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As The Beatles continued to work on “Hey Jude” today at Trident Studios — where they had moved so they could record using eight tracks, double the number at Abbey Road — chaos reigned on Baker Street, about two miles away. Over the weekend The Beatles and their brain trust had decided that it was time to pull the plug on the Apple Boutique, which had turned into an ever-widening money hole. But rather than doing something gauche like having a “Going Out of Business” sale, they opted to simply open the doors and give away the remaining stock — without, it seems, giving much thought to the madness that would inevitably ensue.
Of course they helped themselves to a few items for their own use first, but according to Bob Spitz’s The Beatles,
It was Yoko … who scored the biggest haul. “Yoko revealed a greedy side we hadn’t seen,” recalls Peter Brown, who watched from the sidelines throughout the giveaway. “The night before, without telling John, she came along in the Rolls and filled vast garbage bags full of clothes before the sale – and before even the Beatles made their selections.”
So the stock was somewhat depleted when the official giveaway began, but still things got pretty crazy, in a British sort of way:
Meanwhile, over at Trident, the boys started “Hey Jude” over again with a new take 1. George was back on guitar this time, apparently having settled his differences with Paul, for the moment at least.
After rehearsing the song for two days, they had it down cold; the very first take was the one that ended up being used, though they tried three more. And of course it became a massive worldwide hit, spawned a million cover versions, yada yada yada … what I want to know is, what did Yoko do with all those clothes?
shit song. and that tells us everything we need to know about Yoko.
The unwinding of the Beatles was not fun.