Little known fact: The Beatles signed James Taylor when he was 19 years old : “I sent ‘Something in the way she moves’”

Unable to to go back to school after spending all his money on treatment for anxiety and depression, and getting tired of dossing down on friends’ couches while trying to make it in the music industry, James Taylor got his first big break thanks to a chance phonecall.

Taylor moved to London a few months before his 20th birthday. And even though Swinging London was pretty much over, it was still the world’s musical and cultural epicenter and the young American hoped its influence would magically rub off on him.

1968: Apple Records is born

Via a mutual friend, he managed to make a contact, who would turn his whole life around. Peter Asher, had just recently been appointed talent scout at Apple Records, the label set up by the biggest band on the planet, The Beatles.

“I made a demo tape, encouraged by some friends that I’d met in London - really lovely people, and I was shopping this demo around,“ Taylor would later recall. ”My old partner, fellow musician, bandmate Danny Kortchmar ‘Kootch’ - he had done a US tour with Peter and Gordon - that was the duo that Peter Asher was first known for. Peter and Gordon toured the States and Kootch was in the band that backed them up. I had a number for Kootch, I called him up from England, I said, ‘Have you a number for that guy Peter Asher?’ He said, ‘I’ve got a number, I don’t know if it still works but here it is’“.

“So I called him up and I said, ‘Danny gave me your number, I’ve got some songs, I’ve made a demo and I wonder if you know anyone I can play it for?’ and Peter said, ‘Yeah, you can play it for me, come on over’.

“So I did, I went over and I played him the tape. He gave me a guitar and I played a few other tunes, and he said, ‘Let’s go over to Apple Records tomorrow and see if we can play this for a Beatle’.

Taylor auditioned in front of not one Beatle, but two: George Harrison and Paul McCartney. Both were impressed and gave the green light for Apple to sign Taylor to a recording contract.

James Taylor records debut album during the Beatles unused studio time

The new Apple artist was hastily booked into Trident studio to record his debut album with Asher producing - taking up the unused slots allocated to the Beatles who were putting the finishing touches to the White Album. And as a bonus, Harrison and McCartney played on the sessions which started in July 1968 and were concluded by October.

Taylor was one of seven acts signed to Apple Records in the label’s first year and was the first non-British artist with a release on the catalog - his self-titled debut album, which hit stores in December 1968

“It was just otherworldly, because I was a huge Beatles fan. And they were at the very height of their powers. They just kept going, kept growing,” Taylor told Guitar World when discussing that audition in a 2021 interview. “So, to be in London, the first person signed to their label in 1968, was really like catching the big wave. It was unbelievable.”

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