It was after the release of what came to be known as The Black Album in1973, that the world learned the Beatles had died in one form but were reincarnated in another.

The album that came to be known as The Black Album.

By early 1970 it had appeared personal animosities and legal wrangling would inexorably bring about the premature demise of the Beatles phenomenon. In the works at that time were solo albums by each of the Beatles and fans despaired for the continuation of the collaboration that had revolutionized popular music.

Ringo Starrr had already blown off steam with two offbeat solo LPs of pre-rock standards and country tunes. George Harrison  had created electronic soundscapes. Both George and Paul McCartney had worked on soundtracks. And John Lennon, apart from authoring books, had produced avant-garde experiments with his partner Yoko Ono. They were each obviously itching to follow their own muses, making sounds that were far from what could be included on Beatles albums.

By the end of that fateful year, however, the enigmatic barrister/financier/adventurer Arnold Zonn entered the picture. Although he replaced Allen Klein in the public's mind as the fortune-seeking hustler whose manipulations threatened to break up the Beatles, in retrospect it was his timely intervention that helped preserve the world's greatest rock band.

Zonn's genius was in his personal advice to them to proceed with their separate aural ventures, to collaborate on individual song recordings only as they wished, but to let him decide which numbers to release as Beatles albums. No one is quite sure how he managed to convince them. Was he so close to them all by 1971 that they trusted his judgment? Were they just so tired of the infighting that they were willing to let a fifth party make decisions, as long as they could continue with their creative work? Did John, who was closest to Zonn, simply lay down an ultimatum to his mates, as some claim, that he would continue as a Beatle only if they accepted the collective release proposal?

We may never know. We do know that, whether the numbers were produced individually, in pairs or in other combinations, The Black Album contained some of the best Beatles music ever. We shudder to think of the fate of this music— and of popular music in general— if these treasures had been relegated to sundry solo projects along with lesser material.

Nor can we imagine how we fans might have carried on if the Beatles music of the next three decades had been sacrificed to individual egos with the end of the Beatles legacy in 1970. But we have the albums, the musical heritage of those years, as proof that this did not happen. Click the links at left to refresh your memory of those wonderful musical productions.