Jack Oliver, executive who oversaw the chaos at Apple Records in the last days of The Beatles – obituary

Jack Oliver, who has died aged 78, was head of Apple Records at a time when The Beatles and their business affairs were in turmoil following the death of their manager Brian Epstein; he survived the Allen Klein regime, which imposed order on the madhouse, before jumping ship in 1971 and going on to a successful career handling the affairs of musicians and actors.

Jack Oliver was born on February 19 1945 in Guildford, Surrey, but grew up in Muswell Hill in north London. He attended art college and worked at a design company, then got going in the music industry at Chappell’s Music Publishing in Bond Street.

At the same time he formed a shortlived duo with the songwriter Gary Osborne called the Chocolate Watchband (not to be confused with the US West Coast garage-rock outfit); they released a couple of singles on Decca before fizzling out.

In January 1968, through a former colleague at Chappell, he got to hear of a possible job with Terry Doran, a Liverpudlian former car dealer who had got to know the Fab Four when he sold them their first vehicles, and who had graduated to running Apple Publishing – though when he went for the job, Oliver was unaware of this key fact.

“So I went into this office on Baker Street and it was completely white, and there were these two white leather Chesterfield sofas,” he recalled. “Everything was white except for the maniac Terry Doran, who had this big ’fro [Afro] and psychedelic clothes.” It was a suitable introduction to what would become a job with a difference.

Doran said he did not really need anybody, but when Oliver told him he thought he needed an assistant, he agreed to take him on. The next day he was on a plane to Cannes with Doran to attend the Midem music trade show.

“We had a suite at the Carlton – I still didn’t really know what was going on... Then from out of one of the rooms walks Paul McCartney. So then I knew, and I thought to myself, ‘This is going to be a good gig.’ ”

After a couple of months with Doran in Baker Street he moved to the Apple HQ in Savile Row to work for Derek Taylor in the press office; in fact he spent more time helping Taylor manage Mary Hopkin’s burgeoning career – her debut single, Those Were the Days, would go to No 1 later in 1968.

The blurring of Oliver’s responsibilities were a good indication of the chaos prevalent at Apple, with new staff being recruited every week. New divisions were created – for publicity, management, merchandising and other fields, as well as the grand-sounding Apple Foundation for the Arts – none of which progressed beyond the corporate-registration stage. 

The proposed recording studio, too, was a flop: presided over by John Lennon’s friend “Magic Alex” Mardas – supposedly an electronics wizard, but in fact a charlatan – it was, recalled Oliver, a mere “hole in the ground”, and became a late-night party space.

Oliver soon switched jobs again, joining the record division under Ron Kass, an American music-business veteran (who went on to become the third Mr Joan Collins, in 1972).

Later in 1968, Apple released the infamous Unfinished Music No 1: Two Virgins, recorded by Lennon and Yoko Ono over the course of a night – mainly consisting of tape loops and distortion. But Apple’s parent company EMI, objected to its cover – which featured the couple naked – and refused to have anything to do with it. So Oliver had a bright idea: he went outside and brought in a gaggle of “Apple Scruffs”, the devoted young super-fans who would hang around in the hope of seeing a Beatle, and set them to work putting the discs in their sleeves.

The following year, when rumours began to circulate that Paul McCartney had died three years earlier and had been replaced with a body double, it fell to Oliver to ring him to ask if he was all right. The executive was able to confirm that the bassist was still in the land of the living when, annoyed at having been woken up, he told him to “F--- off.”

By that time Ron Kass had been sacked, one of several victims of the new-broom regime imposed by the Beatles’ new manager Allen Klein. Oliver was safe, having been included on a list compiled by the band of employees who were not to be fired, and although he had said that if Kass went he would go too, he thought better of it and was named as his replacement.

Oliver had reason to rue the new spirit that reigned at Apple. “We had built up this company where you could be very artistic and free, a lot of good ideas floated and exchanged. People had fun working there. They didn’t just put in their eight hours. They were there all the time. Klein brought his people in and turned it into an accounting office.”

But despite the new, businesslike approach, Apple never really took off. On the music side, the list of artists the company spoke to but failed to sign included Queen; Yes; James Taylor; Crosby, Stills and Nash; Gilbert O’Sullivan; and Fleetwood Mac. On the cinema side, such properties as Walkabout, the film that would soon establish Nic Roeg’s name, slipped through Apple’s fingers.

A serious drawback was the need to secure the say-so of each of the Fab Four for every decision, and by 1971 Oliver had had enough: “I saw what was going on. I knew The Beatles were breaking up and I just couldn’t see where it was going to go.” He decamped to Los Angeles to join his former Apple colleague Peter Asher (brother of Jane, and formerly half of Peter and Gordon), managing, producing and publishing for the likes of Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. He went on to manage concerts and tours for, among others, Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne, Barbara Streisand, Carole King and the Eagles.

He produced videos and handled product management for Disney Pictures and Datsun Motors as well as Madonna and Elton John, and from 1994 until 2001 he managed the affairs of the Oscar-winning actor, Nicolas Cage.

Jack Oliver is survived by a daughter and two sons.

Jack Oliver, born February 19 1945, died October 14 2023