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| Pitchfork |
 By the beginning of 1968, the Beatles had made a pile of money they had to either invest in a business or pay in taxes. They chose the business route, launching a suite of enterprises collectively called Apple Corps, most of which were boondoggles. Apple Electronics was a disaster; Apple Studio was a joke; the Apple Boutique lasted seven months before they gave up and announced that they were simply giving away the rest of their stock. Apple Records might have been a similarly dubious idea-- the Beatles weren't short of hangers-on, and the label's roster was heavily populated by longtime pals of the group and curiosities they decided to release on a whim. But if the Beatles knew how to do one thing, it was make records, and almost everything in the Apple discography is somewhere between "interesting" and "superb."This one-disc singles compilation, spanning 1968-1972, isn't quite what its title promises: The Beatles' post-"Hey Jude" records, and their early solo records, aren't on here. (It's being released alongside reissues of most of Apple's not-Beatles-or-Yoko album catalogue.) Still, they're all over it. Paul McCartney wrote the winning oompah instrumental "Thingumybob" for the Black Dyke Mills Band and "Goodbye" for Mary Hopkin, and he told Badfinger they could have his new song "Come and Get It" if they played it note-for-note like his demo. George Harrison wrote "Try Some, Buy Some" for ex-Ronette Ronnie Spector and the explosive rocker "Sour Milk Sea" for his old Liverpool pal Jackie Lomax. (The backing band on the latter includes George, Paul, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton; recorded during the White Album sessions, it would've been one of the best songs on that record if George had kept it for himself.) The Beatles were canny judges of popular taste, too, and this set includes a handful of hits that have been out of circulation for years, thanks to the Apple catalogue's being in limbo. Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days " was No. 2 in the U.S. (and bumped "Hey Jude" off the top of the British charts); Billy Preston's "That's the Way God Planned It" and "My Sweet Lord" (recorded before Harrison's own version), Chris Hodge's glam-rock boogie "We're on Our Way", and Badfinger's "Come and Get It" and "Day After Day" all made the charts in America....full text |
| Americansongwriter |
| The recent Beatles reissues/re-masters were just the tip of Apple Records’ deep and wide iceberg of music. Its wildly diverse roster—nearly all the acts were signed by one of the Fab Four—resulted in dozens of titles, 15 of which are being dusted off, polished and extended with bonus songs by the same team that pulled the layer of audio cheesecloth off the Beatles catalog. Advertisement This somewhat misleadingly named anthology works as a reasonably good sampler of Apple’s core (non-Beatles) artists, as well as unearthing rare singles only the most diehard fan has heard. The breadth of music styles that includes gospel (Billy Preston, Mr. Fifth Beatle, gets two tracks), R&B (Doris Troy), blue-eyed soul (two for Jackie Lomax as well), Cajun (the Sundown Playboys), East Indian (Radha Krishna Temple), folk (James Taylor/Mary Hopkin) and good old Beatle-esque pop (Badfinger’s title track) is striking, especially for those unfamiliar with the label’s output. The compilation omits solo work from John, Paul, George and Ringo but all appear as sidemen on various cuts. Some are a far cry from “the best of Apple,” as anyone will attest after hearing the Black Dyke Mills Band oom-pah its way through “Thingumybob,” McCartney’s long forgotten theme song for a 1968 UK TV show. The same goes for Brute Force’s “King of Fuh,” an un-funny joke that brings the set to a screeching halt, and the Hot Chocolate Band’s (mis)reading of “Give Peace a Chance, complete with wobbly reggae rhythms and different lyrics than the original. There are plenty of quality songs to offset those clunkers, such as a corker 45 from Ronnie Spector covering George Harrison’s “Try Some Buy Some” (released before his own version). But most impressive is the sheer variety of these 21 tracks, a smattering that doesn’t even include anything from the jazz and classical albums Apple released during its short yet productive 1968-’73 run. Like their music, the Beatles were never predictable and Apple was the outlet for the eclectic, occasionally offbeat artists they helped champion and expose to the world....full text |
| Bbc |
| Mention Apple Records to anyone and chances are that the conversation will soon turn to favourite Beatles songs. Established by the Fab Four in 1968, the imprint was intended to accommodate the pursuits of the members themselves; but it quickly became home to a wide range of artists, not all of whom bore much similarity to the stable’s founding fathers. While label politics would see Paul McCartney effectively ostracised from the running of Apple in 1970, the year he confirmed the split of The Beatles, several artists associated with Apple arrived via direct involvement from one of his bandmates. For example, Ravi Shankar was brought into the fold by George Harrison, and Elephant’s Memory by John Lennon. Neither feature on this 21-track introduction to the label, though; instead, Badfinger and Mary Hopkin feature twice each – the former purveyors of sweet power-pop, very much in a post-Beatles vein; the latter a Welsh vocalist whose McCartney-penned hit Goodbye was only kept off the UK top spot by The Beatles’ own Get Back in 1969 – and several numbers come from artists who never really made much of an impression on the pop scene. Among these outsiders on this collection are the Black Dyke Mills Band, a brass band from West Yorkshire whose Apple-released single Thingumybob was backed by a cover of Yellow Submarine, and Brute Force, the musical moniker of Stephen Friedland. King of Fuh, Friedland’s sole entry in the Apple catalogue, was initially refused a release by parent company EMI on the grounds that it repeatedly referred to "the Fuh King". (See what he did there? Oh, my sides.) But here it is, in all its Harrison-approved ‘glory’. It’s rubbish, obviously, but no doubt raised a few laughs back in 1969....full text |
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