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The ultimate goal
Originally the intention for the website was to offer a complete summary of every audio or video recording that has been released worldwide by Apple Records since 1968.
The website has been designed to easily explore the releases on vinyl,
musicassette,
8 track cartridge,
CD,
Super Audio CD,
DVD-audio,
VHS-video,
CD-video,
DVD-video and
Blu-ray Disc.
Later on the complete catalogues of The Beatles,
George Harrison (including the Traveling Wilburys),
John Lennon (including the Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono),
Paul McCartney (including Wings and Linda McCartney),
Ringo Starr (including his All-Starr Bands)
and last but not least, the complete catalogues of Dark Horse Records and Ring O'Records have been added.
The design
The website is a collection of indexes based on different catalogues.
For the vinyl sections you can make the choice for the catalogue of a particular country in two steps.
Each catalogue in these sections shows all releases sorted by date of release and, if relevant, the comparable release in the UK and/or the USA.
The others sections show all international releases in one index.
Almost every catalogue or release number in an index is a link to a page where you can see the detailed information of the release:
the catalogue number,
the date of release,
the performing artist or group,
the sleeves,
the labels,
the song titles,
the composer(s),
the producer(s) and
the running times.
The collection on the website is extended on a regular basis with new releases and newly discovered items.
Sometimes links may not work properly (yet) due to the permanent state of maintenance of the website.
Related websites can be found on the links page, i.e. Apple Records, The Beatles, Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin etc.
The website is best viewed on an Apple iPad, but also on a PC with a minimum screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels.
The website has been tested and approved for use with the most versions of Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.
The early years of Apple Records
In 1968 The Beatles founded their own record company with the name Apple Records Ltd. in the UK, as a division of Parlophone Records (EMI) and with the name Apple Records Inc. in the USA as a division of Capitol Records.
The following artists released their material through Apple Records:
Badfinger (The Iveys)
Bill Elliot & The Elastic Oz Band
Billy Preston
Chris Hodge
David Peel & The Lower East Side
Doris Troy
Elephant's Memory
George Harrison
Hot Chocolate (Hot Chocolate Band)
Jackie Lomax
James Taylor
John Lennon (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band)
John Tavener
Lon & Derrek van Eaton
Mary Hopkin
Modern Jazz Quartet
Paul McCartney (Paul & Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney & Wings)
Ravi Shankar
Ringo Starr
Ronnie Spector
The Beatles
The Black Dyke Mills Band
The Iveys (Badfinger)
The Plastic Ono Band
The Radha Krsna Temple London
The Sundown Playboys
White Trash (Trash)
Wings (Paul McCartney & Wings)
Yoko Ono (Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band)
After the break-up of The Beatles in 1970, Paul McCartney set up his own company MPL Communications both in the UK and the USA which gave licenses to record companies to release his recordings.
All his solo releases between 1970 and 1975 included at least the Apple Records logo.
In 1975 the last Apple Records on vinyl, musicassette and 8 track cartridge have been released and the company became an administration office.
Release numbers
The Beatles as a group released their albums through Apple Records, but they were still under contract by Parlophone and Capitol.
This is why their catalogue numbers in the UK and USA are different from the other Apple artists.
The same goes for the solo recordings of George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr that have been released on Apple Records in the UK and in Europe.
However, with the exception of three releases, the catalogue numbers of their solo recordings that have been released in the USA on Apple Records are in the same series as the other Apple artists.
The revival of Apple Records
EMI Records and Capitol started to release The Beatles on CD in 1987.
Apple Records began its revival around 1990 by releasing (most of) the music by the other Apple artists.
The company returned to making significantly large profits after The Beatles' Anthology project.
On November 16, 2010, computer company Apple Inc. launched an extensive advertising campaign that announced the availability of The Beatles' entire catalogue on iTunes.
The webmaster
In 1965, at the age of 13, I purchased my first Beatles' record: She Loves You!
That was the beginning of a lifetime relationship with the music of the Fab Four.
In 1968 I became a fan of the design of the famous Apple labels on vinyl records of The Beatles.
Over the years I collected several records of the other Apple artists, because I liked the music very much.
At one point I decided to collect as many Apple Records as I could find in the Netherlands.
Not only the Dutch versions, but especially the UK versions and later on the USA versions as well.
Before the era of the internet I intended to publish a book about Apple Records, but I quickly realized that updating a book would be difficult.
Only a website on the internet could make that possible.
I designed the first version around 1998 by using the preparations for the book.
In 2000 the website was published on the internet for the first time.
Since then it expanded constantly.
In 2006, connections have been made with Amazon.com (and later on with Amazon.co.uk) that make it easy to find Apple related items in their virtual stores.
In late 2007 Bastiaan van Kasteel from Belgium became a companion to help me with the expansion and the maintenance of the website.
The home page of the website changed to its actual form around 2008.
In 2009 several different Wikipedia articles in as many languages linked to the website.
At this moment, the website has 30-40 visitors daily from all over the world.
Around 50% of them are located in the USA.
The collection
For this website I used my own collection of releases on vinyl,
musicassette,
8 track cartridge,
CD,
Super Audio CD,
DVD-audio,
VHS-video,
CD-video,
DVD-video and
Blu-ray Disc.
Unfortunately my own collection is not complete.
Therefore I also used material that I found on the internet, like the 'WEES' websites and 'The Apple Sleevographia' website.
I want to thank the webmasters for their contributions.
I also used material that was sent to me by e-mail, so I want to thank all senders for their contributions.
A special thanks goes to Achim Helge Winkelmeier from Germany for his contribution concerning the German releases,
Bastiaan van Kasteel from Belgium for his contribution concerning the Belgian, French and Portugese releases,
Ferran Vallejo from Spain for his contribution concerning the Spanish releases and
Richard Davis from England for his contribution concerning the British releases.
And of course Chris Evans from Australia & Steve Boleyn from the USA for their permanent support.
Important note
This website is in no way affiliated with the official website of Apple Records or the websites of The Beatles, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr or Yoko Ono.
Your webmaster Han Schomakers, The Netherlands, Europe
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