On December 12, 2024, British auctioneers Dawsons auctions are to put under the hammer more than 300 pages of legal documents that provide in-depth insight into the breakup of The Beatles.
Denise Kelly, from Dawsons auctions who studied the documents, said the bundles must be copies made for legal teams.
As it turns out, it could be said eight violins, four violas, four cellos, three trumpets, three trombones, two guitars, and a choir of fourteen women were what finally broke up The Beatles.
It seems that when Paul McCartney heard that this lavish orchestration had been added to his Let It Be album track “The Long And Winding Road” by producer Phil Spector, he called in the lawyers.
The friction began with the death of Brian Epstein in 1967, which left a management vacuum. Brought in was Allan Klein. He had been the manager of the Rolling Stones, began to court Lennon in 1968, and George Harrison and Ringo Starr were soon on board.
Once Klein was in, he brought in Spector to give the as yet unreleased Get Back sessions recordings his signature ‘Wall of Sound’ treatment – a radical departure from the pared back, as-live sound McCartney had wanted the album to have when The Beatles set about the project in January 1969.
In April 1970, upon hearing the lush orchestral treatment given to “The Long And Winding Road,” McCartney wrote a terse letter to Klein in which he said he had considered orchestrating the song, but decided against it.
He demanded many of the orchestral instruments be lowered in volume and the harp at the end of the song be removed completely.
It would be another four years before the legal wrangles to finally break up the Beatles were complete.
