The Beatles: Rock Band the "Rock Band" concept to Apple Corps, the music production company created by the Beatles, and its key shareholders Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Yoko Ono. Initial meetings were arranged with the shareholders using an early prototype of the game to garner their interest in the title. One stipulation that the Apple Corps shareholders required of Harmonix was that the game feature songs spanning the band's entire career. Harmonix subsequently created a more complete demonstration that used examples of music and artwork that they envisioned for the game. The five-song demo, which included an early build for "Here Comes the
Beatles for Sale montage of celebrities, including film stars Victor Mature, Jayne Mansfield and Ian Carmichael, all of whom the Beatles had met during 1964. This inner gatefold image anticipated Peter Blake's revolutionary cover design for the Beatles' 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". According to music journalist Neil Spencer, the album's title was an apt comment on the band's unprecedented commercial value as entertainers, given the wealth of Beatles-related merchandise introduced over the previous year. The sleeve notes for "Beatles for Sale" were written by Derek Taylor, who, until a recent falling out with Epstein, had been the band's press