Over the past few decades, the folks in charge of The Beatles’ marketing, with input from the band members themselves, have made it a point to play up the togetherness of the Fab Four. But there’s no denying the rancor occasionally enveloped the group. This was especially true around the time their breakup was announced.
For one example, Paul McCartney penned a letter with a cease-and-desist vibe in April 1970. That missive was directed at The Beatles’ manager.
Storming Mad Macca
Spring 1970 featured a series of incidents where Paul McCartney clashed with his Beatle brethren. He famously screamed Ringo Starr out of his house in a dispute about the release date of the McCartney album. And on April 10, 1970, he gave his “self-interview” that essentially declared the breakup of The Beatles.
In actuality, the break had occurred more than six months earlier. That’s when John Lennon announced he was leaving at a band meeting. But Macca made it official. His stunt angered his bandmates. They’d wanted to hold off on the news until a slew of Fab Four-related releases, including the Let It Be album, hit the stores.
That Let It Be album was also the source of anger and frustration for McCartney. When given an early acetate of the finished product, he heard his song “The Long And Winding Road” rendered in a manner with which he wholly disagreed. And he directed his anger at Allen Klein, who had recently taken over as the group’s business manager.
“Road” Construction
The fact that Klein was in that position had already caused great angst for McCartney, as he was the lone holdout against the New York businessman among the four Beatles. Klein, with the go-ahead from the other three members, had assigned production duties for the Let It Be album to Phil Spector.
Mostly, Spector just mixed what The Beatles had already recorded for the project the previous year. But he also made significant additions to a couple of songs, ladling them with orchestration and choirs. When McCartney heard that treatment applied to “The Long And Winding Road”, he took action.
On April 14, 1970, McCartney fired off a letter to Klein. In it, he stated that “no one will be allowed to add to or subtract from a recording of one of my songs without my permission.” After explaining the alterations that he wanted made to “The Long And Winding Road”, he ended with this pointed statement: “Don’t ever do it again.”
A Chart-Topper Anyway
McCartney’s letter held no legal power. Klein later claimed that they were much too late in the game to consider any more changes to the song, especially since it was being earmarked for a single. It’s also possible that Klein simply didn’t want to give in to McCartney out of spite.
The lush version of “The Long And Winding Road” made it to No. 1 in the US, which vindicated Klein and Spector to some degree. Paul McCartney occasionally performed the song with Spector’s modifications over the years. But his preferred version also saw the light of day in 2003 on the Let It Be… Naked release.
As for that letter, it offered a window into just how acrimonious the group’s split had become. When considered today, it pokes a hole in the notion that The Beatles always carried themselves as one big happy family.
(Photo by Hans J. Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
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