Neil Aspinall, a lifelong pal of the Beatles from their scuffling days in Liverpool who became their road manager and then spent nearly 40 years as the chief protector of the group's recorded legacy as head of Apple Corps, has died. He was 66.
Aspinall died Sunday night of lung cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he'd been treated since being diagnosed with the disease two months ago. He had stepped down last year after almost four decades running Apple Corps, where he led the company's ultimately unsuccessful trademark infringement lawsuit against Steve Jobs' Apple Inc.
"Neil's trusting stewardship and guidance has left a far-reaching legacy for generations to come," said a statement released Monday by Apple Corps on behalf of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. "All his friends and loved ones will greatly miss him but will always retain the fondest memories of a great man."
Aspinall, whose early role for the Beatles was driving them from gig to gig in a cramped van, conceived the "Anthology" project that ignited a new wave of Beatlemania in the 1990s and sold nearly 8 million copies of the three double-CD sets that accompanied the TV series.
He helped realize George Harrison's dying wish for a final collaboration among the surviving Beatles, facilitating the participation of longtime Beatles producer George Martin and his son, Giles, to oversee the musical mash-up soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's show "Love" in Las Vegas.
He also was executive producer of the "1" hits collection, which jolted many in the music industry when it debuted at No. 1 on the national sales chart in 2000 and went on to spend eight weeks at the top of the chart. The "1" album has sold more than 11 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, and in excess of 30 million worldwide.
Much of the credit for the resounding commercial success of "1" belonged to Jeff Ayeroff, the veteran music executive who oversaw the album's marketing campaign, pointing up the characterization of Aspinall's career having more to do with his undying loyalty to the Beatles than with his business or marketing acumen.
Yet while those projects introduced the Fab Four's music to new generations of fans, Aspinall staunchly resisted licensing their recordings for downloading over the Internet, downplaying fan and retailer requests for sonically upgraded CDs and even squelching attempts for a "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" box set in conjunction with last year's 40th anniversary of the landmark album's release.
