April 10, 1970- The Beatles Officially Break Up

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April 10th marks the official day the Beatles broke up back in 1970. Although tensions within the band had been going on for more than a year nothing of an official break up had been announced. Ringo & George had both left the group for a few days as far back as 1968. John was already doing alot of solo work; he had released the singles "Give Peace A Chance" & "Cold Turkey", and performed live in Toronto with Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman, & Alan White.
In Johns opinion he felt they could have solo projects and come back every couple of years to record an album as the Beatles.

There was alot of drama leading up to that fateful day. Without a manger, and their own Apple Corps. in shambles they needed some one to manage all their money. Paul wanted his father in laws laws firm, The Eastman's & the remaining three Beatles were set on Allen Klein.

The Beatles also wanted Paul to hold off releasing his 1st solo album until the Beatles released "Let It Be", which would be their last, for business reasons. Paul wouldn't hear any of it and even told a neutral Ringo "I'll finish you all off" when he tried to persuade Paul to holding off the release.
The 1st week of April was filled with breakup rumors that were denied by Apple. Paul's people & The Eastman's stated the McCartney solo album would be the end of the band, but John, George & Ringo all kept denying the break up as well.

Ironically the man who seemed to most want to keep the Beatles together back in 1969 was the one who officially quit the band. On April 10th 1970, Paul McCartney released an official statement in advance copies of his 1st solo album "McCartney", and to various news outlets & media. The statement came in the form of a self interview claiming "a break with the Beatles due to personal, musical & business differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family". Paul personally attacked the other Betales & Yoko Ono. Eventually at the end of the year Paul would file a law suit against the three that would keep them in court battles for decades. It wasn't until that point that the three remaining Beatles actually acknowledged the breakup.

At the time Paul's announcement was looked at in bad taste by most people. As for his first solo album it was not received well, the critics pounded him, but it did go to #1. Paul played all the instruments and recording it on a 4 track recorder at his home in Scotland. The quality of the material is a far cry from Paul's work on Abbey Road a few months earlier. Its strongest piece being "Maybe I'm Amazed".

The Beatles released Let It Be at the end of May 1970 it went to #1 and spend 55 weeks on the charts. Earlier that month Ringo was the 2nd Beatle to release a solo album "Sentimental Journey" which went to #22. Later that year he released "Beaucoups of Blues" which didn't do that well peaking at #65. George released his triple album classic "All Things Must Pass' by Christmas 1970 it went to #1. The single "My Sweet Lord" was the 1st solo Beatles #1 song.
Looking back it seems that the fans had such a despise for Yoko Ono that it hurt sales of Johns 1st solo album "Plastic Ono Band". It only peaked at #6 on the charts and has since become a classic.

Three years later John, George & Ringo would stop their association with Klein as well. If everything had not gotten so ugly, and the finance situation not been so big , maybe they could have recorded together as a band again. One can only imagine if the four Beatles had gone on to their solo careers and personal lives but colaborated together musically. Some of their great solo works could have been combined Beatles efforts.

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