Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records Apple/EMI****

Set up by The Beatles in 1967 as either a vanity project or an attempt to put some order on their complicated affairs, the Apple label quickly became a home for various freaks and hangers-on. Before it all went belly-up amid much acrimony, Apple made a number of key signings and established an interesting roster. This well-put- together, 21-track compilation shows how the folk-tinted acts (Mary Hopkins, James Taylor) rubbed shoulders with the rockier end of the label (Jackie Lomax, Badfinger). There’s also (as they were then) Hot Chocolate Band, Ronnie Spector, the Radha Krishna Temple (no surprise as to which Beatle signed them) and other atypical acts. The results is a snapshot of a musical time when all bets were off, and when the chart-bound mixed happily with the experimental. Apple, you can only conclude, really was the first genuine indie label. See applerecords.com

Download tracks: James Taylor, Carolina in My Mind; Badfinger, Come and Get It