Derek Taylor (7 May 1932 – 8 September 1997) was a British journalist, writer and publicist, best known for his work as press officer for The Beatles. He had started his career as a local journalist in Liverpool working for the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo - then becoming a North England-based writer for national British newspapers including the News Chronicle, the Sunday Dispatch, the Sunday Express. He also served as a regular columnist and theatre critic for the Daily Express.
Taylor was a national journalist when he was assigned to write a review of a Beatles concert. He had been expected by his editors to write a piece critical of what at that time was considered by the national press as an inconsequential teen fad. However, Taylor was enchanted by the group and he sang their praises. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to meet the group and he soon became a trusted journalist in their circle.
As the Beatles gained national attention in Britain, Taylor's editors conceived of running a column ostensibly written by a Beatle to boost circulation, to be ghostwritten by Taylor. George Harrison was the Beatle eventually decided upon. Initially given only the right to approve or disapprove of the content, Harrison's dissection of the first draft turned the column into an ongoing collaboration between him and Taylor, with Harrison providing the stories and Taylor providing the polish.
In early 1964, Beatles manager Brian Epstein hired Taylor away from his newspaper job, putting him in charge of Beatles press releases, and acting as media liaison for himself and the group. He subsequently became Epstein's personal assistant for a short period. In mid-1964 Taylor assisted Epstein in the writing of Epstein's autobiography A Cellarful of Noise. Taylor conducted interviews with Epstein for the book and then shaped the transcriptions of the audio recordings into a narrative - retaining most of Epstein's basic words.
Taylor served as press officer for the Beatles' first concert tour of the US in the summer of 1964 - resigning from his position at the end of the tour. Taylor then left the UK and moved with his growing family to California. In 1965 he started his own public relations company, providing publicity for groups such as The Byrds, The Beach Boys and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Among Taylor's skilful strategies was the positioning of The Byrds as being a new breed of American band with parallels to the Beatles - and encouraging nascent rock writers to perceive Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson as a musical genius. Taylor was a key participant in the team that produced the historic Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and served as its publicist and spokesman.
George Harrison's song "Blue Jay Way" was written during Harrison's 1967 visit to California, on a foggy night waiting for Taylor and his wife to come visit ("There's a fog upon L.A. / And my friends have lost their way"). Finding a small electric organ in his rented house (on Blue Jay Way), Harrison worked on the song until they arrived.
Taylor was also a catalyst in Harry Nilsson's musical career; hearing Nilsson's song "1941" on a car radio, he bought a case (twenty-five copies) of his album Pandemonium Shadow Show, sending copies to different industry people – including all four Beatles, who became enamored of his talent and invited Nilsson to London. Nilsson subsequently became a collaborator and good friend of both John Lennon and Ringo Starr.
In early 1968, Taylor returned to England to work for the Beatles again, as the press officer for the newly created Apple Corps. As a key executive at Apple, Taylor had a major role in the company's activities, involved in many of the key projects of the Beatles and Apple. His prominent role is documented in The Longest Cocktail Party, a memoir of Apple in the late 1960s by Taylor's junior assistant (dubbed the Apple "house hippie") Richard DiLello, and in other Beatles biographies.
Taylor was referenced in the lyrics of John Lennon's song "Give Peace a Chance", along with Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, and Norman Mailer, who like Taylor were all present at the recording of the song.
After he left Apple, Taylor went to work for the newly-launched UK record company '"WEA Records" - the British umbrella company that distributed and marketed several record labels owned in the US by the Kinney Corporation. These labels included Warner Bros, Reprise, Elektra and Atlantic Records. Taylor served as Director of Special Projects - working with artists such as the Rolling Stones, Yes, America, Neil Young, Carly Simon and Alice Cooper. He also presided over a revival of British jazz singer George Melly producing two albums for Melly. He was instrumental in signing seminal Liverpool Art School rock band Deaf School featuring future record producer Clive Langer.
Independently of his work for WEA, Taylor co-produced Nilsson's A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night in 1973. He had previously provided liner notes for Nilsson's Aerial Ballet album. (A story written by Taylor's daughter Victoria was printed on the back cover of Nilsson's album Harry).
Taylor returned to the US in the late 60s to A&M records as a publicist for then former Byrds guitarist Gene Clark who formed the group Phoenix with Laramy Smith . In the mid-1970s he served as a Vice-President of Marketing for Warner Bros. Records where he was instrumental in the acquisition of the Rutles project and supervised the worldwide marketing campaign for the album release and TV special. Taylor did not enjoy his second period in California and returned to England after a couple of years.
In the early 1980s he worked as a co-author on books with Michelle Phillips and Steven Spielberg. He also worked with George Harrison's film company Handmade Films. In the early 1990s he was asked to rejoin Apple to be in charge of marketing of the multiple projects planned for that decade including the CD release of the original Apple catalogue and major Beatles releases such as Live At The BBC and the Beatles Anthology.
In 1973 he wrote a very informal memoir As Time Goes By - published by Sphere Books, and reprinted by its Abacus imprint the following year.
In 1980, Taylor collaborated again with George Harrison, helping Harrison to complete his autobiography I Me Mine. Taylor subsequently wrote his own autobiography Fifty Years Adrift (In An Open Necked Shirt), published in December 1983 by Genesis Publications for which Harrison provided a glowing introduction to the signed, limited edition volume. Only 2,000 were printed, and the book quickly became a collectors' item.
In 1987, It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (Fireside for Simon & Schuster), celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, providing a detailed documentary of the people and events that shaped the album and the wider events of the Summer Of Love counterculture. The book includes archive interviews and photographs as well as extensive transcripts from a Granada TV documentary instigated by Taylor also titled It Was Twenty Years Ago Today.
As Time Goes by: Living in the Sixties (Rock and Roll Remembrances Series No 3) (Popular Culture Ink) was published in June 1990 in the US, while in the UK Bois Books published What You Cannot Finish and Take A Sad Song in 1995, coinciding with the release of the Beatles Anthology. Posthumous volumes include 'Beatles' (Ebury Press 1999). In addition, an audio CD, Here There and Everywhere: Derek Taylor Interviews The Beatles, was released on the Thunderbolt label in 2001.
Taylor was married to Joan Taylor (née Doughty) from 1958 until his passing. The couple had six children: Timothy, Dominic, Gerard, Abigail, Vanessa and Annabel.
