Paul McCartney finds out the release of “McCartney” is postponed

Paul McCartney was given April 10, 1970, as the release date for his debut solo album, “McCartney“ by Neil Aspinall at Apple Corps. The album was finalized on March 23, 1970 and the packaging of the album was likely conceived and realized in March 1970.

Neil Aspinall then asked Paul if he wouldn’t mind delaying the release to April 17, to avoid killing too soon the chart rankings of Ringo Starr’s album “Sentimental Journey“, scheduled to be released on March 27. Paul agreed to that one week delay.

When Allen Klein finally discovered Paul was working on a solo album, he feared it might jeopardise the Beatles’ Capitol Records contract and tried to block its release, which forced Paul’s brother-in-law and lawyer John Eastman to intervene.

[Allen Klein] wrote to the president of Capitol, Sal Iannucci, saying Paul was contracted to the Beatles, so he wasn’t allowed to put out a solo album. I talked to Iannucci and told him, ‘McCartney comes out on Capitol in five weeks or we go straight to Clive Davis at Columbia.’ Iannucci threatened to sue and I said, ‘So sue, it’ll be a great case and terrific publicity for the record.’ ‘You can’t talk to me like that,’ he said, ‘I went to Harvard Law School.’ I said, ‘Well, I went to Stanford, so just go and fuck yourself.’

John Eastman – From “Paul McCartney: The Biography” by Philip Norman

This episode would form one of the complaints from Paul in the lawsuit against the three other Beatles filed on December 31, 1970.

On this day, March 25, John Eastman visited EMI and found out that Allen Klein had decided to postpone the release of “McCartney” to June 4, in order to release The Beatles’ “Let It Be” first and avoid competition between the two releases.

Paul was extremely upset about this decision, phoned George Harrison, as director of Apple, to reinstate the original release date of April 17, and sent a telegram to the other Beatles, Allen Klein and Neil Aspinall. He would receive the final decision from Apple – negative – on March 31.

I was feeling quite comfortable, the more I went on like this. I could actually do something again. Then I rang up Apple one day and said, “Still okay for the release date?” and they said, “No, we’re changing it. You got put back now. We’re going to release Let It Be first.”’

Paul McCartney  – From “Many Years From Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

I had now made the “McCartney” record, my first album after The Beatles, and we had a release schedule on it, but then the others started buggering that around, saying, ‘You can’t release the McCartney album when you want to. We’re releasing Let It Be – and Ringo’s solo record.’

I rang Neil who was running Apple and I said, ‘Wait a minute – we’ve decided my release date!’ I had an understanding: I’d marked my release date on the calendar. I’d stuck to it religiously, but they’d moved it anyway.

From my point of view, I was getting done in. All the decisions were now three against one. And that’s not the easiest position if you’re the one: anything I wanted to do they could just say, ‘No.’ And it was just to be awkward, I thought.

Paul McCartney – From the Beatles Anthology book, 2000

I got so fed up with all this I said, ‘OK, I want to get off the label.’ Apple Records was a lovely dream, but I thought, ‘Now this is really trashy and I want to get off.’ I remember George on the phone saying to me, ‘You’ll stay on this fucking label! Hare Krishna!’ and he hung up – and I went, ‘Oh, dear me. This is really getting hairy.’

I didn’t show Apple anything of McCartney or the cover or anything until I’d finished it all. I did it all myself, and just gave it to them for release. It was a very difficult position for me.

Paul McCartney – From the Beatles Anthology book, 2000

Apple was no longer a happy place: there was a lot of tension in the air. I rang Neil Aspinall – who was and still is the head of Apple – and said, ‘Can I have a release date for this album I’m making?’ He gave me one and I worked towards that. Then, suddenly, a letter came from the other Beatles, who were now with [manager] Allen Klein, which said that they were releasing Let it Be [the film and album] and were going to delay my album. I said, ‘Wait a minute I’ve made all my plans, I’ve got it all worked out…’ We had another argument over that, which increased the tension even more. The word ‘heavy’ was coined during this time. I really did feel physically weighed down by it all, having such a bad time and, worst of all, feeling artistically constricted.

Paul McCartney – From “Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run“, 2002

When the time came to release it I had to deal with Mammon, which was Apple. Ring them up and say, ‘Er, can I have a release date?’ Neil [Aspinall] gave me a date. And suddenly Mammon decided to change my release date for [sarcastically] the massive Let It Be album. And I’m, ‘You bastards! I’ve got a date worked out! How can you do this?’ I certainly shouted loud enough.

It was Rage Against the Machine, me against them, the enemy, the fucking faceless suit out there. That’s why it was a good album.

Paul McCartney – From “Conversations with McCartney” by Paul du Noyer, 2016

Paul then informed me and Allen Klein that for personal reasons he wanted his album released on April 10 through Apple. Klein explained that April 10 was out of the question. April was the release date of Let It Be. Phil Spector had done such a good job on John’s “Instant Karma” single that John and Klein had given him all the dusty Let It Be tapes that had been locked in a vault for over a year and had told him to make an album out of it. The album was going to be released in time to back up the finished Let It Be documentary, which was to be released in theaters on May 20. Since it was a United Artists film, the date could not be changed. Also, Ringo had recorded a solo album, an innocent but mawkish album called Sentimental Journey, of classics sung off-key like “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.” Ringo’s album would have to be released next, after Let It Be.

Paul would just have to wait his place in line.

Paul called Sir Joseph Lockwood at EMI in a rage. “I’m being sabotaged, Sir Joe, that’s what they’re doing to me!” he ranted. Sir Joe said he would see what he could do to help, but in the end it was up to the other Beatles.

Peter Brown – From “The Love You Make“, 2002

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