The computer kind of apple is a cult, but the fruit and musical kind are sheer genius. One comes in one of nature’s most perfect, self-contained packages, while the other typically comes with some sort of delicious harmony or nutritious lyrical composition that feeds body and soul. They talk about the benefits of an apple a day – today my friends, you shall have it.

• The orchards of North America have produced some sixteen thousand varieties worthy of being named.
• James Taylor was the first artist signed to Apple Records. His song “Something in the Way She Moves” inspired “Something” by George. When JT sings the line “With a holy host of others standing around” in his song “Carolina on My Mind,” he was talking about the Beatles who were frequently around the studio at that time. Paul sings on the song.
• George Washington built a distillery for making apple brandy and was a fan of Newtown Pippins. Benjamin Franklin liked this apple so much that he had barrels of them shipped to England while lobbying there on behalf of the colonies. John Adams is said to have begun each day with a tankard of hard cider. Thomas Jefferson identified the apple Esopus Spitzenburg as his pick of the varieties grown in the hilly orchards of Monticello.
• On the U.S. issue of the Let It Be album, the Granny Smith apple was red. On George’s All Things Must Pass album, the first two discs have orange apples while the third has a jar label reading Apple Jam.
• The best-selling apples in the United States. Note that only Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and McIntosh originated in North America. 1. Gala 2. Red Delicious 3. Fuji 4. Granny Smith 5. Honeycrisp 6. Golden Delicious 7. McIntosh 8. Pink Lady 9. Braeburn 10. Jazz.
• Crosby, Stills & Nash auditioned for Apple in 1968, George and Peter Asher listened politely and then passed.
• Sizes of apples vary from the crabs (crab apples), just an inch across, to branch-bending giants the size of a baby’s head and weighing well over a pound. Until the 1800s, most orchards were casual groves of trees grown from seed. Because an apple seed doesn’t produce a replica of the parent, but only a rough facsimile, these orchards were full of individuals, each one distinct.
• Apple artist Billy Preston came up with the line: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” Stephen Stills liked it and Billy let him keep it.
• The Red Delicious is considered the most controversial apple grown in North America. It was promoted by the apple industry to become the best-selling variety in the land, but some would say, in the quest for perfect Sleeping Beauty color and durability, it lost its taste.
• George Martin initially signed the Beatles to produce four singles, paying them collectively one cent per record sold. The four songs ended up being: “Love Me Do,” “Please Please Me,” “From Me To You” and “She Loves You.”
• The Newtown Pippin holds the honor as the oldest commercially grown native variety in the United States. And it has a place in our lore, as the apple of George Washington’s eye. Grafts found their way to Monticello, where Thomas Jefferson was eager to have the best and latest varieties.
• Beatles author Jonathan Gould said the song “Day in the Life” “is arguably not only the single greatest performance in the Beatles canon but in the history of recorded rock.”
• Of those 16,000 apples that once grew on this continent, only an estimated 3,000 are still around. Of these survivors, some eighty-one percent have been classified as “endangered,” meaning that fewer than four nurseries continue to make the trees available to growers. And another thirteen percent are said to be “threatened,” with between four and six nurseries handling them. These rarities include such charming oddballs as Bascombe’s Mystery, Stump of the World and Horneburger Pancake.
• George wrote “Behind That Locked Door” about Bob Dylan who he was trying to reach out to but was finding elusive. He caught up with him in Woodstock, New York in the late 1960s and together they wrote: “I’d Have You Any Time.”
• Among fruits, apples are second only to cranberries in their level of naturally occurring antioxidants. However, if you remove the peel, you’re tossing out most of these beneficial compounds. You’re also missing out on about half the fiber. The peel also is responsible for most of an apple’s aroma and much of its taste.
• John was two grades ahead of Paul who is eight months older than George.
• Apple varieties vary in how quickly they will brown when sliced. Browning is an aesthetic matter only and does not affect taste. It has to do with the apple’s defense against dehydration and disease. As the flesh is cut, ruptured compartments spill a disinfectant that kills disease organisms.
• George Harrison said, “I’m not really a musician, I’m a gardener.”
• The Rhode Island Greening is said to have been started from seed in the 1600s by a Mr. Green, a tavern owner in Green’s End, Rhode Island.