Here's another clue for you all; the walrus was Paul

FLASHBACK RADIO with Chuck Reynolds

It was at the very end of this week in May of 1970 that the Beatles’ last number one hit single, ‘The Long and Winding Road’, was released on the Billboard Hot 100 chart debuting at #35.

And just like its predecessor, ‘Let It Be’ — released two months earlier — and hit the #1 plateau a mere 3 weeks later in the second week of April, ‘The Long and Winding Road’ also hit the top of the charts in four weeks’ time. For those last two releases, that’s a lot of spots to climb over in such a short period of time.

But that was just business as usual for the Beatles as even their third last single release, which featured the double-sided hits ‘Something’ and ‘Come Together’, also both landed in the #1 spot in the last week of November of 1969.

However, in spite of that success, many of their fans and listeners from that era, along with anybody in the contemporary music industry, will sadly remember April 10, 1970, as the day when Paul McCartney publicly announced that he was leaving the Beatles for good – meaning the group as they knew and loved would no longer be.

While the public may have been shocked and surprised, behind the scenes, animosity between McCartney and the other band members ran rampant.

A lot of that started early in 1969, when John Lennon asked Allen Klein, a ruthless but successful businessman, who was also manager of the Rolling Stones from 1965 to 1970, to handle his business affairs, which soon included handling George and Ringo’s business, too.

At the same time, McCartney was lobbying for his soon-to-be wife Linda’s father and brother, Lee and John Eastman, who were entertainment lawyers, to represent the Beatles.

But, being outnumbered, Allen Klein took over and this certainly led to being the ‘proverbial’ straw that broke the camel’s back.

After making his announcement, Paul released his own solo album, “McCartney”, a week later on April 17th. This recording was very much sort of a homemade effort originally produced in the fall of 1969, when McCartney was recovering from a terribly depressed state of mind after John Lennon told him he was leaving the Beatles for good.

As expected, the media heavily criticized Paul’s solo record for having too many unfinished songs and being poorly produced. Despite that, it went to #1 in North America and #2 in England.

As for his depression, unbeknownst to the public after Lennon’s remarks, Paul had taken his family on an extended holiday to his private, and out of the public’s eye, farm home at Campbelltown, Scotland, where he gradually got himself into a better state of mind.

However, with him being missing from London and any other sightings for some time, it was then that the false rumours of Paul being dead and having been replaced by someone else took on a life of their own.

Upon returning to London, he privately worked on many new songs at his home on his Studer 4-track recorder and then secretly finished and produced it at Abbey Road Studios, which was just a walk around the block from his house. McCartney didn’t tell the others about his solo album until the spring of 1970 and they argued over whose LP should be released first.

Because of Paul’s anger the other three relented and let him release his album one month ahead the Beatles ‘Let It Be’.

On a happier note, in a couple of years, the other three Beatles were grateful for Paul suing Allen Klein as they lost money while being clients of his.