Apple Corps - Subsidiaries - Apple Publishing

Apple Publishing

Apple's music publishing arm predated even the record company. In September 1967, the first artistes to be signed by Apple Publishing were two songwriters from Liverpool. Paul Tennant and David Rhodes were offered a contract after meeting McCartney in Hyde Park. They were advised to form a band by Epstein after he and Lennon heard their demos, calling the group Focal Point. Epstein was to have managed the band but died before he could become involved. Terry Doran MD of Apple Publishing became their manager and they were signed by Deram Records. Apple published the group's self-penned songs from early 1968. Another early band on its publishing roster was the group Grapefruit.

Apple Publishing Ltd. was also used as a publishing stop-gap by Harrison and Starr, as they sought to shift control of their own songs away from Northern Songs, in which their status was little more than paid writers. (Harrison later started Harrisongs, and Starr created Startling Music). Apple's greatest publishing successes were the Badfinger hits "No Matter What", "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue", all written by group member Pete Ham, and Badfinger's "Without You", a song penned by Ham and Badfinger band mate Tom Evans. "Without You" became a worldwide #1 chart hit for Harry Nilsson in 1972 and Mariah Carey in 1993. In 2005, however, Apple lost the US publishing rights for the work of Ham and Evans.

Apple also undertook publishing duties, at various times, for other Apple artists, including Yoko Ono, Billy Preston and the Radha Krsna Temple. Apple received a large number of demo tapes; some songs were published, some were issued on other labels and only Benny Gallagher & Lyle were retained as in-house writers before going on to co-found McGuinness Flint. Many of these demos have been collected on three Cherry Red CDs, entitled 94 Baker Street, An Apple for the Day, and Treacle Toffee World.

Apple Books was largely inactive and had very few releases. One notable release was the book that accompanied the initial pressing of the Let It Be album entitled "The Beatles Get Back" containing photographs by Ethan Russell and text by Rolling Stone writers Jonathan Cott and David Dalton. Although the book was credited to Apple Publishing, all of the work on the project was actually done by freelancers.