First Bite of the Apple: Apple Publishing Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Initially, Apple Music was run by one of Brian Epstein's oldest friends in Liverpool, a former car salesman that Brian had set up in his own automobile dealership, Brydor Cars -- and the Beatles were both customers of his and friends of his. Who was he?

Answer: Terry Doran

Apparently Brydor (named for BRIan and DORan) was established to permit Brian and the Beatles to purchase exotic cars at cost while charging the going rate to others drawn to their celebrity. Surprisingly, it worked, but then Brian became bored, and Brydor closed in late 1966. Doran joined Apple Music soon thereafter. Paul McCartney has insisted for years that Terry Doran was not the model for the "man from the motor trade" in the song "She's Leaving Home", although that claim continues to appear in "Beatles World".

In the 1970s and 1980s, after the collapse of Apple Corps, Doran returned to car sales.

2. One of the rumored reasons behind Apple Music's creation was that one of the Beatles was frustrated by having his compositions published by Northern Songs, even going to the extreme of writing a song satirizing the company for the "Sgt. Pepper" album entitled "Only a Northern Song". Which Beatle was it?

Answer: George Harrison

Northern Songs was set up to publish Lennon-McCartney originals, and was primarily owned by Dick James, Lennon, McCartney and Epstein. George Harrison had agreed to publish his songs through it until March 1968, but he wanted the band to be a true publishing partnership. Supposedly, one of Epstein's visions was that the Beatles would purchase Northern Songs and then contribute it to Apple. However, after Epstein's death, this idea never came to fruition, and in 1968 Harrison began publishing through his own music-publishing company, Harrisongs. Soon thereafter, Northern Songs was sold in 1969 to the British media conglomerate ATV, which later sold it to Michael Jackson.

Although George Martin managed to talk George out of including "Only a Northern Song" on "Sgt. Pepper", the song (after some additional recording and remixing) was one of The Beatles' four new songs on the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack.

3. Apple Music began operations in a London building that the Beatles already owned, on a street that Sherlock Holmes and Gerry Rafferty were also aware of. The Apple Boutique later opened in the same building. What was its address?

Answer: 94 Baker Street

The Beatles' accountants had previously purchased the 94 Baker Street property as an investment property, but The Beatles instead ended up locating the initial Apple businesses there. After the failure of the Apple Boutique, Apple first moved to the Wigmore Street address and then to the Savile Row address. [The Prime Minister of the UK lives at the Downing Street address.] As for the clues, Sherlock Holmes lived at the fictional 221B Baker Street, and in 1978 Gerry Rafferty had a worldwide hit named "Baker Street".

The first compilation of Apple Publishing demos and releases issued in 2003 by Cherry Red Records was entitled "94 Baker Street" and featured a painting of the building (including the mural that was painted for the Apple Boutique) on the cover.

4. The first act signed to Apple Music sounded more like something an optometrist would be interested in, but it was actually a duo that Paul McCartney met while walking his dog Martha in Hyde Park. They had a minor psychedelic-pop hit on Deram Records in the UK entitled "Sycamore Sid". Who were they?

Answer: Focal Point

After meeting McCartney, who gave them a brand-new business card for the fledgling music publishing office, Paul Tennant and David Rhodes went to Terry Doran's office with their guitars. Doran quickly recorded some rough demos with them, which impressed both Epstein and John Lennon enough to sign them as Apple Music's first act. Epstein suggested the name "Focal Point" and expressed interest in managing them but then passed away, and Apple lost interest after their one minor hit.

The incorrect choices were also artists published through Apple Music.

5. The second songwriter/performer signed to Apple Music was a talented Scotsman named Alexander Young (using the pen name George Alexander), who (at Apple Music's urging) joined an existing trio. John Lennon named the new band after a conceptual art book by his mistress, Yoko Ono, and the group promptly had a psychedelic-tinged hit in the UK with Young's song "Dear Delilah". What citrusy name did Lennon give to the band?

Answer: Grapefruit

Grapefruit's struggles were a major factor in The Beatles' decision to start Apple Records. Terry Doran put the group together, took over as its manager, and set up the UK deal with RCA Records. Successful L.A. producer Terry Melcher agreed to sign Grapefruit to his new label Equinox (distributed by Dunhill) in the US. When Melcher came to England to physically sign the Grapefruit contract, the Beatles talked him into producing "Dear Delilah". Lennon and McCartney themselves produced the song intended to be Grapefruit's second single, "Lullaby". However, when it was time to release that single, Lennon and McCartney were isolated with the Maharishi, and the master tape of "Lullaby" was nowhere to be found. Instead, Doran and Grapefruit submitted some excellent self-produced Alexander songs, but they failed to chart. After a cover of "C'mon Marianne" was a minor hit, Grapefruit was released from its RCA contract. Melcher then returned as Grapefruit's producer, but Grapefruit's momentum had been lost, and they soon broke up.

Alexander Young's younger brothers had better luck: George was part of the Easybeats and co-writer of "Friday on My Mind", and Malcolm and Angus became world-famous as the leaders of AC/DC. Meanwhile, the Lennon-McCartney production of "Lullaby" was finally released in 2016, about fifty years too late.

6. Apple Music's first successful staff songwriters were the duo of Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle. For which folk-influenced Apple act did Gallagher and Lyle write the most songs while with Apple Music?

Answer: Mary Hopkin

Gallagher and Lyle wrote five songs recorded by Mary Hopkin, four of which later appeared on her now out-of-print greatest hits album "Those Were The Days" (and two of which were produced for her by Paul McCartney). In the 1970s, they had a hit with their own "Heart on My Sleeve" and also wrote "Break Away", which Art Garfunkel took into the US Billboard Top 40 in 1976 (and to number one on the Billboard adult contemporary chart), and "Stay Young", which Don Williams took to number one on the Billboard country chart in 1984. Lyle later went on to co-write "What's Love Got to Do with It?" and "We Don't Need Another Hero" for Tina Turner, among other hits.

7. In 1968, Mike Berry took over as head of Apple Music and promptly signed a publishing deal for a flaming-hot progressive trio from London, who were signed to Decca Records. However, their first psychedelic-pop single, "Father's Name Was Dad", failed to burn its way into the charts, even after being re-recorded and remixed by Paul McCartney, and the band heatedly left Apple Music after one more single. Which incendiary band was it?

Answer: Fire

Hope all of the references to burning, heat and flames gave you a hint about Fire. Fire was led by songwriter Dave Lambert on vocals, guitar and keyboards. McCartney's excellent redo of Lambert's "Father's Name Was Dad" generated a little attention, but then everything went wrong for Fire. For their second single, Mike Berry wanted Fire to cover a song that Berry himself had written ("Round the Gum Tree"), even though Lambert had plenty of compositions to choose among.

Although Lambert reluctantly agreed to do it, the single failed, Decca dropped the group, and Fire's managers then got them released from their Apple Music contract. Subsequently, Fire recorded a cult favorite album, "The Magic Shoemaker", for the Pye label, with Dave Cousins of Strawbs contributing banjo, but soon thereafter Lambert chose to join Cousins in Strawbs.

8. Another songwriting team signed to Apple Music were Clive Scott and Des Dyer, who were the leaders of the band Jigsaw, but who were dropped by Apple Music in 1968. Scott and Dyer never gave up, and in 1975 they wrote the theme song for the kung fu spy movie "The Man from Hong Kong" (aka "The Dragon Files" in the US). Jigsaw's version of this song promptly "soared" to the top of the US charts for the band's only top ten hit. Perhaps the song's high placement was foreseen by its title. What was it?

Answer: Sky High

Yes, the song did soar "sky high". "The Man from Hong Kong" may have starred ex-James Bond actor George Lazenby, but it failed to catch on in most of the world. However, "Sky High", which reached number three on the US Billboard Top 40, fulfilled the songwriting potential that Apple Music had seen in Scott and Dyer, even if Apple itself never benefited from it.

9. Apple Music's most successful songwriters were the Welsh band The Iveys, who became the first group signed to Apple Records in 1968 and then to Apple Music as well. After changing their name in late 1969, they wrote and recorded major hits such as "Without You" (a worldwide number one hit for both Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey), "No Matter What", "Day After Day", and "Baby Blue". What was the slightly naughty-sounding name that they adopted right before they became famous?

Answer: Badfinger

Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall (later head of Apple) came up with the name Badfinger from John Lennon's working title for "A Little Help from My Friends", which was "Bad Finger Boogie". Beginning with The Iveys/Badfinger, Apple Music became little more than Apple Records' music-publishing arm.

Like The Beatles, to whom they were often compared, Badfinger were standouts as both performers and songwriters. Unfortunately, being so closely involved with a company as disorganized as Apple was both a blessing and a curse for Badfinger. After leaving Apple and signing with less chaotic -- but thoroughly dishonest -- management, both Badfinger singer/guitarist Pete Ham and singer/bassist Tom Evans (the composers of "Without You") ended up committing suicide, Ham in 1975 and Evans in 1983.

10. The last group to sign to Apple Records and Apple Music consisted of two brothers from New Jersey (despite their Dutch-sounding last names) who met George Harrison after the Concert for Bangladesh in September 1971, and a few days later were signed to Apple -- and were in London, becoming the first act to record in the brand-new Apple Studio. However, despite Harrison producing their debut single "Sweet Music", both their single and album (a self-composed set called "Brother") flopped, and they ended up spending most of the next few years working as session musicians in Los Angeles. Who were they?

Answer: Lon and Derrek Van Eaton

"Dutch-sounding" was the clue for the little-known Van Eatons. As Badfinger also learned, being part of Apple near its dysfunctional end was problematic. George Harrison for one was extremely unhappy with the failure of the Van Eatons' Apple releases, and he sent a telegram to Apple's marketing staff asking for an explanation because (in his words) "'Sweet Music' is a No. 1 Hit!" Maybe it should have been, but by 1972 Apple was no longer able to make it one.

Interestingly, the "Brother" album was subsequently classified as part of Apple Music/Apple Publishing, not Apple Records, and so it was not included in the 2010 "complete" Apple Records box set reissue but was instead reissued in 2012 by Cherry Red Records, the company reissuing Apple Publishing demos and releases.

Source: Author AyatollahK

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

The first piece of Apple Corps, Apple Music (now called Apple Publishing), began operations before Brian Epstein's death in 1967, although it was eventually integrated into Apple Records. What do you know about it?

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