Ken Mansfield has worked with some of the biggest giants in the rock ‘n’ roll and country music industries. As the former U.S. Manager of Apple Records, he was invited by his bosses, The Beatles, to run their record label.
This is an excerpt by Daytripping.com to read the full article click he
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Ken Mansfield looked after the U.S. part of the operation and was responsible for the decision to release “Hey Jude” as a single, despite its nonstandard length for radio play at the time.
“They were trying to figure out whether to release ‘Revolution’ or ‘Hey Jude’ as their first single under Apple,” he told Billboard. “Paul [McCartney] was a businessman, and he was worried stations wouldn’t play it because it was too long. I said I would take it to America … meet the program directors at radio stations and get their opinion if we should break the rules, if it’s strong enough.” He said the directors “fell on the floor when they heard it. I called Paul and said, ‘We have to go with this.’”
At the time of the Apple launch we felt that one of the single most critical decisions we would be making was selecting the Beatles first single on the new label. “Hey Jude” was an obvious masterpiece but there was great concern, especially from McCartney that it could be rejected because of its length. it was extreme competition between the top 40 (rock) stations – the way to gain listeners was to play the most hits in an hour. This created the two-and-a-half minute standard for single record lengths.
The stations would then take it one step further and in many cases would actually speed the records up very slightly in order to squeeze one more record in during the hour
We sat on the floor of the Apple building for what seemed like hours listening to “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” over and over again trying to decide which one should be the “A” side.
It felt like Paul was the head of A&R in this matter so I suggested that the Beatles trust me with an advanced copy of the record and I would fly back to the US from London and hopscotch my way across the country back to LA, stopping off along the way at major radio stations where I would get the opinions of major music directors across the nation.
It was unanimous that “Hey Jude” was the hit no matter what its length. I called Paul when I got back to LA to let him know what I had found out and the rest is history.
Mansfield kindly gave Daytrippin’ his memories of The Beatles as a true member of the group’s inner sanctum.
Mansfield’s third book about his experiences with the band. “A lot of us who were there never talked about the Beatles much until decades later,” he said. “They never said to us to keep the things we saw to ourselves. But the thing about all of us is that it was such a privilege to have been there that we had to honor them by keeping things to ourselves and not talking about everything. 
“There was something about them that the minute you were in their inner circle they treated you like a friend. I never got the impression of, ‘I’m a Beatle and you aren’t.’ You were part of the team, and every day something phenomenal happened. I didn’t realize the importance of it until after about 20 years.”
Mainly I was in the right place at the right time. I was in charge of promotion and artist relations for the western states at Capitol Records when they came to California on their 1965 tour so it was my official job to work with them –
. We worked together one day and the next day they had the day off and invited me up to their house to hang out.
When they decided to set up Apple, I was their man in America so they sent for me to set up the US launch and to run the label in the world’s most important market.
Paul was the energetic one, the one that seemed like the popular kid in high school. He was the one whom you would cruise main street with your arms hanging over the car door edge. He would be the guy who would wave at the girls and slow down so they could jump in the back.
To me, Paul was the unabashed leader of the group, the hard-charging one with the ideas and the one that on the surface seemed to be less troubled about things in general.
his tempo was maddening and his energy pool bottomless.
George was the one you would have seen in the cafeteria keeping to himself. But he would also be the one to move things aside in order to make room for you when you sat down in the seat next to him. He would welcome the company and share in the moment in an easy manner. I got to be the LA guy with him during his frequent and extended stays.
Just because we were in Hollywood didn’t mean we had to be crazy. It was simple and easy being with George – we would go buy jeans together or sit around the house late at night and not say much.
John was the different one. He was the kid who also might be eating his lunch alone but would probably be standing up, leaning against the soda machine looking out across the lunchroom like it was another planet.
There was always this sense that he was a bit unapproachable and he would be the one to do the approaching if anything was going to come down on a personal level. I spent less time with him than the others with the main difference being that I never had that alone time away from the band or Yoko
.John cared about issues of importance and would get very frustrated when he couldn’t make matters better. He was like many of the great artists I worked with who had the odd ability to be in the extreme corners of life, jumping back and forth from altruism to self-centered madness without ever spending much time in the middle. Gee, I wonder why he was the one everyone was so fascinated with?
Ringo was the long-term guy. He was the most natural, most accessible and the most down to earth. I remember when I was in London it was his house that I was invited out to for a holiday feast. When we were in LA it was gatherings at our homes that were of the norm . He was the one I got to know best and the easiest to describe. I never liked the fact that he was relegated to the fourth man down on their totem pole when it came to the band’s pecking order.
