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selenakThe idealistic-but-doomed Apple, aka the Beatles' attempt at "Western communism for artists" , did actually make some successful records other than the Beatles' own. The second most successful Apple artist was Mary Hopkin, a Welsh soprano who'd been spotted by Twiggy and recommended to Paul McCartney, who after he heard her signed her up for Apple, produced her first single, Those Where The Days (which followed Hey Jude as No.1 in the British charts and became an international hit as well), wrote a song for her, Goodbye, and produced her first album, Post Card. I knew Those were the days, of course, but I hadn't heard any of her other songs. Now I did, and she really had an outstanding voice. Also I was very amused to spot Martha (Paul's dog) in the promo for In the morning of my life (which was filmed in the garden of Paul's house at Cavendish). I tell you, that dog knew everyone, and why nobody wrote a Martha-tells-all so far is a mystery to me. More seriously, it's an adorable video because Martha is in a playing mood but 18-years-old Mary H. will not be distracted from earnestly singing her song. A quote from the woman herself: "Yes, it was indeed the lovely Martha in the video," recalls Hopkin "I had forgotten this reel existed until [my daughter] found it on Youtube. I was sitting in Paul's garden on a lovely summer's day, singing with guitar, while Martha completely upstaged me, rolling about with legs waving in the air - Martha, not me!"
YouTube offered other discoveries as well, such as the demo Paul did for Goodbye, singing the song himself, which makes for an intriguing counterpoint to the Mary Hopkin version he produced. I'm with the commentator who said this could have easily ended up on the White Album, (especially given what else ended up there), though I'm glad Mary Hopkin got it - it makes for two beautiful versions instead of one.
Since Paul - like John - was notoriously a songwriter never actually trained to read or write music sheets, demos were really the practical way to introduce a song to another singer. Here's his Goodbye demo and then Mary's released version:
Lastly, on a note of "it's a very small musical world": Mary Hopkin married record producer Tony Visconti, who a) provided the orchestrations for Band on the Run in the album's post-production, and b) after divorcing Mary in the early 80s ended up marrying May Pang, John Lennon's former girlfriend, some years later.
YouTube offered other discoveries as well, such as the demo Paul did for Goodbye, singing the song himself, which makes for an intriguing counterpoint to the Mary Hopkin version he produced. I'm with the commentator who said this could have easily ended up on the White Album, (especially given what else ended up there), though I'm glad Mary Hopkin got it - it makes for two beautiful versions instead of one.
Since Paul - like John - was notoriously a songwriter never actually trained to read or write music sheets, demos were really the practical way to introduce a song to another singer. Here's his Goodbye demo and then Mary's released version:
Lastly, on a note of "it's a very small musical world": Mary Hopkin married record producer Tony Visconti, who a) provided the orchestrations for Band on the Run in the album's post-production, and b) after divorcing Mary in the early 80s ended up marrying May Pang, John Lennon's former girlfriend, some years later.
