50 years ago yesterday, April 9th, 1970, and today, April 10th, 1970, it was a battle of press releases between The Beatles and Paul McCartney over the status of the group, which was rumored to be breaking up.
On April 9th, the release from their company, Apple Corps, said they weren’t splitting up. While admitting that no further recordings were scheduled, publicist Mavis Smith noted that a new LP would soon be released and that she “hoped The Beatles would get together for another recording session after the summer.” That night, Paul performed his new song, “Maybe I’m Amazed,” on British television.
The next day, the headline in London’s Daily Mirror read, “Paul Is Quitting The Beatles.” McCartney countered the previous day’s statement from Apple by distributing his own “self-interview” along with review copies of his debut solo album, McCartney.
Citing “business and music differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family,” he announced the break, though he was unsure whether it would be temporary or permanent. He concluded, “I don’t foresee a time when the Lennon and McCartney partnership will be active again in songwriting.”
Legal wranglings continued for four years until December 29th, 1974, when John Lennon, while on vacation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, signed the papers formally terminating the band.
There were numerous reasons for the split, chief among them:
- The disarray of their label, Apple.
- The disagreement about who should manage them following Brian Epstein‘s death in 1967 — John, George and Ringo were in favor of Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein, while Paul wanted his father-in-law, Lee Eastman.
- Creative tension, egos and John’s insistence that Yoko Ono sit in on meetings and recording sessions. Lennon actually announced his intentions to quit in September 1969.
On April 17th, a week after Paul’s announcement, he released McCartney.
Allen Klein was named the band’s manager, and on May 8th they released their final studio album, Let It Be.
Paul McCartney on The Beatles break up.
“We’d been having a lot of troubles and the group had been breaking up, but I made a last ditch attempt to try and save things and said to John at a meeting we were having, I said, ‘I think we should just go back to being a little touring band. We should just get back on the road and we should just do some little gigs and just get out there and rock. And John just looked at me and said, ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I think you’re stupid.’ He said, ‘I wasn’t gonna tell you this, but I’m leaving the band. And that was it.”
John Lennon on the end of The Beatles.
“It takes a lot to live with four people over and over for years and years, which is what we did. And we’d call each other every name under the sun. We got to blows. We’d been through the mill together for more than 10 years, you know. We’ve been through our therapy together many times, you know.”
Paul McCartney on the tension caused by John and Yoko.
“When John hooked up with Yoko so sort of intensely, it was kind of obvious that there could be no looking back after that. I always felt that he had to clear the decks of us in order to give her enough attention.”
Paul McCartney on conflict regarding Allen Klein managing The Beatles.
“I’d put forward Lee Eastman, Linda’s dad, as a possible sort of lawyer. But they said, ‘No. It would just be too bias for you and against us,’ which I could see. And in The Beatles, if anyone doesn’t agree with the plan, it was always vetoed – very democratic that way. So the three-to-one thing was very awkward. And we were supposed to be doing something on Abbey Road I think and we all showed up at the studio ready to record and Allen Klein showed up and they said, ‘You’ve got to sign a contract.’ I said, ‘We could easily do this on Monday. Let’s do our session now. You’re not gonna push me into this,’ you know. They said, ‘Oh, you’re stalling.’ They said, ‘He wants 20-percent.’ I said, ‘Tell him he can have 15-percent. We’re a big act.’ I remember the exact words, ‘We’re a big act.’ But for some strange reason, I think they were so intoxicated with him, that they said, ‘No, he’s got to have 20-percent.’ I said, ‘Right, that’s it. Well I’m not signing now. So there was a big argument and they all went, leaving me at the studio.”
George Harrison on the end of The Beatles.
“The thing that it started out being [was] it gave us a vehicle to be able to do so much, and we were younger and we grew right through that. But it got to a point where it was stifling us. There was too much restriction. It had to self-destruct.”
Ringo Starr on the end of The Beatles.
“We weren’t sitting the studio saying, ‘Okay, this is it. Last record. Last track. Last take.”
