Chapter 16: Ain't No Mountain High Enough (November 1969 - August 1970)

3 November 1969 - 4 January 1970

The Beatles, September 1969.

After a month off to spend time with their loved ones, the Beatles returned to the basement studio of Savile Row to work on their next album. Following the blowout between Paul McCartney and George Harrison at the end of the Get Back sessions, it was agreed that the latter would have more say in what songs the Beatles would include on their albums.

This would ultimately prove to be a good decision in retrospect, especially when Paul had brought forth the murder ballad "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", set to a jaunty tune. The other three Beatles reacted negatively to the tune, John Lennon especially.

JOHN LENNON: "Listen here, Macca; you already had your granny shit included on [Beatles] '68 when we did 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-bloody-Da', and we're not going through that bollocks again with 'Maxwell'! Even if we wanted to, it would never be made as a single anywhere." (to Paul McCartney, 1969)

Instead, the Beatles opted for "Come and Get It", a tune McCartney had written and produced for Badfinger for their next album, due for a single release next week. Seeing as the others were unwilling to play on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" - "It was too complicated to work with," said Harrison (1995) - he withdrew the song from the potential track list and worked on a new version of "Comet and Get It". However, for the final track listing, it would be credited to McCartney alone as opposed to Lennon/McCartney, to which Lennon admitted to feeling hurt by being left out of the writing process.

Paul McCartney, December 1969.

Another controversial contender for the next album was Lennon's "Cold Turkey", inspired by his experiences recovering from a brief heroin addiction alongside Yoko Ono. Well, that was what he claimed at first, but in later years, he revealed that it was about a severe case of food poisoning he and Yoko suffered after eating leftover Christmas turkey that was cold. McCartney was concerned about the content of the song, but Harrison was supportive, even providing an impromptu guitar solo that gave the track its own sound. The track was included anyway, citing Lennon as going through writer's block at the time.[1]

PAUL McCARTNEY: "It just seemed strange, really. They wouldn't include 'Maxwell' for being granny music - as John put it - and yet they were okay with 'Cold Turkey' despite the drug implications. That was, in hindsight, another sign that the others were getting fed up with me." (1984)

When it came to deciding how the new album would be structured, Lennon preferred the more traditional release with self-contained songs whilst McCartney and George Martin wanted another album with a thematic approach akin to Merseyside by including a medley. Side A would fulfill Lennon's wish whilst side B fulfilled McCartney's and Martin's collective wish.

Ringo Starr and George Harrison during the recording sessions for Everest, 1969. George Martin can be seen behind Harrison.

Out of the four Beatles, Harrison finally received a chance for his songwriting to shine with the love song "Something" for his wife Pattie and "Here Comes the Sun". The former was considered by both Lennon and McCartney as the best song of the album, as well as the best song Harrison had ever written. So much so that it was planned to be the first single released ahead of the album with McCartney's "Let It Be" as a double A-side. Harrison's third and final contribution to the album was "I Me Mine", a commentary on his fractious relationship with McCartney at the time; it became part of a medley with Lennon's "Polythene Pam", and would also be the last song for several years that all four Beatles would record together on the same track.

9 January 1970
GEORGE MARTIN: "Brian Epstein came to me after the boys had put out Get Back, and he noted to me that there were a lot of songs that Capitol had not put out on an album. It was a similar case for the United Kingdom, so I went over all of their albums from the days beginning with Please Please Me all the way up to Abracadabra. The United Kingdom compilation, which ultimately became known as Past Masters, was easy to assemble. The American compilation was a lot more difficult to put together, because there were only ten tracks that hadn't been on an American album. I discussed this issue with the boys, and they agreed to put out some tracks that weren't put on an album at all. It really gave Sessions some exclusivity when it came out." (2003)

The original Past Masters 1963-1966 cover; it was later replaced with a plain black cover with white text in 1988.

The Beatles - Past Masters 1963-1966

Released: 9 January 1970

Recorded: 5 March 1963 - 16 April 1966

Producer: George Martin
Compiler: George Martin

Track listing[2]

Side A

From Me to You
Thank You Girl
She Loves You
I'll Get You
I Want to Hold Your Hand
This Boy
Long Tall Sally
I Call Your Name
Slow Down
Matchbox

Side B

I Feel Fine
She's a Woman
Bad Boy
Yes It Is
I'm Down
Day Tripper
We Can Work It Out
Paperback Writer
Rain

The Beatles - Sessions

Released: January 9, 1970

Recorded: 6 June 1962 - 5 August 1969

Producer: George Martin
Compiler: George Martin

Track listing[3]

Side A

Besame Mucho
How Do You Do It
Misery
There's a Place
From Me to You
One After 909 [original version]
Sie liebt dich
Can't Buy Me Love
A Hard Day's Night

Side B

I Should Have Known Better
Leave My Kitten Alone
If You've Got Trouble
That Means a Lot
I'm Down
Paperback Writer
Rain
Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues

Past Masters and Sessions were released on the same day in the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively. Past Masters compiled every track that was not included on an album in the United Kingdom, excluding the single version of "Love Me Do" and the Germany-released single "Komm, gib mir diene Hand"/"Sie liebt dich". The latter two tracks were included on the German release closing out sides A and B, respectively. Later CD releases would place the two tracks in between "This Boy" and "Long Tall Sally".

Sessions, meanwhile, included not only the ten tracks that had not received an album release in America, but it also included seven outtakes - including the original version of "One After 909" - ranging from before they had even released their first album ("Besame Mucho", "How Do You Do It") to the most recent Get Back sessions ("Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues"). The outtakes were included to flesh out the compilation a little more, and at the time, it was considered an exclusivity before the seven outtakes were later included for the Savile Row compilation album in 1995.[4]

17 April 1970

The Beatles - Everest

Released: 17 April 1970

Recorded: 3 November 1969 - 4 January 1970

Producer: George Martin

Track listing[5]

Side A

Because
Something
Come and Get It
Cold Turkey
Octopus's Garden
Her Majesty
I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Side B

The Long and Winding Road
Here Comes the Sun
Cosmically Conscious
Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard
Polythene Pam/I Me Mine
Let It Be
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

The Beatles' fifteenth album, Everest, was released to near universal acclaim. The album received its title after Geoff Emerick's favorite brand of cigarettes, but also after the gigantic mountain in the Himalayas. An initial idea was to travel there for a photo session, but the idea was shot down and instead, an image of the band was placed overseeing Mount Everest, designed by Klaus Voormann, who also designed the cover for Abracadabra.

Everest reached #1 on both sides of the Atlantic, backed by the success of the double A-side "Something"/"Let It Be" released that February. Both tracks reached #1 in America, but stalled at #2 in the United Kingdom. A second single was released exclusively in the United States, McCartney's "The Long and Winding Road" with Ringo Starr's "Octopus's Garden" as the B-side. This was not dissimilar to the "Yellow Submarine"/"Eleanor Rigby" single from four years previous with a children's song performed by Starr contrasted by a more depressing track by McCartney. The single hit #1 in the United States, their 27th single overall to reach #1 in either country.

But despite two successful albums at the end of the old decade and at the start of a new one, not all was well within the group.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 1970.

GEORGE HARRISON: "When we finished recording for Everest, we needed a break. John and Yoko both undertook primary therapy from psychologist Arthur Janov that lasted about five months. Paul and I were off writing more tracks and producing for Mary Hopkin and Jackie Lomax. Ringo stayed at home." (1985)

Whilst Lennon was undergoing primal therapy, he would record demos for songs such as "Mother", "Working Class Hero", "Isolation", and "God", as well as a re-working of a track from India, "Look at Me". Similarly, McCartney was recording demos for older songs such as "Every Night", "Teddy Boy", and "Junk", as well as newer songs such as what many would consider his masterwork, "Maybe I'm Amazed". Harrison now had a big stockpile of songs he was unable to record with the Beatles with songs like "Isn't It a Pity", "Let It Down", "Hear Me Lord", "All Things Must Pass", and a collaboration with Bob Dylan, "I'd Have You Anytime". It looked as though, when they reunited towards the end of summer, the Beatles would end up recording a double album's worth of material, possibly a triple, had it not been for a meeting between a certain ringed drummer and their manager.

RINGO STARR: "Just a couple of weeks after Everest came out, I came into Brian's [Epstein] office and told him that I didn't want to just play music all the time. I wanted to have a side career of my own as an actor, especially after the movies we did as a band in the 1960s. It was rather quick for a meeting, but Brian promised that he'd find a way to work something out, and not long after that, he came into contact with an American director called Mel Stuart." (2001)

Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published in 1964, featuring a young boy called Charlie Bucket receiving an inside tour of a chocolate factory run by eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. The idea of a film adaptation came about when Mel Stuart's daughter Madeline read the book and asked her father if he could make a film out of it. Stuart then presented the book to his film-making partner and producer David L. Wolper. By an amazing stroke of coincidence, Stuart and Wolper received a telephone call from Brian Epstein, asking if they had a film in the works.

Ringo Starr, 1970.

MICHAEL LINDSAY-HOGG: "Brian brought in Mel Stuart and David Wolper into a meeting in London, along with the book's author Roald Dahl, about making an adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Ringo was also present at the meeting, having told Brian about wanting a side career in acting. David was in the midst of talks with Quaker Oats at the time when it came to introducing a new candy bar from its subsidiary in Chicago now known as the Willy Wonka Candy Company." (2001)

With a lot of negotiation, it was decided that the film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would be co-produced by Apple Films, Wolper Pictures and the Quaker Oats Company with Warner Brothers as its distributor. The film would be a children's musical, and Dahl would write the screenplay, although the title was changed to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for marketing purposes.

Ringo himself was cast as the titular character, with the knowledge that out of the Beatles, he was easily the most popular and approachable. The other three Beatles were surprised at the announcement of their drummer being the lead character of the movie, and even asked to be in the film as well. Although initially reluctant, Stuart agreed to their presence in the film with Paul being cast as Bill, the owner of the Candy Shop, George as Mr. Turkentine, and John as Mr. Slugworth.[6] In later years, Dahl felt that the presence of the Beatles distracted from the movie as a whole, though he did admit to liking their music. Filming for the movie would begin at the end of August in Germany.

14 August 1970

The Zombies - Back from the Dead

Released: 14 August 1970

Recorded: 1969-1970

Producer: Rod Argent and Chris White

Track listing[7]

Side A

Like Honey
Her Song
Caroline Goodbye
Though You Are Far Away
Dance in the Smoke

Side B

Mary Won't You Warm My Bed
The Feeling's Inside
Freefall
I Can't Live Without You
Rejoice
Say You Don't Mind

With the Zombies having received a resurgence in popularity with "Time of the Season" from Odessey and Oracle, the band put out all of their previously-unreleased material from 1964-1967 under Capitol called From Beyond the Grave, and they even put out a new album the year previous with the ironic title of R.I.P..[8] But where would they go from here?

ROD ARGENT: "Chris [White] was no longer interested in playing on the albums but he still took part in songwriting. But Paul [Atkinson] and Hugh [Grundy] had left the band before R.I.P. was even released." (1990)

The Zombies, 1970. Not pictured: Colin Blunstone.

The Zombies were given a revamp by bringing in drummer Bob Henrit, guitarist Russ Ballard and bassist Jim Rodford, but the core of the band was always going to be Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone. The revamped Zombies were soon back in the studio recording their fourth album, Back from the Dead. In a surprising turn of events, Colin Blunstone was now writing up his own material and Russ Ballard had vocal spots on not only the songs by Argent and Chris White, but on his own songs as well.

It was eventually decided that Ballard's vocal spots would be compiled on a solo album called Ring of Hands, for an early 1971 release, whilst songs sung either by Blunstone or Argent would be on Back from the Dead.

Back from the Dead was released on August 14 to generally positive reception. Many critics and fans lamented the absence of Chris White (despite his presence in the songwriting), Paul Atkinson and Hugh Grundy, and the album was not a Top 40 hit in the United States, but the music was still considered to be enjoyable for what it was, especially "Say You Don't Mind", originally by former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine. The Zombies' cover version reached #15 in the United Kingdom as a single.

Footnotes

1. "Cold Turkey" was brought forth as a potential single for the Beatles, but Paul McCartney rejected it. That was the final straw for John Lennon privately quitting the Beatles and releasing it as a solo single under the Plastic Ono Band. Ringo Starr appears on the track on drums.
2. All tracks taken from Past Masters.
3. Tracks are sourced from the Anthology trilogy, Please Please Me, Past Masters, and A Hard Day's Night.
4. A compilation album called Sessions was planned for release in 1985, but it was shot down by the three surviving Beatles and the tracks were later included on the Anthology albums.
5. The tracks are sourced from the following:
1. "Because", "Something", "Octopus's Garden", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", and "Here Comes the Sun" are all sourced from Abbey Road.
2. "Come and Get It" is from Anthology 3.
3. "Cold Turkey" is a John Lennon single that can be found on compilations such as Power to the People: The Hits.
4. "Her Majesty" is an audio rip from The Beatles: Rock Band with the closing chord from "Mean Mr. Mustard" cut.
5. "The Long and Winding Road" is taken from Let It Be... Naked.
6. "Cosmically Conscious" is the short version that be found as a hidden track from Paul McCartney's Off the Ground following "C'Mon People". Although somewhat anachronistic, the track has origins tracing back to 1968. The closing sound effects from "You Never Give Me Your Money" are added at the end as "Cosmically Conscious" fades out, fading into the next track.
7. "Sun King" and "Mean Mr. Mustard" are both sourced from Abbey Road and joined together as a single track with the closing chord of the latter re-inserted.
8. "Polythene Pam" is from Abbey Road with the ending, taken from "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", extended and fading out at the end, cross-fading into "I Me Mine", taken from Anthology 3 with the opening dialogue cut.
9. "Let It Be" is the single version found on Past Masters.
10. "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight", and "The End" are all sourced from Abbey Road and joined together to form a single track.
6. The roles of Willy Wonka, Bill, Mr. Turkentine, and Mr. Slugworth were portrayed by Gene Wilder, Aubrey Woods, David Battley, and Gunter Meisner, respectively.
7. Tracks are sourced from Colin Blunstone's One Year and Argent's self-titled album from 1970, with "Rejoice" taken from Ring of Hands.
8. R.I.P. is soniclovenoize's version that he did back in July 2014; his full take can be seen here.

Author's Comments

Yep, we're finally leaving the 1960s behind and are just about to enter the 1970s. An interesting note in regards to Colin's One Year album from 1971 is that all four members from Argent appeared on three tracks, which sort of made me wonder what might've happened if the Zombies carried on but with different members. How would it have compared to the original lineup? I'm not sure.

The idea for a Beatles-starred take on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory came from my good friend Mike Nicholson. I did a poll asking which Beatle would be best suited for Wonka, and Ringo was the winner with John coming in a close second. On one hand, John would've perfectly fit Wonka's eccentricity and occasional mad rambling, but on the other, Ringo also has the sort of fatherly charm to him. Gene Wilder managed to do both sides of him brilliantly, and I'll admit it's kind of sacrilege, but heck, it's alternate history. It does also make me wonder how the film would've differed from OTL.

Only a few more chapters to go for Phase One, and after the last chapter is written up, I'll be writing up the complete timeline of events thus far.

Chapter 15: Come and Get It (August 1968 - December 1969)

General Affairs for Apple Corps Ltd.

Derek Taylor, 1969.

As the 1960s drew to a close, no one had expected Apple Corps Ltd. to hit the ground running within its first two years. Although the Beatles had founded the company, they did not want to play businessmen 24/7, leaving a lot of their affairs in the hands of CEO Brian Epstein and publicist Derek Taylor, although the band did attend a number of meetings to discuss the possibility of improvements.

NEMS Enterprises, Epstein's record company, and Northern Songs Ltd., operated by Dick James, were absorbed into Apple; the latter had ownership of the Lennon/McCartney catalog, and by mid-1969, when Apple had been sorted out, Northern Songs had been absorbed into Apple.

None of that would have been possible if it weren't for the assistance of physicist/engineer Baron Richard Beeching, who was infamously known across the United Kingdom for overhauling the country's railway system in the early 1960s with the Beeching Report. Despite the infamous reputation he left behind, Lord Beeching had the power and command John Lennon liked in a businessman, but he also had the honesty Paul McCartney desired.[1]

Lennon went with Brain Epstein to meet with the former chairman of British Railways. Whilst the full details were not disclosed at the time, Lord Beeching agreed to have a hand in managing Apple Records until the end of 1975. In addition, Apple's management had brought in Lee and John Eastman - Paul's father-in-law and brother-in-law, respectively - as lawyers.

Lord Richard Beeching during a press conference regarding Apple Corps Ltd, 1969.

Although the idea of a boutique was deemed impractical, Epstein did not rule out the possibility of a recording studio for Apple at Savile Row. "Magic Alex" Madras had promised to build a state of the art studio in the basement after showing the Beatles and Epstein phony gadgets. But when George Martin entered the studio with the Beatles to test the new equipment in February, he was appalled by the work Madras had done; the mixing board was made from wood and an old oscilloscope, and there was no soundproofing. The one recording done on Madras' "state of the art" studio was of terrible quality, and a furious Lennon called Beeching about Madras' work, and Beeching immediately saw to it that Madras was given his pink slip.

Geoff Emerick was called in to remove Madras' "mixing console", and it was sold as scrap for a measly five pounds. George Harrison recalled that in retrospect, they should've asked Emerick from the start, feeling as though the Beatles had been cheated out of some of their money. However, the new basement studio had been completed with an eight-track recorder by the end of May, and the first recordings from the studio came from the Radha Krishna Temple, produced by Harrison.

Yellow Submarine and Alice in Wonderland were both released under the Apple Films banner, managed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who directed the latter film, though both were distributed by United Artists. Magical Mystery Tour, containing footage of the Beatles' infamous 1967 University Tour with Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright, was also released under Apple Films, as were A Hard Day's Night and Help! for future releases. When asked if Apple Films was going to focus exclusively on the Beatles, Lindsay-Hogg said that "there are plans to expand our horizons in the near future. The Beatles will not be are sole focus for Apple Films, but we'd love to do more concert films."

The biggest focus, of course, was the artists of Apple Records.

The Artists of Apple Records

The Beatles, April 1969.

Beginning with their debut single "Love Me Do", the Beatles had been signed onto EMI Records; Parlophone would distribute their music for the British market, and Capitol for the American market, but beginning with "Hey Jude"/"Revolution" and Beatles '68, their singles and albums would be sold under the Apple banner, but distributed by EMI until January 1976.

Originally known as the Iveys, Pete Ham and Tom Evans would re-brand the group as Badfinger by the end of 1969, named for the working title of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Bad Finger Boogie". They were joined by Joey Molland following Ron Griffiths' departure, and their first album under Apple was Maybe Tomorrow, with Magic Christian Music to be released at the start of 1970; the name came from the fact that three tracks were featured in The Magic Christian, most notably "Come and Get It", written and produced by Paul McCartney. It was a Top 10 hit.

Other artists brought in by McCartney were Mary Hopkin with a version of the Russian ballad "Those Were the Days" and the McCartney original "Goodbye", both of which hit #1 in the United Kingdom, and James Taylor, whose biggest hit at the time was "Carolina in My Mind". By the end of 1969, Taylor had recorded his second album, tentatively titled Sweet Baby James.

Billy Preston and George Harrison, 1969.

George Harrison had his own share of artists he signed up for Apple, such as Brute Force ("King of Fuh"), Jackie Lomax ("Sour Milk Sea", which featured both McCartney and Ringo Starr), Billy Preston ("That's the Way God Planned It"), Delaney & Bonnie (a cover of Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart"), the Radha Krishna Temple ("Hare Krishna Mantra"), and Cream ("Badge"). Despite his frustration at not having to record more material included for the Beatles' albums, at least he was kept busy producing other artists and playing with them. Another artist he brought in was Doris Troy, having not released an album since 1963.

Apart from bringing in his new wife Yoko Ono, whose first single on the label was "Remember Love"/"Don't Worry Kyoko", John Lennon had brought in reggae group Hot Chocolate, who did their own version of "Give Peace a Chance". He also signed up pianist Elton John, having offered to co-produce his first album, Empty Sky.

There were also a few bands not discovered by the Beatles themselves; their roadie Mal Evans discovered London-based group Smile, consisting of guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist/lead singer Tim Staffell, performing at a small pub in London. Their first single under Apple was "Doing All Right", which was a modest Top 40 hit in the United Kingdom. Another group, White Trash, was brought to Apple by ex-Shadows drummer Tony Meehan.

One of the most interesting inclusions to the roster was Fleetwood Mac, having formed back in 1967 by John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, Harrison's brother-in-law through Pattie Boyd's sister Jenny. Fleetwood and McVie were both in favor of signing up for Apple Records, and soon joined following their departure from Blue Horizon, where they recorded their self-titled debut and Mr. Wonderful. Their first album released under Apple was Then Play On, and also their last with Peter Green as a member. Fleetwood Mac's first singles under Apple were "Albatross", "Man of the World", and "Oh Well", all of which were in the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, with "Albatross" hitting #1.

Crosby, Stills & Nash recording at Apple Studio in the basement of 3 Savile Row, 1969.

But perhaps the biggest potential hit-making group Apple Records had brought in - apart from the Beatles themselves - was supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. Consisting of Byrds guitarist David Crosby, Buffalo Springfield guitarist Stephen Stills, and Hollies guitarist Graham Nash, these three great musicians almost didn't get signed up when John Lennon initially dismissed them as "elevator music", but George Harrison found a loophole that got the group signed up anyway, knowing that they were hit-makers.

Harrison's judgement would prove correct when Crosby, Stills & Nash, the group's self-titled debut, hit the Top 20 in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The two singles off of the album, Nash's "Marrakesh Express" and Stills' "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", were also big hits. The former was initially written for the Hollies when Nash was a member, but it was rejected for not being commercial enough, and the latter was written about Stills' girlfriend at the time, Judy Collins, his thoughts on her and their imminent breakup. "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" would become the supergroup's signature song.

As the decade drew to a close, Crosby, Stills & Nash were joined by Stills' former Buffalo Springfield bandmate Neil Young for a second album due out in 1970. The group was now known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young due to the latter's joining.

Apple Records discography, August 1968 - December 1969

Albums

• Yellow Submarine by The Beatles - 2 August 1968 (#3 UK, #1 US) [EMI]
• Wheels of Fire by Cream - 9 August 1968 (#3 UK, #1 US)
• Beatles '68 by The Beatles - 22 November 1968 (#1 UK and US) [EMI]
• James Taylor by James Taylor - 6 December 1968 (#6 UK, #2 US)
• Under the Jasmin Tree by The Modern Jazz Quartet - 6 December 1968
• Alice in Wonderland by The Beatles - 31 January 1969 (#1 UK and US) [EMI]
• Postcard by Mary Hopkin - 21 February 1969 (#3 UK, #20 US)
• Is This What You Want? by Jackie Lomax - 21 March 1969 (#4 UK, #18 US)
• Home by Delaney & Bonnie - 1 May 1969
• Crosby, Stills & Nash by Crosby, Stills & Nash - 29 May 1969 (#14 UK, #5 US)
• Empty Sky by Elton John - 6 June 1969 (#6 US)
• Maybe Tomorrow by Badfinger (as The Iveys) - 4 July 1969 (#30 UK, #23 US)
• Back in Your Safely Beds by The Beatles - 7 July 1969 (#2 UK, #14 US) [EMI]
• The Original Delaney & Bonnie by Delaney & Bonnie - 7 July 1969 (#40 US)
• Blind Faith by Cream - 28 July 1969 (#1 UK and US)
• That's the Way God Planned It by Billy Preston - 22 August 1969 (#3 UK, #10 US)
• Then Play On by Fleetwood Mac - 19 September 1969 (#6 UK)
• Get Back by The Beatles - 26 September 1969 (#1 UK and US) [EMI]
• Space by The Modern Jazz Quartet - 24 October 1969

Notable Singles

• "Hey Jude" / "Revolution" by The Beatles - 26 August 1968 (#1 UK and US) [EMI]
• "Those Were the Days" / "Turn! Turn! Turn!" by Mary Hopkin - 26 August 1968 (#1 UK, #2 US)
• "Sour Milk Sea" / "The Eagle Laughs at You" by Jackie Lomax - 26 August 1968 (#6 UK, #19 US)
• "White Room" / "Those Were the Days" by Cream - 20 September 1968 (#28 UK, #6 US)
• "Maybe Tomorrow" / "And Her Daddy's a Millionaire" by Badfinger (as The Iveys) - 15 November 1968 (#22 UK, #40 US)
• "Albatross" / "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" by Fleetwood Mac - 22 November 1968 (#1 UK)
• "Carolina in My Mind" / "Taking It In" by James Taylor - 14 February 1969 (#14 UK, #8 US)
• "Badge" / "Well All Right" by Cream - 21 March 1969 (#18 UK, #13 US)
• "Goodbye" / "Sparrow" by Mary Hopkin - 28 March 1969 (#2 UK, #13 US)
• "Man of the World" / "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonite" by Fleetwood Mac - 3 April 1969 (#2 UK)
• "The Ballad of John and Yoko" / "Two of Us" by The Beatles - 25 April 1969 (#1 UK, #8 US) [EMI]
• "New Day" / "Fall Inside Your Eyes" by Jackie Lomax - 9 May 1969
• "King of Fuh" / "Nobody Knows" by Brute Force - 16 May 1969
• "That's the Way God Planned It" / "What About You?" by Billy Preston - 27 June 1969 (#7 UK, #38 US)
• "Marrakesh Express" / "Helplessly Hoping" by Crosby, Stills & Nash - 11 July 1969 (#20 UK, #12 US)
• "Doin' All Right" / "April Lady" by Smile - 11 August 1969 (#35 UK)
• "Get Back" / "Don't Let Me Down" by The Beatles - 25 August 1969 (#1 UK and US) [EMI]
• "Hare Krishna Mantra" / "Prayer to the Spiritual Masters" by Radha Krishna Temple - 29 August 1969
• "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" / "Long Time Gone" by Crosby, Stills & Nash - 5 September 1969 (#11 UK, #5 US)
• "Oh Well Part 1" / "Oh Well Part 2" by Fleetwood Mac - 26 September 1969 (#2 UK)
• "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight" / "Trash Can" by White Trash - 26 September 1969 (#28 UK)
• "Come Together" / "Old Brown Shoe" by The Beatles - 6 October 1969 (#4 UK, #1 US) [EMI]
• "Give Peace a Chance" / "Living Without Tomorrow" by Hot Chocolate Band - 10 October 1969
• "Remember Love" / "Don't Worry Kyoko" by Yoko Ono - 20 October 1969
• "Come and Get It" / "Rock of All Ages" by Badfinger - 5 December 1969 (#1 UK, #5 US)

Apple Artists, as of December 1969

• Badfinger
• The Beatles
• Cream
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
• Delaney & Bonnie
• Fleetwood Mac
• Mary Hopkin
• Elton John
• Jackie Lomax
• Yoko Ono
• Billy Preston
• Smile
• James Taylor
• Doris Troy

Departed Apple Artists

• Brute Force
• Hot Chocolate
• Radha Krishna Temple
• White Trash

Various Artists - The Best of Apple Records Vol. 1: 1968-1969

Released: 22 August 2008

Recorded: June 1968 - September 1969

Producer: Various

Track listing

Hey Jude [The Beatles]
Those Were the Days [Mary Hopkin]
Sour Milk Sea [Jackie Lomax]
Albatross [Fleetwood Mac]
Carolina in My Mind [James Taylor]
Badge [Cream]
King of Fuh [Brute Force]
Piece of My Heart [Delaney & Bonnie]

That's the Way God Planned It [Billy Preston]

Doin' All Right [Smile]

Hare Krishna Mantra [Radha Krishna Temple]
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes [Crosby, Stills & Nash]
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight [White Trash]
Give Peace a Chance [Hot Chocolate]
Remember Love [Yoko Ono]
Come and Get It [Badfinger]

In 2008, to celebrate Apple's 40th anniversary, the first compilation album celebrating the best of the label's recording artists during the 1960s was released. This was to be the first of a planned series of twelve compilation albums celebrating the history of Apple Records from its founding in 1968 all the way to 2007. Although some fans questioned some the choices for the album - for example, choosing "Those Were the Days" over "Goodbye" - the compilation was still a commercial success, topping the charts in the United Kingdom but stalling at #2 in the United States.

Footnotes

1. Lord Beeching was originally considered to assist the Beatles with their financial affairs after Brian Epstein's death, but he was rejected in favor of Allen Klein.

Author's Comments

Not really a lot I can talk about here. For the Apple discography, the album portion is complete, but the singles portion is not. This is intentional because not every single released under the Apple banner will reach the Top 40. Think of the singles portion as the sort of cream of the crop. Chapters like these will showcase how Apple is developing, as well as showcase any changes made to the roster since its founding in 1968. As for the first Best of Apple volume, I didn't list the sources for each song cause hey, it's a compilation album. Some of them can be found on Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records, though, which inspired this series of twelve.

Chapter 14: Love You Till Tuesday (June - December 1969)

21 July 1969

Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon during the recording for Get Back, July 1969. After the photo-shoot for the album cover, Harrison grew back his beard and mustache and Starr grew out his sideburns.

The Beatles' fourteenth album was conceived by Paul McCartney as a return to the band's earlier, less complicated approach to music, to sort of "get back" to their roots. There were even talks of having the Beatles play at the Isle of Wight at the end of August, following a music festival from the year previous. As interested as they were about playing at the Isle of Wight, John, George and Ringo were not feeling enthusiastic about working on the next album.

JOHN LENNON: "Brian [Epstein] had told us that we were making an album on a strict schedule, and we had no say in the matter. We could handle ourselves; he just didn't get the point of Back in Your Safely Beds." (1984)

GEORGE HARRISON: "I didn't enjoy working on Get Back. John and Ringo had recognized my talent with the likes of 'Let It Down' and 'All Things Must Pass', but Paul didn't care at all and instead made us work on his own material. It was during the sessions that I decided I'd had enough of working with Paul McCartney." (1972)

The first song the Beatles worked on was John's "Come Together", a song initially written for Timothy Leary's campaign for governor of California against former actor Ronald Reagan, but things broke down when Leary was arrested for marijuana possession. Afterwards, Lennon rewrote the lyrics to be a little more nonsensical. Some of his other tracks were "Dig a Pony", "Don't Let Me Down", "Everybody Had a Hard Year", and an older Beatles song, "The One After 909", dating back to the Please Please Me sessions.

Paul's tracks consisted of the title track "Get Back", "Oh! Darling", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", and "I've Got a Feeling", which was later mashed up with John's "Everybody Had a Hard Year", forming the one true Lennon/McCartney song of the album. Ringo's sole contribution was "Don't Pass Me By", with origins tracing back to 1962 when he first joined the Beatles, and George, to his disgruntlement, was left with two tracks; "Old Brown Shoe" and "For You Blue". In addition, there was a cover version of the Tin Pan Alley standard "Ain't She Sweet".

10 August 1969

George Harrison and Paul McCartney, 1969. This photo was taken a few hours before their blowout.

PATTIE BOYD: "When George came home after the last day of the Get Back sessions, he told me that they may have been the worst of his entire career. 'I thought I'd earned a place in the band,' he said, 'but apparently, I was proven wrong.'" (Wonderful Today, 2007)

The last sessions for Get Back focused on the definitive version of "Don't Let Me Down". After the recording had finished, George attempted once again to get Paul to take his songwriting more seriously by playing "Let It Down" in a solo acoustic performance.

"You've already filled out your quota, George," Paul had said. "Your job's pretty much done."

"Who said you and I had to have all the space on the album?" John snapped.

"That's kind of the way it's been since we started," said Paul. "Up until now, George's material has been kind of subpar..." Hearing that was the final straw for George; he put down his guitar and stormed over to his left-handed bandmate.

"But at least I can actually write something that's serious!" he yelled, taking Paul by surprise. "You know that 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' was the best song on Beatles '68, but you're too afraid to admit it!"

Paul stared at George dumbfounded. "Well, erm, yes, it's a very good song, George," he stammered, trying to defuse the situation before it got worse. "But do you really need more space on an album?"

"Yes! Yes, I do!" snapped George. "I've been growing as a songwriter and you've been completely ignorant of that! John appreciated what I did during our trip to India, so why not you? Are you afraid of the sacred Lennon/McCartney legend being tarnished? Sharing songwriting royalties with both Harrison and Starr?"

"Oh, come now, George..." Paul chuckled, a bit more condescending than he intended. But George cut him off before he could continue, having punched him right in the face, even telling Paul to shut up.

The poster for the 1969 Woodstock festival. This is an earlier version where the list of acts had yet to be included.

RINGO STARR: "Paul and George got into a brawl in the studio, and [George] Martin and [Geoff] Emerick had to come down form the control room to break them up. When things had calmed down, George stormed out of the studio. Paul asked if anyone else had anything to say, but John said, 'No, Macca; George said all for the three of us.' Three of us; it meant that Paul was beginning to split from the rest of us. It was the beginning of the end." (1976)

The brawl between Paul McCartney and George Harrison could not have come at a worse time; earlier in July, Brian Epstein had scheduled for the Beatles to turn up at a music festival in New York the organizers had called Woodstock. The band had agreed to the performance as long as they got an early slot before people got too rowdy. Crosby, Stills and Nash, another Apple band, would also take part with a Canadian artist called Neil Young, Stephen Stills' former bandmate in Buffalo Springfield. James Taylor would also take part in Woodstock.[1]

But with George having temporarily left the Beatles, two options seemed to be up front; either play as a trio or drop out altogether. There was the possibility of substituting George for Eric Clapton, but Clapton was not available at the time.

Three days after the blowout, all four members met up to discuss their future, with Harrison in a commanding position. He'd made it clear that he would leave the group unless he was given equal treatment for future Beatles projects, and even insisted on having more say in what songs to record. Several hours later, they were soon on the plane to New York.

August 15 - 30, 1969
BOB DYLAN: "I was reluctant to appear at Woodstock until I heard from George about the Beatles playing at the Isle of Wight. I then decided to show up at Woodstock after all." (2001)

John Lennon performing with the Beatles at Woodstock, August 15, 1969.

Despite John and George's drug busts earlier that year, the Beatles still managed to make it into America to perform at Woodstock. Their setlist would consist only of songs they had recorded for Get Back, along with a couple of older Beatles songs for an encore, as a way of promoting the new album, due out next month. The group arrived on stage at 5:00 in the evening as the opening act, even before Swami Satchidananda's opening speech.

The Beatles' Woodstock Setlist[3]
1. Get Back
2. Come Together
3. Old Brown Shoe
4. Don't Let Me Down
5. I've Got a Feeling
6. One After 909
7. Dig a Pony

8. Don't Pass Me By

9. Give Peace a Chance
10. Helter Skelter

The 45-minute setlist was very well-received by the crowd, and they even sang along to "Give Peace a Chance". George would later admit that despite the bad blood going on between him and Paul at the time, he had a bit of fondness for the performance. The performances of James Taylor later in the evening, Bob Dylan in the afternoon of the 16th, and Crosby, Stills and Nash with Neil Young in the early morning of the 18th were also well received.

Bob Dylan performing at the Isle of Wight Festival, 30 August 1969.

When the Beatles performed on the second day at the Isle of Wight Festival, 30 August, their setlist was the same as it was from when they performed at Woodstock, with some tracks re-arranged as well as the excluding of "Come Together" and "Helter Skelter". In the case of the latter, they had been informed that due to the murder spree enacted by Charles Manson a few days prior to Woodstock, an event Manson had dubbed Helter Skelter, claiming that it was an apocalyptic war arising from racial tensions between blacks and whites, performing "Helter Skelter" live had not been a wise decision.

PAUL McCARTNEY: "We thought we'd rocked the crowd that evening when we played it ['Helter Skelter'] live, but having heard about the atrocities Manson had committed, well... in hindsight, we should've picked something else as an encore instead. Unfortunate timing for us, really. News didn't travel to us as fast as it does nowadays." (2008)

Still, the Beatles' setlist was met with positive audience reception, and during Bob Dylan's set, the Beatles joined him onstage for "Like a Rolling Stone", "She Belongs to Me", "Mr. Tambourine Man", "Lay, Lady, Lay", and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35". Those five performances made the true (wet) dream to every rock manager and every fan a reality.

The Beatles' live performances at both Woodstock and the Isle of Wight that August built up the hype surrounding Get Back, with the title track being released as a single on the 25th with "Don't Let Me Down" as its B-side, reaching #1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

26 September 1969

The Beatles - Get Back

Released: 26 September 1969

Recorded: 14 & 15 April, 21 July - 10 August 1969

Producer: George Martin

Track listing[3]

Side A

Get Back
Dig a Pony
Oh! Darling
Old Brown Shoe
I've Got a Feeling
One After 909
Don't Let Me Down

Side B

Come Together
Don't Pass Me By
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
For You Blue
Ain't She Sweet
Two of Us
The Ballad of John and Yoko

"On Top of the World Once Again!" The New York Times crowed in a headline when Get Back was released. The reception towards the album was almost unanimously positive, contrasting it with their previous album, Back in Your Safely Beds. The second single off of the album, "Come Together" backed with "Old Brown Shoe", was released on 6 October and, like the "Get Back" single, also reached #1 in the United States, but topped out at #4 in the United Kingdom.

Because only twelve new recordings were done for Get Back, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and "Two of Us" were included at the end to fill the album to fourteen songs, much like the earlier records from 1963 to 1968, excluding A Hard Day's Night and Beatles '68, which had thirteen each, and Yellow Submarine which had twelve. Some international releases of Get Back excluded the April 1969 single and instead shifted "The One After 909" as the third song on side B. Some fans thought that much like the album cover calling back to Please Please Me, the inclusion of the April 1969 single called back to the inclusion of the "Love Me Do" single on said album, being released in 1962 months before the album was even recorded.

The week after Get Back was released, Paul McCartney had announced to the press that the Beatles would soon be back in the studio to record another album.

24 October 1969

The Yardbirds - Whole Lotta Love

Released: 24 October 1969

Recorded: April - August 1969

Producer: Jimmy Page

Track listing[4]

Side A

Whole Lotta Love
What Is and What Should Never Be
The Lemon Song
Thank You

Side B

Your Time is Gonna Come
Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)
Ramble On
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
Bring It On Home

Whilst the re-vamped Yardbirds were performing concert tours in the United States and the United Kingdom, they were working on their seventh album, as well as their first without founding members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty. The two men had formed Renaissance with Relf's younger sister Jane, bassist Louis Cennamo and pianist John Hawken.

KEITH RELF: "We wanted to do our own thing since the start of '68. Jimmy [Page] and the others [Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham] were capable of handling the Yardbirds without me and Jim [McCarty] to guide them. It was for the best, really. I can't picture what would happen if we had stayed on." (1976, his last interview weeks before his death)

Jimmy Page had envisioned the newer Yardbirds albums as to having no commercial expectations, and even didn't like having existing tracks edited down just for single releases. Whole Lotta Love was going to be an even heavier release than Going Down Like a Lead Zeppelin, exhibiting the Yardbirds' evolving style of blues-derived material and their guitar riff-based sound. The title track was partially adapted from Willie Dixon's "You Need Love", of which Muddy Waters recorded as a single in 1962. It was advised to Page that Dixon get songwriting credits as well to avoid a lawsuit, which he agreed to.

The Yardbirds, 1969.

Whole Lotta Love was the Yardbirds' first album to reach number one in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and the title track was released as a single, topping at #4 in the Billboard chart. By the start of 1970, it would have sold a million copies, helping to cement the band's newfound popularity. Whenever they played in concerts, they would sometimes last longer than four hours, largely in part of improvising live versions of some of their tracks.

As their concerts developed the band members' reputation for off-stage excess, some music fans believed that they had joined the battle of the bands that had begun with the Who trying to steal the Rolling Stones' crown as being the bad boys of rock and roll, but Jimmy Page was dismissive of those claims. "The Stones and the Who have their thing, and the Yardbirds have theirs," he said when asked about this so-called battle of the bands in 1971. "Though it doesn't really hurt to have a slice of the action every now and again."

But commercial success does not always translate to critical success; like Going Down Like a Lead Zeppelin, Whole Lotta Love was not met with good reviews from critics, with John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone being especially harsh. Others even criticized the loss of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, whilst the latter spoke in defense of the album the week after its release, admitting that "whilst it doesn't have the classic Yardbirds sound, Jimmy and the others know what they're doing."

Still, as time went on, Whole Lotta Love would be regarded as the quintessential heavy metal album, and would be ranked by Rolling Stone at #75 for the 500 greatest albums of all time. Artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Alex Lifeson, Freddie Mercury, Steven Tyler, Dave Mustaine, Joey Ramone and Eddie Vedder would cite the album as being influential to their music.

1 June 1969

David Bowie, 1969.

David Robert Jones - known to the world as David Bowie - released his first studio album around the same time as the Beatles' Merseyside. The singles "Rubber Band" and "Love You Till Tuesday" both failed to chart, and his label Deram dropped him in April 1968. For a while, it looked as though Bowie didn't have a big future in music, until a chance encounter with the Rolling Stones.

DAVID BOWIE: "I went into the Olympic Studios whilst the band were working on a project they had planned on calling Let It Bleed. Brian wasn't with them cause they were fed up with how unreliable he had become at this point. One of the first songs we did was 'Live with Me', but then I told Mick that I could write songs as well as sing." (2001)[5]

MICK JAGGER: "It seemed like a bombshell for us; we'd just gotten David Bowie into the group and he came out saying he had songs of his own. After the shock wore off, I said, 'Alright, Dave; let's see what you got.'" (1983)

The first song David Bowie performed for the Rolling Stones was "Space Oddity", with the lyrics of the subject matter inspired from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey with the main character being called Major Tom. The Rolling Stones were in awe at the majesty of the recording, and it soon became the title of their next album.

Then there was the matter of what would be on the album; the Jagger/Richards duo had around eight songs written together, whilst Bowie had nine. There were plans to put out a double album, but the idea was nixed and instead, some tracks would be released as non-album B-sides whilst others would be held in reserve for later albums.

2 - 5 July 1969

Mick Jagger performing with the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, 5 July 1969.

Former Rolling Stones member Brian Jones was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool at the age of 27. An autospy confirmed that his liver and heart had been enlarged by past drug and alcohol abuse, but there were rumors in years to come that Jones had been murdered by construction worker Frank Thorogood, who was the last person to see him alive. However, some have chosen to dismiss the theory, saying Jones died by misadventure.

A few days after Jones' death, the Rolling Stones, with David Bowie, performed their first full concert since 1967 at Hyde Park in London to a crowd of a quarter of a million. The show was dedicated to Jones' memory, and marked the debut of David Bowie as a Rolling Stone, to which his performance of "Space Oddity" was met with applause. Some believed it was written as a tribute to Jones, but Bowie denied those claims, having written the song before Brian Jones' death.

Shortly after Jones' funeral, Mick Jagger flew down to Australia to film his part for the film Ned Kelly, his first starring role in a feature-length movie, with Up Against It alongside Ian McKellan as his second. It was during the filming that Jagger composed "Brown Sugar". Despite his absence, the Stones continued the sessions for Space Oddity, focusing mainly on Bowie's songs.

21 November 1969

The Rolling Stones - Space Oddity

Released: 21 November 1969

Recorded: 16-17 November 1968, 23 February - 2 November 1969

Producer: Jimmy Miller, Tony Visconti

Track listing[6]

Side A

Space Oddity
Gimme Shelter
Honky Tonk Women
Letters to Hermione
Memory of a Free Festival
Let It Bleed

Side B

Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud
Sister Morphine
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Cygnet Committee

Space Oddity marked a true departure for the Rolling Stones following the release of Lazarus of England the year previous. Whilst there was still a heavy emphasis on hard rock and blues, there were also some progressive and psychedelic influences, no doubt due to Bowie's presence.

In July, four months before the album's release, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Honky Tonk Women" were released as a double A-side; whilst the former was almost five minutes long on the album, it was seven-and-a-half minutes in length for the single release, rivaling the Beatles' "Hey Jude" from Beatles '68.[7]

David Bowie during the filming for the "Space Oddity" music video, 1969.

The title track was released as a single in December with "Live with Me" as its B-side, topping the charts in the United Kingdom, and reaching #4 in the United States.[8] "Let It Bleed" was the third single from the album with "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" as the B-side, and although "Gimme Shelter" wasn't released for a single, it still remained one of the Rolling Stones' most popular songs.

Space Oddity reached #1 in the United Kingdom, temporarily dethroning the Beatles' Get Back for three non-consecutive weeks. It topped at #3 in America, but critical reception was near universally positive, being called their greatest album of the 1960s, and a perfect album to close the decade.

MICK JAGGER: "Mind you, we still had that issue with the Who trying to beat us at our game, but now we had David Bowie as our secret weapon to put them in their place. They put out Tommy, and we put out Space Oddity as a response to them. I think they should've given up right there and then, but they came out with Live at Leeds in May. It seemed as if they didn't want to give up without a fight, and I don't know if that was brave or foolish of them to do so. Or both." (1997)

Footnotes

1. There were rumors about the Beatles appearing at Woodstock, but due to the Beatles hating each other at the time, this did not happen. James Taylor also did not perform at Woodstock despite the invitation, nor did Bob Dylan.
2. Adapted from the January 30 rooftop performance with additions. "Come Together", "Old Brown Shoe", "Don't Pass Me By", and "Helter Skelter" were later performed by their respective singers during their solo live performances.
3. Tracks are sourced from Past Masters, Let It Be... Naked, Abbey Road, The White Album, and Anthology 3. The closing dialogue from the Anthology 3 version of "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" is cut.
4. All tracks are sourced from Led Zeppelin II excluding "Your Time is Gonna Come" and "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", both sourced from Led Zeppelin I.
5. In OTL, Mick Taylor began recording with the Rolling Stones on May 31, 1969 starting with "Live with Me" on the Let It Bleed album. Circumstances would've likely changed with Taylor due to butterflies.
6. All of David Bowie's tracks come from his 1969 self-titled album (sometimes referred to as Space Oddity), with "Memory of a Free Festival" edited down to 3:59, per the single release. "Gimme Shelter" and "Let It Bleed" both come from Let It Bleed, "Honky Tonk Women" and the single edit of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" are from GRRR!, and "Sister Morphine" is from Sticky Fingers.
7. In OTL, it was the other way around with "You Can't Always Get What You Want" being edited for single release.
8. "Space Oddity" topped the charts in 1975, six years after its initial release.

Author's Comments

There's quite a lot to take in, isn't there? The Beatles are now in conflict with each other, mostly due to Paul being pushy, the Yardbirds have lost their founding members, and the Rolling Stones have brought in David Bowie. The latter half of the 1960s have really changed a lot from how they were in OTL; how it will effect the 1970s onwards remains to be seen.

At this point, you'll notice that I haven't put much focus on how Apple Corporation has been faring. Not to worry; the next chapter will serve as a summary as to how it's been going from August 1968 to December 1969. In addition, we'll see the full details as to who became part of the roster.

Chapter 13: Wooden Ships (February - October 1969)

20 February - 28 June 1969

The cover for Cream's Wheels of Fire album, released August 1968.

The supergroup Cream's third album, Wheels of Fire, was the first album released on the Apple Records label on 9 August 1968. It topped the charts in America despite being a double album; one record of live performances, and the other studio tracks. That October, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had recorded new material for a fourth album, most notably "Badge", a collaboration between Clapton and George Harrison (credited as "L'Angelo Misterioso").

JACK BRUCE: "At that point, we were kind of getting fed up with one another, what with the ego and all. My hearing was going bad, Ginger and I were at each others' throats, Eric was more interested in playing with Bob Dylan's backing group. But then there was this sort of battle of the bands going on with the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Monkees, and despite the frustration, we kind of wanted in. That was where Steve Winwood came in." (2007)

Steve Winwood was a keyboardist known for being a member of the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. Clapton and Bruce had known him back in 1966 when they were part of a group called the Powerhouse, but only recorded three songs together, and Clapton and Bruce later formed Cream with Baker. Winwood agreed to provide the keyboards for Cream's next album, and by the end of February, they were back in the studio with producer Jimmy Miller to record the next Cream album.

28 July 1969

Cream - Blind Faith

Released: 28 July 1969

Recorded: October 1968 ("Badge"), 20 February - 28 June 1969

Producer: Felix Pappalardi ("Badge"), Jimmy Miller

Track listing[1]

Side A

Had to Cry Today
Theme for an Imaginary Western
Can't Find My Way Home
Weird of Hermiston
Presence of the Lord

Side B

Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune
Badge
The Clearout
Do What You Like

"Badge" was released as a single four months ahead of Blind Faith, backed with a cover of Buddy Holly's "Well... All Right" as the B-side, becoming a Top 20 hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It was the only track from the October 1968 sessions that the group deemed salvageable, and overdubs were added to fit amongst the February to June 1969 recordings.

When Blind Faith was released, there was controversy surrounding the cover depicting a topless pubescent girl, created by Bob Seidemann, a photographer and personal friend of Clapton known for his photos of Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead. An alternative cover in the United States depicted the band on the front.

Controversy aside, the album was still a commercial success, being Cream's first album to reach #1 in the United Kingdom, as well as their second to top the charts in America, the first being Wheels of Fire. Blind Faith, named for a comment made by Eric Clapton about describing everyone's self-belief that Cream would still be around, no matter the circumstances, is often said to have included some of the best music Cream have ever put out, being ranked by Rolling Stone as the 140th greatest album of all time.

It seemed as if for now, Cream was stable once again.

12 - 31 March 1969

The wedding of Paul and Linda McCartney, 12 March 1969.

Just a fortnight after the filming on Apple Films' take on Alice in Wonderland had wrapped up, Paul McCartney had married his new girlfriend Linda Eastman. Although the event had initially been planned to be a secret, much like John Lennon's first marriage to Cynthia Powell in 1962, onlookers and reporters soon caught wind of the newly-wed couple. Many girls cried because Paul had been the last bachelor Beatle. None of his bandmates attended the ceremony, but Mal Evans, Peter Brown and McCartney's brother Michael acted as witnesses. Four days after the wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Paul McCartney went off on their honeymoon to New York to spend time with Linda's family.

At the same time, John and Yoko had flown to Paris, France. Their initial wedding date was to be 14 March on a cross-channel ferry in Southampton, but due to Ono not being of English ancestry, that was not possible. The couple wanted to try again in Paris, but Peter Brown instead advised for them to marry in Gibraltar, at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. "We chose Gibraltar because it is quiet, British and friendly," John would later recall. "We tried everywhere else first."

John and Yoko's bed-in for peace in Amsterdam, 25-31 March 1969.

John and Yoko's marriage received a lot of press coverage, and so they decided to use this publicity to promote world peace. They stayed at room 902 at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam in the Netherlands for a week in bed. The press were invited into the room for twelve hours a day between nine in the morning and nine in the evening; rather than seeing them making love in public following a public image of Lennon and Ono naked, they simply sat in their bed talking about peace. For all the publicity it got, much of it hostile, their message was distributed across the world.

But what about George and Ringo? Whilst the latter was preparing for his role in The Magic Christian, the former along with wife Pattie had been busted on Paul's wedding day by Sgt. Norman Pilcher of the Drugs Squad. Pilcher had infamously arrested Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Keith Richards, as well as Scottish singer/songwriter/guitarist Donovan, John Lennon himself, and nearly managed to capture Eric Clapton.

GEORGE HARRISON: "They chose Paul's wedding day to come and do a raid on me, and to this day, I'm still having difficulty with my visa to America because of this fella [Norman Pilcher]." (Anthology, 1995)

George and Pattie Harrison being brought into Esher and Walton Magistrates' Court following their drug bust, 18 March 1969.

The Harrisons appeared at Esher and Walton Magistrates' Court on the 18th on the charge of cannabis possession. The trial took place on the 31st when they pleased guilty to the charge, but it was likely to have been planted in the house by Pilcher and his squad. They were fined £250 plus 10 guineas each and put on probation for a year.

14 - 25 April 1969
The Beatles were now back in the studio. Well, John and Paul were, at least. George was looking for a new house to live in, and Ringo was on set for The Magic Christian. Inspired by the events of his wedding and honeymoon, Lennon wanted to get a song he dubbed "The Ballad of John and Yoko" on record as quickly as possible. "It'll be an instant single," he explained to Paul at the latter's home. "Write something up for breakfast, record it for lunch, and then release it to the public for dinner."

"Erm, well, it's a nice idea and all that," Paul admitted, "but shouldn't we plan it out first?"

"To hell with that," argued John. "Too much planning would ruin it."

"But George and Ringo aren't there," Paul pointed out.

"Well, you can do the drums just as well as Ringo can," John countered. "C'mon, this'll be great, Macca."

The cover for the Beatles' April 1969 single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko".

Eventually, Paul agreed to it, despite his concerns about the references to Jesus Christ and his crucifixion in the lyrics. With Geoff Emerick as their engineer, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" was recorded and mixed within seven hours.

JOHN LENNON: "Just as we'd finished up 'Ballad', Paul offered up the B-side, 'Two of Us', about his own relationship with Linda. I didn't have anything else on hand, so re quickly recorded and mixed it as well." (1981)

PAUL McCARTNEY: "I've a soft spot for both 'Ballad' and 'Two of Us'. It was almost like the peak of mine and John's friendship. As much as it was a love song for Linda, it was also a song of friendship for John. He shared his personal experiences with Yoko, and I shared my own with both him and Linda." (2000)

Eleven days after they were recorded "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and "Two of Us" were released as a single, being one of the fastest-released songs in rock music history. It marked their 22nd #1 single when it reached the top in the United Kingdom, but it only reached #8 in the United States, possibly due to the religious references. American radios preferred the B-side instead.

When asked for their opinions about being left off the single, Ringo admitted to feeling "slightly hurt about not being asked to play drums" (1982), George was indifferent. "It was none of my business," he said. "If they had been 'The Ballad of John, George and Yoko' and 'Three of Us', then I would have been on both sides." (1979)

For the next two months, the Beatles were either spending time with their families or helping to expand Apple Corporation alongside Brian Epstein, Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall and Peter Brown. Their next release would come as a complete shock to many...

7 July 1969

The Beatles - Back in Your Safely Beds

Released: 7 July 1969

Recorded: 30 May - 21 June, 14 August - 16 September, 1 and 4 November 1968, 3, 24, and 26 January, 1 June 1969

Producer: George Martin, Chris Thomas, The Beatles, Yoko Ono

Track listing[2]

Side A

Give Peace a Chance
Los Paranoias
Wild Honey Pie
What's the New Mary Jane?
Suicide

Side B

Wonderwall
Song for John [w/ Yoko Ono]
Hot as Sun
Revolution 9
Taking a Trip to Carolina

The sessions that ultimately compiled Back in Your Safely Beds ranged all the way from the initial sessions of Beatles '68 and Alice in Wonderland all the way to John and Yoko's performance of "Give Peace a Chance" at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada on 1 June - an entire year. The album's most noteworthy track, outside of "Give Peace a Chance", was "Revolution 9", which began as an acoustic rendition of the Beatles '68 track "Revolution" before the coda delved into numerous overdubbed vocals, speech, sound effects and short tape loops. According to Lennon, the goal of "Revolution 9" was to paint a picture of a revolution using sound.

As for the remaining tracks, "Los Paranoias", "Wild Honey Pie", and "What's the New Mary Jane?" were outtakes from the sessions for both Beatles '68 and Alice in Wonderland; "Song for John" (featuring Yoko on vocals) and Harrison's "Wonderwall" were both recorded in early November; "Suicide" and "Hot as Sun" were jams both written by Paul McCartney back in the late 1950s, and "Taking a Trip to Carolina" was a short snippet written by Ringo, all three being recorded in January.

The Beatles, 1969.

Back in Your Safely Beds came off as a shock to both critics and fans alike. It was the first Beatles album to not reach #1 on either side of the Atlantic, stalling at #2 in the United Kingdom and topping out at #14 in the United States.[3] Reception towards the album ranged from mixed to negative, with the first lines of the Rolling Stone review being, "What is this shit?"[4] The motives behind Back in Your Safely Beds have been subject to wild speculation since its release, with some claiming that John Lennon wanted to kill the Beatles' almost-spotless legacy, so he relied on older, more experimental recordings to compile an album that made no sense whatsoever. Some defenders, however, believed there was indeed a concept to Back in Your Safely Beds that had some legs to stand on.

RINGO STARR: "When Brian [Epstein] first heard Back in Your Safely Beds, he called us into a meeting. He was absolutely furious, especially with John." (1992)

JOHN LENNON: "Eppy didn't really like the sound I cobbled together for Safely Beds, and he even chastised me for almost causing permanent damage to the Beatles' good name with what he called 'an antithesis to what the Beatles were made of' - his word, not mine. Feeling as if I was driving the band off the deep end, he put Paul in charge of the band, and said that we had to put out an album to bring back goodwill with the public... or else." (1976 Rolling Stone interview)

In the past, Epstein was lenient when any of the boys screwed up, but this time, he wasn't letting any of them off easy. He had booked studio time starting on 21 July and ending on 10 August, and the last thing he said to the Beatles at the meeting was, "Don't let that avant-garde bollocks be the last thing people will remember you for!"

October 3, 1969

The Monkees - Listen to the Band

Released: October 3, 1969

Recorded: May 10, 1968 - August 14, 1969

Producer: The Monkees, Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Bill Chadwick

Track listing[5]

Side A

Little Girl
Good Clean Fun
If I Knew
St. Matthew
Smile
Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye
Hollywood

Side B

Look Down
Listen to the Band
French Song
The Crippled Lion
Pillow Time
Oklahoma Backroom Dancer
The Good Earth

The Monkees' Listen to the Band was the group's seventh album overall, as well as their first album recorded following the departure of Peter Tork. The album contained leftover tracks from The Monkees Present sessions, and the contributions were roughly split amongst the trio; three songs from Micky, five from Davy, and six from Michael. Listen to the Band was the final album by the group to reach Billboard's Top 100, barely managing to reach the bottom spot. Despite the tour with the backing of Sam and the Good-Timers with many performances lasting longer than two hours, it was still not enough to make the Monkees a commercial force once again, especially with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds and Cream overshadowing the group's best efforts.

MICKY DOLENZ: "It seemed strange at the time; I mean, the Zombies had a bit of a resurgence in popularity, but why not the Monkees? The tour seemed like a waste of time in retrospect; it was as if we were kicking a dead horse... or a dead monkey, I suppose. It looked as though the phenomenon had peaked." (1994)

Footnotes

1. Tracks are sourced either from Jack Bruce's Songs for a Tailor or Blind Faith's sole self-titled album. "Badge" is sourced from Cream's Goodbye.
2. "Give Peace a Chance" is taken from John Lennon's Power to the People: The Hits. "Los Paranoias" and "Wild Honey Pie" are both from the 2018 remaster of The White Album, the former being the four minute version as opposed to being part of a medley with "Step Inside Love". "What's the New Mary Jane" is from Anthology 3 with the closing dialogue removed and the Spanish guitar intro from "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" included. "Suicide" and "Hot as Sun" are both taken from Paul McCartney's McCartney, the latter fading out before the "Glasses" portion comes in. "Wonderwall" is "Dream Scene" re-titled from George Harrison's Wonderwall Music. "Song for John" is from Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions. "Revolution 9" is from soniclovenoize's A Doll's House reconstruction that he made as an April Fool's joke. "Taking a Trip to Carolina" is from disc six of The Lost Album bootleg.
3. In OTL, "Give Peace a Chance" had the exact same chart positions when it came out.
4. These were the same words that opened Greil Marcus' review of Bob Dylan's Self Portrait.
5. Tracks are sourced from the 1994 reissue of The Monkees Present and the 2011 reissue of Instant Replay.

Author's Comments

First off, apologies to those who were offended by the cover for Blind Faith; I don't mean to cause any offense to anyone who may be reading this. Controversies in the world of rock music are inevitable, whether we like it or not.

Second, I feel like the Monkees' part of this chapter felt like an afterthought. Though then again, a double album version of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees wouldn't have had much effect on their declining popularity either way. They would inevitably fall apart by the start of the 1970s, as they will in this story, though they last a tad longer than OTL.

And lastly, I've changed the tags so each will direct you to a specific story arc. Strawberry Peppers refers to the alternate universe as a whole, but for each of the smaller stories, they're as follows:

• The March of the Queen Beatle: This is the main story of the timeline. The bands being focused on are the Beatles and Queen; the latter will come in when we get to the 1970s.
• Jumpin' Jack's Knife: The Rolling Stones' portion of the story, featuring a certain Major Tom we'll meet up with in the next chapter.
• Villains and Heroes: Featuring The Beach Boys as the main players. Admittedly, their story is very short, and it serves as a sort of subplot to The March of the Queen Beatle.
• Interstellar Overdrive: Pink Floyd's story in this universe. Their story branches off from The March of the Queen Beatle.
• Happy Jacks: The Who's story which branches off from Jumpin' Jack's Knife.
• Through the Looking Glass: The Monkees' piece in the universe, though it does draw rough parallels to what happened to them in OTL, Tork's departure and all.
• Dazed with Confusion: The Yardbirds' story which draws parallels to Led Zeppelin's story in OTL.
• Seasoned for the Time: The Zombies' story in which they continue into the 1970s, taking the place of the band Argent and Colin Blunstone's initial solo career.
• Apple Badge: The newest collection that features Eric Clapton and his time with Cream, continuing beyond 1968, as we've recently just seen.

So far, that's nine stories taking place at the same time during Phase One. There is a tenth story being planned at the moment, but I'll reveal who it is in due time.