# Paul McCartney Once Sent a Cease and Desist Letter to The Beatles’ Most Controversial Manager in 1970

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/paul-mccartney-once-sent-a-cease-and-desist-letter-to-the-beatles-most-controversial-manager-in-1970/
- Published: 2026-10-31T20:30:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-31T21:48:53+00:00
- Original publisher: American Songwriter
- Original article: https://americansongwriter.com/paul-mccartney-once-sent-a-cease-and-desist-letter-to-the-beatles-most-controversial-manager-in-1970/
- Topics: Art, Celebrity, Culture, Entertainment, Europe, Music, World

## Key points

- McCartney objected to Spector’s treatment of his song.
- He sent Allen Klein a forceful letter in April 1970.
- The disputed version topped the US charts.

## Summary

On 14 April 1970, Paul McCartney wrote to Beatles manager Allen Klein objecting to Phil Spector’s changes to “The Long And Winding Road”. The dispute came amid the band’s increasingly acrimonious split and showed how far apart McCartney and his bandmates had become over the group’s music and business decisions.

McCartney said nobody should alter a recording of one of his songs without his permission and told Klein, “Don’t ever do it again.” The letter had no legal force, and Klein said it was too late to change the track, which was being prepared as a single. Spector’s orchestral version reached No. 1 in the US; McCartney’s preferred version was later released on *Let It Be… Naked* in 2003.

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