By: Brad Gallagher
Have you ever heard of an Apple Scruff? According to legend, “Apple Scruff” was the term give by George Harrison of the Beatles to describe female groupies that used to hang around outside their studio, and the Apple Records headquarters, and even the band members’ homes waiting for the band members to emerge. They were more than just the regular crazy Beatlemania fans though. In fact, they were said to be organized to the point of having a membership hierarchy and they even carried Apple Scruff membership cards. Their self appointed purpose was to see the members of the Beatles as they went to and fro and hopefully interact with them, while at the same time protect them from the normal run of the mill fans.
Over the years several of these scruffs became friends with the members of the Beatles, and a couple of them actually became employees of Apple Records. This is the story of one these Apple Scruffs and what she did to have a song written about her.
As The Story Goes:
One day back in the 1960’s, several of the Apple Scruffs were hanging out at Paul McCartney’s house in London when they noticed that a window was partially open on the second floor. So, they decided to break in. In a 2005 interview one of the girls named Diane Ashley said: “We were bored, he was out and so we decided to pay him a visit. We found a ladder in his garden and stuck it up at the bathroom window which he’d left slightly open. I was the one who climbed up and got in.”1
After getting in the house she went to the front door and let the others in. Most of them went into the house simply for the experience, but a few of them stole things from the house such as articles of clothing and pictures. Though most of the stolen items had little value, one of the pictures was irreplaceable. It was a photo of Paul’s father. Fortunately one of the girls, Margo Bird who was Paul’s dog walker and later an Apple Records employee, knew who had taken it and was eventually able to recover it.
A few years later in 1968, while on a promotional trip to New York, Paul wrote a song about the incident titled “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”:
“She came in through the bathroom window
Protected by a silver spoon
But now she sucks her thumb and wanders
By the banks of her own lagoon
Didn’t anybody tell her?
Didn’t anybody see?
Sunday’s on the phone to Monday
Tuesday’s on the phone to me
She said she’d always been a dancer
She worked at fifteen clubs a day
And though she thought I knew the answer
Well, I knew what I could not say
And so I quit the police department
And got myself a steady job
And though she tried her best to help me
She could steal but she could not rob
Didn’t anybody tell her?
Didn’t anybody see?
Sunday’s on the phone to Monday
Tuesday’s on the phone to me
Oh yeah”
The lyrics do not seem to be entirely about the break in, but some of the lines are directly connected. The line “Protected by a silver spoon” for instance in the first verse is said to be a reference to Ashley’s influential family who were able to keep McCartney from pressing charges. And then in the song’s chorus, apparently there was a police officer whose last name was Sunday who called a producer named Billy Monday to report the break in. And a neighbor named Tuesday Weld who called Paul to tell him. Also, it is unclear if Ashley really was a dancer. There is rumor though that the second verse is just some sort of inside joke.
The third verse, however, was written in a taxi cab in New York. During the cab ride, Paul noticed the cab driver’s ID which read “Eugene Quits, New York Police Dept”. He must have been moonlighting as a cab driver, but when Paul saw the ID he immediately grabbed his guitar and wrote that verse.
McCartney originally titled this song “Bathroom Window”, but later decided to use the entire first line as the title. It was released in 1969 on the Abbey Road album as a part of a 16 minute long – 8 song medley that ends the second side of the album. Abbey Road spent 11 weeks at number one on the US Billboard charts, but the Beatles never released this song as a single. Joe Cocker, however, did release it as a cover in 1970 and it went to #30 on the Billboard top 40 chart.
So now you know about the Apple Scruffs and their antics that lead to a hit song. Tell your friends. Tell your family. And come back and see me really soon right here on As The Story Goes.
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[1] Turner, Steve (2005). A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song (3rd ed.). New York: Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 0-06-084409-4
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