zapple of William Blake poems set to music by Allen Ginsberg when he was fired with immediate effect, and (at Frank Zappa's recommendation) he and Ginsberg moved from Capital Studios to Apostolic Studios and finished the album using their own funds, which was then issued by Kass and Asher on MGM Records (which had hired them both): "Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake, tuned by Allen Ginsberg", with production credited to "Miles Associates". A CD of this recording was finally issued in 2017 and is still in print as of 2021.

Later, Miles wrote about the entire Apple Corps project: "The Beatles were probably the last people in Britain who should have attempted to run a company: they didn't have the slightest idea of how to go about it, and terrible mistakes were made. They had no knowledge of business or money, no understanding of management or delegation, no concept of budgets or [expenses] or any other elements that are required to manage a company."

Answer: Brian

Despite not signing, Brian ratified the contract by performance. For this reason, perhaps it didn't worry the other Beatles that Paul didn't sign, but when Paul sued to terminate The Beatles partnership in 1970, he was able to use the facts that the others installed Klein as head of Apple without his consent, and that Klein had paid himself a commission on Paul's solo album "McCartney" even though Klein had no contractual relationship with Paul, to convince a court to dissolve The Beatles partnership in 1971 (and eventually terminate it in 1974). Klein became the manager for John, George, and Ringo only.

When the other Beatles found out that Paul had been right and Klein really was a crook (for example, in the contracts for George's benefit album "Concert for Bangladesh", Klein provided a royalty for himself of $1.10 for every copy sold), they resented Paul even more for having been right, and, after Klein sued Apple post-termination in 1973, for not having to chip in any part of the $5 million that the other three had to pay to get rid of Klein. And the hard feelings lingered for years. George unsuccessfully sued Paul for more royalties from the Lennon/McCartney songs, claiming that he had helped write them, and all three (or, at least, George, Ringo, and John's estate) sued Paul in 1986 over Paul having negotiated a better royalty deal with EMI on Beatles reissues than they then had -- although there was nothing improper about Paul having done so -- which kept Paul estranged from the others into the 1990s.

Answer: "Stuck in the Middle with You", Stealers Wheel

The Scottish duo Gerry Rafferty ("Baker Street") and Joe Egan comprised Stealers Wheel, and they were produced at Apple Studios by the legendary American songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. All of the other three songs were recorded at Trident Studios in London, although each of those artists recorded other projects at Apple Studios.

The 1972 Apple Films movie "Born to Boogie", directed by Ringo, includes footage of Marc Bolan (T. Rex) jamming at Apple Studios with Ringo and Elton John. Badfinger's association with Apple Studios ran from Todd Rundgren's mix of their album "Straight Up" through their last album before Pete Ham's suicide, "Head First". And Harry Nilsson, who was close friends with both John and Ringo, recorded part of "Son of Schmilsson" there, including his hit "Spaceman".

Answer: HandMade Films

EMI Films had committed to fund "Monty Python's Life of Brian" . . . that is, until EMI managing director Lord Bernard Delfont read the irreverent script at the last minute and cancelled 48 hours before the start of production. Idle called George and asked if he could help. In those two days, George and his financial advisor Denis O'Brien put together HandMade Films and arranged a £3 million budget for the film. HandMade ended up making 23 films, including some of the best British films of the 1980s: "The Long Good Friday", "Time Bandits", "A Private Function", "Mona Lisa", and "Withnall & I". Finally, George had what he'd wanted since Apple Films failed.

However, O'Brien tried to expand the production slate. While some were great (such as "Five Corners" with Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, and John Turturro), and some did well at the box office (such as "Nuns on the Run", with Idle and Robbie Coltrane), some others were uncommercial and maybe even anti-commercial (such as "Powwow Highway" and "Track 29"), and a few simply reeked (such as the big-budget "Shanghai Surprise", starring Madonna and Sean Penn). Then it turned out O'Brien had incurred unauthorized debt to fund all these films, which George had guaranteed and was on the hook to pay. George had to close the company and sue O'Brien for $25 million for fraud and negligence, winning an $11.6 million judgment (which George never collected before his death).

Answer: 1975

After Allen Klein's termination, Neil Aspinall had become the sole manager of the remainder of Apple. But the final dissolution of The Beatles partnership at the end of December 1974 meant that the expiration of the lease in six months would bring an end to this last physical remnant of Apple Corps. All the recording equipment would need to be removed before the end of the lease, so the studio would need to close about six weeks before that day.

The last day of Apple Studios' operation -- and the final conclusion to the Apple Corps Ltd. dream -- was 16 May 1975.

The building now houses an Abercrombie & Fitch store. Aspinall, however, remained as the manager of Apple and was still in that role when the surviving Beatles finally buried the hatchet during the Aspinall-led "Beatles Anthology" project in the 1990s.

He finally retired in 2007 after lung cancer was discovered, which killed him the next year.