Paul Broke Up The Beatles

This is one story to illustrate the reason for the demise of The Beatles. To be fair, many other explanations have been given, possibly all with some validity.

From Fox News via The New Yorker:

It was McCartney, and not the always reviled Yoko Ono or the easily fingered Allen Klein, who brought about the end of the Beatles. At a meeting among all the parties in 1969, it was revealed that McCartney had violated a long-held agreement between him and John Lennon. The pair had a tacit understanding that neither of them would ever buy more shares than the other in the music publisher that owned their songs at the time. Steven Gaines and Peter Brown describe the meeting in the very good Beatles biography, "The Love You Make."

Brown was the Beatles' longtime publicist and present at every important event. At the meeting, it was revealed that Paul and his lawyer/father-in-law Lee Eastman had been buying extra shares by the handful. Brown reveals in the book that at that point Paul had 751,000 shares of Northern Songs; John had 644,000. Upon learning this, Lennon, enraged, exited the meeting. Brown says he called Paul a "bastard." It was all over. The Beatles were done.

I asked Paul about this for a feature profile I wrote about him and Linda in 1989. Knowing Lennon would get so angry, would he do it again, I wondered? Paul did not hesitate. "Absolutely," he replied. "I was investing in myself." It was almost the same answer Paul had given John at that meeting. In that sense, it was a smart move. McCartney today, with the help of Eastman, is a billionaire. And whether you like his solo work or not, McCartney became even richer following the Beatles' break-up thanks to a wildly successful career. But let's not allow history to be rewritten. Avarice broke up the Beatles, not a wife or a girlfriend.

Source: Fox News via The New Yorker

Wikipedia 's Article on the break up of The Beatles.