Surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr suffered another blow today when it was announced that their longtime friend and business manager Neil Asipinall died from lung cancer in New York at age 66. Aspinall was a boyhood friend of McCartney who witnessed the ascension of the group firsthand: he would drive them to early gigs in his van. The Beatles repaid his loyalty by putting Aspinall in charge of their corporation, Apple Ltd in the late 1960s. It would prove to be a wise move. Many other recording acts had signed valuable rights over to record companies, but under Aspinall, The Beatles were masters of their own destiny. From the beginning, he made the Apple label a major player in the music business and even after the band split up in 1970, cleverly found ways to remarket their work over the decades to staggering sales results. Aspinall retired from the job last year, but not before having successfully launched yet another major Beatles marketing campaign. Shortly before his death, Aspinall was visited by Paul McCartney. For more, click here