Those Were the Days: An Unofficial History of the Beatles Apple Organization 1967-2001 Paperback – May 1, 2002

I bought the book, Those Were The Days An Unofficial History of The Beatles Apple Organization 1967-2002, because I wanted to know a little more about the Apple Core that was developed, run and owned in the late 1960's by the Beatles and is still in existance. I just started reading the book so I don't have much to say about it right now. There are some great unseen pictures in this book so I am sure there will be some great untold stories to go along with them. I find the story about Apple (Apple Records, Apple Clothing, Apple Publishing, Apple Electronics, Apple Studios, The Apple Retail Store, and everything else Apple) to be so amazing and very interesting. So, if this book is close to the true story of Apple then it should be great. If you are interested in the record business, in general, then this should be a good story to learn about them. Just take this story and multiple it by at least 10,000% (maybe more) then you have the story of any record company. I didn't have any problem with the getting this book from the seller so I guess I would say everything went well.

Apple existed in its full manifestation from 1968 to approximately 1972, yet little is written about those years. Apple remained a fully functioning company for several years after the break-up of The Beatles, with The Beatles still coming in to work on their various individual projects for several years after their formal dissolution in 1970. This book discusses Apple in depth with quotes throughout the book by most of the major (and many minor) employees and players. Apple started as a pipe dream, came into its full glory, and was torn apart at the end by Allen Klein and the disparate interests of the four Beatles following the break-up of the band. I thought that i knew a lot about Apple, but was pleasantly surprised at how much more the company really accomplished, and by its inner workings. Together with The Longest Cocktail Party by Richard Dillelo, and Waiting for The Beatles by Carol Bedford, you can gain a complete picture of the golden years of Apple which was more than just a failed boutique and a logo on LPs.

I really enjoy the content of this book. I do wish there was some kind of update to include the more recent Apple reissues. It would also be nice to include some kind of"Where are they now" update too.

I found this book very interesting. Even though some facts are written in other books this book was a fresh approach to understanding Apple and how the Beatles handled their business and how Allen Klein destroyed it.

Excellent book!

This is really a book mainly about the business side of The Beatles - so it covers important ground that frankly hasn't received much coverage. Apple started as a tax dodge in the midst of the Summer of Love and probably would not have snow-balled into an insane hodge-podge of pie-in-the-sky activities if Beatles manager Brian Epstein had not committed suicide in August 1967. Virtually every Apple venture had its individual Beatle sponsor, so this was more than just a vanity label, it was a hobby horse; and along with drug addiction was probably as much to blame for the breakup of the band as the oft-maligned Mrs Lennon. I loved this book because the author was able to get decent interviews with the majority of the key Apple players - the majority of whom have rarely been on the record because so little is written about the behind-the-scenes business machine. A great example is Pete Bennett, who was the US promotions manager, responsible mainly for plugging Apple product to radio stations; he tells of how hard it was to "break" new music in the extremely fickle American market - Badfinger being the only stand-out because they actually hit the road several times, playing high school gyms and such, to ry to build momentum behind the initial McCartney-penned debut single. On the other hand, it seems inconceivable these days to think that the "Govinda" single, nothing more than a chant by the Radha Krishna Temple, actually broke the top 50 in the UK charts.I loved this book but as with other reviewers, I wish it had dug even deeper. As it is, beyond the unique interviews with insiders, it barely gets beyond what could more comfortably be found in Wikipedia.

Those Were the Days is primarily a chronilogical history of the non-Beatles stable of artists that came and went through the earliest phases of Apple. The treatment of the non-musical side of Apple (retail, electronics, etc.) is minimal. There's not much here for those readers more focused on the Beatles themselves. This book is a fairly trite discourse on the few successes and many failures of the Apple artists. The history, the stories, and the analysis is straighforward, but lacks any real insight when compared to many better sources that use far fewer words. ("You Never Give Me Your Money" is recommended for a well-rounded history of the post-breakup Beatles, including the ups and downs of the Apple organization.)

This is a fantastic book. I don't know where to begin. It tells the whole story of Apple and gives us a lot of info on the business/Apple side of the group. It is presented as interesting stories, and there are a lot of quotes from those involved. I have read a few hundred Beatle books, and this is in my top 5. If you want to hear about the music, though, the book will not be of much interest to you. This is about the business of Apple.

We'll probably never know the real story of what went on at Apple - although books like The Longest Cocktail Party and Apple to the Core have provided some colourful insight in the past. Those Were the Days is an attempt, pieced together through countless interviews, at a year-by-year account of the music and the madness. As such its not too bad, and many of the interviews shed new light on exactly what went on behind the doors of 3 Savile Row.The big problem with Those Were the Days is the huge number of mistakes. The manuscript clearly was not seen by an editor, proofreader of fact checker: Tetragrammaton (the US company which distributed Two Virgins) is again and again referred to as Tetragammon (even in direct quotes); people's names (including author Ken Kesey) are misspelt; Mary Hopkin's foreign language records are misspelt (or misspelled if you prefer!) and so on. And that's all within the first quarter of the book. Never mind that he believes George wrote 15 of the tracks that appeared on the White Album!It's a shame, because there is a need for a really comprehensive history of the Apple empire. Unfortunately this attempt isn't it. Buy it for the fascinating interviews, or wait and hope Cheery Red will re-edit and reissue it sometime soon

Like many Beatles Fans, and an avid collectorof Apple memorabilia, I welcome this book, which attempts to bring together the existing accounts available of Apple's history, (Di Lello's Cocktail Party)and some new revelations by Jack Oliver, Ken Mansfield amongst others. The books failure is to miss out on the opinions of some real key players, such as Neil Aspinall. It is interesting to note that the author discusses the dismissal of Denis O'Dell,Head of Apple Films. O'Dell's book states that he resigned. Alas this casts a little doubt on some of the other factual statements made in the book. Neverthe less Apple buffs and Appple Scruffs alike will surely enjoy this book, and thank the author for his efforts.

Imprescindible.Excellent

I enjoyed the read.