For as much as the world had its spotlight fixed on Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr during the band’s infamously contentious breakup, there was another man standing nearby, just outside of the light’s perimeter: Allen Klein. The frank and brash New York City businessman was one of the final nails in The Beatles coffin, both emotionally and professionally. That McCartney distrusted Klein while the other three wanted him as their manager was one of the driving forces of separation amongst the musicians.
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Lennon, Harrison, and Starr signed a contract appointing Klein as The Beatles’ business manager in early 1969. McCartney refused to sign, and by 1970, the Fab Four was no more. Interestingly, in July 1969, Klein did an interview with The Evening Standard that seemed to foreshadow this split in a strange, painfully ironic way.
During his interview, Klein admitted McCartney asked him point-blank why people didn’t like the businessman. “Just like that,” Klein said. “Well, you know, I suppose I don’t play the game in one sense. I don’t have friends in the business, and I don’t belong to the Variety Club. I fight for my clients. And no artist I ever handled walked out on me. It’s been said I screw my clients. You just find one artist who’ll say that. Not one. Not one, I tell you. Because it’s not true. You can say I make a lot of money or I’m a bastard or whatever you want. But you can’t say I screw my clients.”
Of course, this then begs the question, why did McCartney feel like he was being screwed?
Allen Klein Foreshadowed the Beatles Split Without Even Trying
When Allen Klein sat down with The Evening Standard in 1969, everything probably felt like it was coming up Allen. The New York City businessman believed he was the best person for the job of getting The Beatles the compensation they deserved. And his twenty percent cut was the compensation he felt he deserved, too. Paul McCartney wasn’t so sure. Confrontational questions about why no one seemed to like Klein were among the many indications that he felt that way.
Even after his three bandmates signed a contract appointing Klein as their manager, McCartney said, “The thing is, I am not signed with Allen Klein because I don’t like him. I don’t think he is the man for me, however much the other three like him. The truth is, he only has three quarters of The Beatles and, in fact, he doesn’t have The Beatles. He is definitely the manager of John, George, and Ringo. But I have asked him and I have told him that he doesn’t manage me.”
McCartney would butt heads with Klein several times after that, including the following year when the soon-to-be ex-Beatle sent a letter to Klein demanding he modify changes to “The Long and Winding Road” that producer Phil Spector had implemented. He included a numbered list of modifications, the last of which read, “4. Don’t ever do it again.”
In hindsight, Klein’s interview from 1969 seemed to read with the stereotypical bravado of an entertainment businessman, particularly as he clued the world in to McCartney’s suspicions months before they were made public.
Photo by Jones/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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