The story behind some of Apple's most iconic sounds - including that single chord that chimes when your computer boots up - all stem from just one man and more than a little influence from The Beatles. 

Sound engineer Jim Reekes synthesized nearly every system sound at Apple during his stint with the then-fledgling company in the 80s, while also writing software at every level for its young operating system.

Now known widely as MacOS, back then the system was still in its earliest stages. At that point, Reekes played an integral part in creating the company's innovative audio architecture, as well as countless rings and chimes currently heard today.

But rather than raking in millions by creating the now-unmistakable noises, Reekes left Apple shortly before its evaluation ballooned more than a hundred times over in the 90s - and he missed out on around $8million in the process.

Not entitled to royalties, Reekes earns now a living working as a project manager for Lucid Motors - but remembers how he came to create the brand's still-continuing sound catalogue. The story, he says, starts with a 1989 lawsuit filed by the surviving members of The Beatles at the time, over the company's now-seminal name.

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Jim Reekes, the little-known sound engineer responsible for several system sounds still used by the computer company, synthesized during his stint with the firm in the late 80s

The story behind his creations, many of which are still heard this day, starts with a 1989 lawsuit filed by the surviving members of The Beatles at the time, over the company's name

'The Beatles lawyers started suing because apparently The Beatles didn't have enough money,' Reekes, now 69, explained to CNBC in a recent sitdown interview in of the suit against Apple and its then-CEO Steve Jobs, filed over the fact the band's label was also named for the tree-hanging fruit.

Seated in the same San Jose living room where he dreamed up the sounds decades ago, the audio designer explained how the suit inspired the name of one of his creations, the so-called 'Sosumi' beep, several years into the bitter court battle.

He recalled how the now recognizable chime - which briefly rings out to indicate an error or that something is inaccessible - was previously called 'Xylophone,' and how he was forced to think of a replacement because of the then ongoing court battle.

Using the opportunity to poke fun at The Beatles - who had also found issue with Reekes' C-chord startup sound due to it being heavily based on their A Day in the Life - Reekes sought to use a pun that referenced the band.

'I actually said I'm gonna call it 'let it beep' and of course you can't do anything like that,' Reekes joked, with keyboards and drums littering the background of his modest Silicon Valley pad. 

'I thought yeah, 'so sue me.' And then I thought that's actually the right name,' recalled Reekes, who is also credited with the company's mouse and camera click. 

'I'll just have to spell it funny. So, I spelled it Sosumi.'

To avoid further scrutiny from the band's high-powered attorneys, he said he told them it was a Japanese word that didn't mean anything musical.

Then threatened by the budding tech company's burgeoning sound profile, The Beatles and their lawyers subsequently stood down - though the suit over the name continued.

'That's how that Sosumi beep came around,' Reekes explained. 'It was really me making fun of lawyers.'

Appearing increasingly animated as he recounted his time with Apple, Reekes went on to detail how he thought up some of the tech empire's other lasting sounds, including the sound heard when you boot the computers up - which actually was a jab at the British band

The audio designer explained how the suit inspired the name of one of his creations, the so-called 'Sosumi' beep - a play on the word 'so sue me' - several years into the bitter court battle

Seated in the same San Jose living room where he dreamed up the sounds decades ago, the audio designer explained how the suit inspired the name of one of his creations, the so-called ' Sosumi' beep, several years into the bitter court battle

Appearing increasingly animated as he recounted his time with Apple despite a somewhat unceremonious exit in 1999, Reekes went on to detail how he thought up some of the tech empire's other lasting sounds, including the chord cited by The Beatles in their since-settled suit.

Commonly called the Macintosh startup, the tone was created by Reekes in 1993 - two years after Sosumi - after an earlier tri-tone sound not created by Reekes angered the engineer to no end.

 'At that time, the truth was the computer crashed a lot,' Reekes said. 'And every time you would hear that sound it was pretty much because you were just rebooting after a crash.'

Using more advanced MIDI recording techniques available at the time, Reekes changed the chime to a simple C-major chord, recorded on the keyboard of his living room while drawing some spiteful inspiration from 'A Day in the Life.'

'Kind of silly right?' Reekes smirked while revealing the move as a shrouded jab at the bringers of the lawsuit, which would not be settled until 2007.

The music man bragged: 'I'm playing a C-major chord and it's famous and it's a copyright.'

The suit against Apple and its then-CEO Steve Jobs was filed over the fact the band's label was also named for fruit. It was settled in 2007 for an undisclosed sum. Jobs died of cancer in 2011

To pull it off, he said he enlisted some engineer friends in charge of the tune's final signoff and asked them to sneak it in before it was rolled out.

The sound soon stuck, to the point where it was later trademarked after Reekes' departure from the firm before the dotcom boom of the early 2000s.

However, at the time, other engineers were not happy with the change, believing Reekes was letting his ego get the best of him.

But Reekes, as he would a few years later, would walk to the tune of his own drum, sending through the change request anyway. 

'Our excuse was it's too risky to take it back out at this point because something could crash,' he said. 'We just made up some bulls**t.'

The chime would remain the bootup sound heard on all Mac computers for the next two decades, before inexplicably being pulled in 2021 in the company's newest models.

In its place, no sound was added - leaving users with silence when they start up there machines.

'Now that there's no start-up sound, it's like sitting down at a restaurant and there's no one there to greet you,' Reekes said. 'It's it just feels strange.'  

As for Apple devices' characteristic camera click - heard when iPhone users take a screen grab or a photo - Reekes revealed it came from an old Canon AE-1 camera he purchased in the 70s, back when he was in high school.

To accomplish the sound, he recalled how he recorded the camera's snap while taking an actual picture, and then slowed it down to create a more recognizable sound.

As for Apple devices' characteristic camera click - heard when iPhone users take a screen grab or a photo - Reekes revealed it came from an old Canon AE-1 camera he purchased in the 70s

'Any time you take a photo with the iPhone it’s my camera, which kind of freaks me out because, even to this day when I hear people take photos with their iPhone I look to see who stole my camera,' Reekes told the station, adding that he's since used the story as a pickup line in Bay Area bars - for the most part unsuccessfully.

Now out of the sound business and shrouded in obscurity, Reekes recalled how he left Apple in 1999 of his own accord, for a software architect job at now-defunct internet radio startup, Kerbango.

The decision saw him drop stock options that were then valued under a dollar months before they ballooned to as high $150 back in early 2000s.

Speaking to CNBC, Reekes spoke somewhat forlornly of what could have been. 

'Unfortunately, my timing was pretty bad,' he sighed. 'I walked away from tens of thousands of Apple options that would have made me probably eight million dollars today if I had kept them.'

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