42 Years Ago: Paul McCartney Sues to Breaks up the Beatles One
of the reasons the Beatles defined the 1960s is because they
broke up shortly after that decade had ended. On Dec. 31, 1970,
Paul McCartney took the first step in dissolving the group by
filing a lawsuit against his three bandmates and their parent
company, Apple Corps. In the previous two years, John Lennon,
George Harrison and Ringo Starr had all temporarily left the
band, only to eventually reconcile. But when McCartney released
his self-titled debut in April 1970, he issued a press release
saying that he was leaving the group. The other three members
would soon follow suit with their own recordings, but the
lawsuit officially confirmed for the world that, as John Lennon
sang in ‘God,’ “The dream is over.” According to the court
documents, McCartney’s main reason for wanting to legally break
up the group stemmed from the decision taken by the others to to
appoint Rolling Stones manager Allan Klein as their manager over
McCartney’s opposition. M