Paul McCartney's 1968 • Albums, Songs, and Life Events

1968 highlights

Lady Madonna / The Inner Light single released

Hey Jude / Revolution single released

The White Album released

Year 1967

Year 1969

Articles

Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman on holiday in Portugal

December 11 - End of December, 1968

More details and rumors about the Beatles’ live TV show project

December 1968

“Yellow Submarine” premiered in the US

Nov 13, 1968

“Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, released in the US

Nov 11, 1968

“The Beatles” double-album postponed by one week

Early November 1968

News emerged that the Beatles’ live TV show would be recorded in December 1968

Nov 06, 1968

Paul McCartney spends time with Linda Eastman in Scotland

November 5 - Mid-November?

“All My Loving” TV documentary broadcast on UK TV

Nov 03, 1968

A TV ad project to promote “The Beatles” double-album called off

End of October / early November 1968

Paul McCartney visits The Cavern

October 25, 1968 ?

Paul McCartney spends time with Linda Eastman in New York

October 20-31, 1968

Paul McCartney and Tony Barrow give more details about the Beatles’ live TV show project

Oct 12, 1968

Apple faces business problems

Fall 1968

Hunter Davies’ authorized Beatles biography released in the UK

Sep 30, 1968

“The Beatles” double-album announced

Sep 28, 1968

Apple books the Royal Albert Hall for a potential Beatles live performance

Sep 26, 1968

Paul McCartney hints at a Beatles’ live TV show project

Sep 14, 1968

Children programme “Magpie” featuring Paul McCartney and Mary Hopkin broadcast

Sep 10, 1968

Paul McCartney and Mary Hopkin filmed for “Magpie” children’s TV show

Sep 06, 1968

Designing the “White Album” packaging

September - October 1968

Paul McCartney invites Linda Eastman to London

September 1968

Paul McCartney attends Neil Aspinall’s wedding

Aug 30, 1968

Apple Records is officially launched

Aug 11, 1968

The Beatles have lunch with Capitol Records president

Aug 10, 1968

Mick Jagger hears “Hey Jude” for the first time

Aug 08, 1968

Paul McCartney paints “Hey Jude / Revolution” on the Apple Boutique windows

Aug 08, 1968

“Yellow Submarine” general release in the UK

Aug 04, 1968

“Thingumybob” series premieres on UK TV

Aug 02, 1968

The Apple shop in Baker Street closes down

Jul 31, 1968

The “Mad Day Out” photo session

Jul 28, 1968

Jane Asher announces her separation from Paul McCartney

Jul 20, 1968

“Yellow Submarine” world premiere

Jul 17, 1968

The Beatles move into the Apple headquarters at 3 Savile Row, London

Jul 15, 1968

David Peel asks Paul McCartney for Apple to pay for a children show

Jul 08, 1968

McCartney, Harrison, Starr attend a press screening of “Yellow Submarine”

Jul 08, 1968

Paul McCartney discusses Apple at lunch with EMI chairman and banker

Jul 02, 1968

The Beatles acquire the property at 3 Savile Row, London

Jun 22, 1968

Paul McCartney on promotional duties for Apple in Los Angeles

June 20-25, 1968

Paul McCartney celebrates his 26th birthday

Jun 18, 1968

Paul McCartney attends his brother Mike’s wedding as best man

Jun 08, 1968

Paul McCartney directs promo film for Grapefruit

May 26, 1968

Paul McCartney attends Andy Williams’ concert

May 21, 1968

“She’s Leaving Home” and “The Family Way” win Ivor Novello awards

May 1968

The Beatles attend a housewarming party by Harold Pinter

May 19, 1968

“McGough & McGear” album launched with a lunch party

May 17, 1968

The Beatles promote Apple Corps in New York

May 11-15, 1968

Mary Hopkin appears on “Opportunity Knocks” TV show

May 05, 1968

Paul McCartney meets with duo Drew And Dy

May 1968

Apple publishes an ad to find new talent

Apr 19, 1968

Derek Taylor joins Apple

Mar 29, 1968

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” wins four Grammy Awards

Feb 29, 1968

The first Apple ad appears in the New Musical Express

Feb 24, 1968

The Daily Express publishes psychedelic photos of The Beatles

Feb 23, 1968

The Beatles in India

February 19 to March 26, 1968

Paul McCartney attends a Scaffold concert

Feb 10, 1968

“Lady Madonna” photo session

Feb 08, 1968

Paul McCartney joins a press conference for the Leicester Arts Festival

Feb 06, 1968

Paul McCartney at the Playboy Club

Feb 05, 1968

Paul McCartney completes “Step Inside Love” for Cilla Black

Feb 02, 1968

Cilla Black’s television series “Cilla” launched in the UK

Jan 30, 1968

Paul McCartney and Peter Asher visit the Press Association photo archive

Jan 29, 1968

Paul McCartney rehearses “Step Inside Love” with Cilla Black

Jan 28, 1968

The Beatles film their cameo appearance for “Yellow Submarine” film

Jan 25, 1968

Paul McCartney attends Diana Ross & The Supremes’ show

Jan 22, 1968

Apple Corps open offices in London

Jan 22, 1968

Rumors about a third Beatles film

First half of 1968

The Beatles attend Grapefruit press launch

Jan 17, 1968

Legal Beatles structures changed their names to Apple

Jan 12, 1968

Look magazine publishes psychedelic photos of the Beatles

Jan 09, 1968

“Magical Mystery Tour” broadcast in color on BBC 2

Jan 05, 1968

Paul McCartney attends the premiere of “Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush”

Jan 04, 1968

What happened for Paul in 1968

From Wikipedia, here is what happened to The Beatles in 1968:

In February 1968, the Beatles travelled to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh, India, to take part in a three-month meditation “Guide Course”. Their time in India marked one of the band’s most prolific periods, yielding numerous songs, including a majority of those on their next album. However, Starr left after only ten days, unable to stomach the food, and McCartney eventually grew bored and departed a month later. For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to question when an electronics technician known as Magic Alex suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate them. When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group’s entourage with him. In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing song titled “Maharishi“, renamed “Sexy Sadie” to avoid potential legal issues. McCartney said, “We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was.“
In May, Lennon and McCartney travelled to New York for the public unveiling of the Beatles’ new business venture, Apple Corps. It was initially formed several months earlier as part of a plan to create a tax-effective business structure, but the band then desired to extend the corporation to other pursuits, including record distribution, peace activism, and education. McCartney described Apple as “rather like a Western communism“. The enterprise drained the group financially with a series of unsuccessful projects handled largely by members of the Beatles’ entourage, who were given their jobs regardless of talent and experience. Among its numerous subsidiaries were Apple Electronics, established to foster technological innovations with Magic Alex at the head, and Apple Retailing, which opened the short-lived Apple Boutique in London. Harrison later said, “Basically, it was chaos … John and Paul got carried away with the idea and blew millions, and Ringo and I just had to go along with it.”
From late May to mid-October 1968, the group recorded what became The Beatles, a double LP commonly known as “the White Album” for its virtually featureless cover. During this time, relations between the members grew openly divisive. Starr quit for two weeks, leaving his bandmates to record “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and “Dear Prudence” as a trio, with McCartney filling in on drums. Lennon had lost interest in collaborating with McCartney, whose contribution “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” he scorned as “granny music shit“. Tensions were further aggravated by Lennon’s romantic preoccupation with avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he insisted on bringing to the sessions despite the group’s well-established understanding that girlfriends were not allowed in the studio. McCartney has recalled that the album “wasn’t a pleasant one to make“. He and Lennon identified the sessions as the start of the band’s break-up.
With the record, the band executed a wider range of musical styles and broke with their recent tradition of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre. During the sessions, the group upgraded to an eight-track tape console, which made it easier for them to layer tracks piecemeal, while the members often recorded independently of each other, affording the album a reputation as a collection of solo recordings rather than a unified group effort. Describing the double album, Lennon later said: “Every track is an individual track; there isn’t any Beatle music on it. [It’s] John and the band, Paul and the band, George and the band.” The sessions also produced the Beatles’ longest song yet, “Hey Jude“, released in August as a non-album single with “Revolution“.
Issued in November, the White Album was the band’s first Apple Records album release, although EMI continued to own their recordings. The record attracted more than 2 million advance orders, selling nearly 4 million copies in the US in little over a month, and its tracks dominated the playlists of American radio stations. Its lyric content was the focus of much analysis by the counterculture. Despite its popularity, reviewers were largely confused by the album’s content, and it failed to inspire the level of critical writing that Sgt. Pepper had. General critical opinion eventually turned in favour of the White Album, and in 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it as the tenth greatest album of all time.

As a solo artist, Paul McCartney became a producer and produced several artists published on the new Apple Records label (like Mary Hopkin or the Black Dyke Mills Band).

On personal matters, he ended his five-year relationship with Jane Asher. He then spent some months with Francie Schwartz, who was offered a role at Apple and was brought into various sessions of the White Album. In September, he recontacted Linda Eastman, who he first met in 1967, and by the end of the year, they decided to get married and create a family.

Last updated on September 27, 2021