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to record Abbey Road with George Martin, an amazingly together

album. By early 1970 each of the four Beatles was working on a

solo album, but each publicly denied rumors of a split. In

September 1969, Lennon told his bandmates that he wanted to

quit, but because the group was renegotiating with EMI at the time,

the breakup was temporarily put aside. Meanwhile, rampant

rumors spread across America that Paul McCartney had died in an

auto accident several years earlier and had been secretly replaced

by a look-alike; the alleged “clues” hidden in lyrics and cover art

were quickly proved to be the product of overactive imaginations.

Sadly, internal tension resurfaced in the Beatles when Allen

Klein brought in Phil Spector to produce and overdub Get Back

(released in May 1970 as Let It Be) against Paul’s wishes, also

demanding that Paul delay the release of McCartney, his solo

debut, in order to avoid detracting from sales of Let It Be. In anger,

McCartney released his album in April, before Let It Be, and

publicly announced that he was quitting the group. On December

31, 1970 McCartney filed suit against Klein to break up the Beatles,

which upset the other three, who had considered periodically

recording as a group while continuing their solo careers — now any

chance of a reunion was gone, at least for quite a while. Apple

Records became a financial and legal mess.

During the 1970s each of the Beatles released solo albums.

Paul, performing with wife Linda in the group Wings, was the most

commercially successful. John recorded on and off with Yoko Ono,

and continued to attract attention for his radical politics (though he

semi-retired from music in 1975 to spend time with his newborn

son, Sean). Throughout the decade there was idle talk of a reunion,

peaking around 1976 when a Beatlesque Australian group named

Klaatu was rumored to be the Fab Four under a false name (they

weren’t, though their manager and record company encouraged

the rumor) and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels

half-seriously offered the Beatles $3,000 to perform on his show.

Though all four Beatles did contribute to the 1973 Ring Starr song

“I’m the Greatest,” no real reunion ever took place. On December 8,

1980 all chances of that happening were ended when a deranged

fan, Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon outside his

New York apartment.

Although the Beatles had not released any new albums since

1970, interest in the group remained high into the ’90s, their

backcatalog selling millions of copies a year and providing Capitol

with a large part of their annual income. Publishing rights to all

Lennon-McCartney compositions were sold during the ’80s for

hundreds of millions of dollars, at one point passing through the

hands of Michael Jackson. Though Capitol issued singles/out-takes

compilations such as Past Masters and Rarities, a lot more

unreleased material remained unavailable due to ongoing legal

problems, and ended up on illegal bootlegs.

By the early ’90s Paul, George, Ringo and Yoko Ono settled

their disagreements about contracts, permitting the re-release of

long unavailable recordings. In 1994 Capitol issued a double CD of

early Beatles recordings for the BBC. Phenomenal sales of Live at

the BBC inspired more exploitation of the Beatles legacy. In 1995

the surviving Beatles came together to contribute to a TV

documentary about the group and select material for a planned

rarities anthology of out-takes and demos. While together, Paul,

George and Ringo laid down music for two John Lennon demo

out-takes, “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.” Though the sound

quality was often abysmal, the material inferior, and the

surrounding hype insulting, America’s aging Beatles fans ate up

the three 1996 double-album releases, Beatles Anthology 1, 2, and

3, which sold over 15 million copies in less than a year. Capitol

once again insists that there is no more Beatles material that will

be released.

Even though one of the Fab Four has passed away, they live on,

almost vividly, in the hearts of the youth in the world. Nothing

before or since the Beatles has affected people in such a huge

way. Forty years ago, four young lads from Liverpool, England got

together and grew and grew until they were bigger than anything

that s ever been seen in the music industry. They live forever in

me, the world, in music, in everything. Love surrounds them for

eternity.

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