Hundreds, if not thousands, of books have been published about The Beatles. The first was Michael Braun’s Love Me Do – The Beatles’ Progress, a 1964 account which followed the group on tour and recounted their early days.
Since then millions of words have been written about all aspects of their lives, from the music to their clothes, religion to money. There have been photographic collections, musicological discourses, biographies, autobiographies, hagiographies and hack works.
Among the greatest Beatles books are Mark Lewisohn’s The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions and The Complete Beatles Chronicle, which documented the group’s activities throughout the 1960s, and Tune In, part one of his biographical series All These Years. Lewisohn is justly regarded as the world’s foremost Beatles expert.
Ian Macdonald’s Revolution In The Head is a fascinating chronological guide to The Beatles’ songs, although his interpretations are often more opinionated than impartial, and some of the recording and line-up assertions he made have since been questioned elsewhere. Nonetheless, it’s an illuminating read which brings to life many of The Beatles’ best moments, putting them in a social and historic context.
Then there are the official or semi-official books. Chief among these is The Beatles’ own Anthology, the weighty tome which accompanied the 1990s television series. George Harrison’s autobiography I Me Mine gives a selective account of events, but a fuller account came in Paul McCartney’s authorised biography Many Years From Now by Barry Miles.
For John Lennon, perhaps the best accounts are two long-form interview transcripts. Lennon Remembers by Jann S Wenner was Lennon’s vitriolic, Primal Scream therapy-inspired reaction to The Beatles’ split, conducted in 1970 for Rolling Stone. Ten years later Lennon was slightly more relaxed but no less compelling in David Sheff’s Playboy interview, All We Are Saying, given more piquancy as it came just weeks before his death.
The list below is an index of reviews of some books received by the Beatles Bible for review.
- A Day In The Life Of The Beatles by Don McCullin
- Across The Universe: On Tour And On Stage by Andy Neill
- Beatlemania! The Real Story Of The Beatles’ UK Tours 1963-1965 by Martin Creasy
- The Beatles Bibliography by Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis
- Beatles Box Of Vision by Jonathan Polk
- The Beatles In Hamburg by Spencer Leigh
- The Beatles: Tune In by Mark Lewisohn
- The Beatles Vs The Rolling Stones by Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot
- December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died by Keith Elliot Greenberg
- Fab Four FAQ 2.0 by Robert Rodriguez
- Fab Gear: The Beatles And Fashion by Paolo Hewitt
- George Harrison: Living In The Material World by Olivia Harrison
- I Want To Tell You – The Definitive Guide To The Music Of The Beatles, Volume 1: 1962/1963 by Anthony Robustelli
- The Lost Beatles Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive 1964-1966
- Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock ‘n’ Roll by Robert Rodriguez
- Treasures Of The Beatles by Terry Burrows
- Working Class Mystic: A Spiritual Biography Of George Harrison by Gary Tillery
David Bedford’s magnificent Liddypool must get a mention. Top research from a man who knows his Beatles’ Liverpool locations like the back of his hand or soles of his feet judging by the miles of Merseyside he must have trudged.
The Beatles Anthology . Buy the hard back , its superb quality through out . The pages are thick , beautiful photos, many from their private collections , which on the hard back look stunning. Alot has been said since this book arrived , as people have said its sanitised . To me, its written in small detail , page by page, by the people that were there, and that’s the Beatles themselves.
John’s comments are cleverly written in as each year and subject arrive , from the ( thankfully !) many interviews he did in his life time .
There is humour in here too, Georges comments on his first sexual experience in Hamburg ( with the others listening in, in the dark ) are really funny . George is missed so much , his honesty and soul, made him a special person, and was never shy to say exactly what he thought about anything . This book came out a year before he died, so its time less , to wrap it all up.
Most people know the Beatles Story , but this book does have the inside story, and lots of banter between them, which makes it a one off.
I’ve just read “The Beatles: An Oral History.” It’s an absolute must for the fan who’s pretty much read it all–these are the little details, the conversational gems, it’s a treasure trove of *so* much background from so many wonderful, relevant perspectives. If you can track it down, it’s a treat 🙂
I’m currently reading Shout! by Philip Norman. I haven’t gotten very far because it’s so packed full of information. It’s truly amazing. I highly suggest it!
It’s a good read but beware the information. Philip Norman’s general agenda is that the sixties were an abhorrence to the decent class-structures that kept people in their place. That The Beatles were all about breaking this down is the reason he attempts to overcome them with his own upper-class literary pretensions. It’s a good novel.
Of course, I have to say–Norman’s agenda regarding the Sixties is widely held. In some of the GenX-er’s minds, it’s a time to look back with a mixture of sarcasm and “pfft” (they didn’t have Macs back then??) I can see it cross my children’s faces when I dare to explain to their friends why I do the things I do. They like some of the fashions, though, so I guess that’s something…
In the minds of the WWII generation, though, my parents for example, the Sixties were a nightmare that was going to suck their babies up and spit them out as something never before seen. Not love the President?? Hate the war?? This is America, by God, what is wrong with you?? You’re not my child!!
There was a lot of people trying to break through that class-structure you mention, not only the Beatles obviously. Depending on whom you ask, some of us did some good. I like to think so, anyhow. Until I look around me now and see chaos in every corner of the world, that is. Then I feel like my parents must have felt–like they woke up one sunny morning and found themselves on Mars.
I also really liked ” Shout” and it’s portrayal of the earlier years in Britain, have you read ” Tell me why” by Tim Riley ? it is very, very good but one of the things I disagree with in this book, is his dissing of the Norman book.
Very good book, but the personnel comments at the back of the book tend to spoil things for me
” A Hard Day’s Write ” by Steve Turner. Tells the story behind each Beatle’s song. Nice to have it in book format. Can get loads of info from Beatles Bible.com, though…
I didn’t think much of it. One or two entries told me something new, but on the whole it was quite superficial. A far better buy is Revolution In The Head by Ian MacDonald.
Hello Joe. I would be curious to know your opinion of Steve Turner’s most recent book “Beatles 66.”
I haven’t read it. I found his Gospel book quite interesting, but I wasn’t too impressed with A Hard Day’s Write. I’ll probably pick up Beatles 66 at some point.
I had just finished reading the book when I initially commented on it. Though the general reception seems to have been largely positive, there are some reviewers who seem to have similar views about it to your own opinion of “A Hard Days Write.” Though I felt that I enjoyed it overall, I did notice a few minor errors here and there as well as some omissions that I wondered if maybe Turner had left out knowing that they were already available elsewhere. I cannot really verify that for myself.
As a full time musician (and a jazz musician primarily) I do not always have the personal time to think things through about the Beatles that I know you and many others here do Joe. But since I trust you as I trust very few other writers on the subject of the Beatles, I would still be interested to know how you feel about the book if and when you get the chance to read it.
In the meantime what would you consider the definitive writings of the Beatles in 1966? (And by that I don’t necessarily mean full books, but perhaps passages from certain books or writings found in articles.)
Oh, I’m not sure there’s a definitive book yet! Let’s wait for the next (or final) book in the Mark Lewisohn trilogy. But I’d recommend Robert Rodriguez’s book on Revolver – it’s very thorough and I don’t recall any inaccuracies. There’s also a good ebook called Abracadabra which I enjoyed a few years back, though I haven’t revisited it since (so take that as a tentative recommendation).
“Shout!” is probably the best biography around. Unfortunately, besides some factual mistakes, it’s absolutely biased against McCartney.
Some books are necessary, with reservations: “The Beatles Anthology” is, much more than a biography, a celebration; “Many Years From Now” is just McCartney telling his own version of the story, screaming “I was the vanguard one!”; “The Lives of John Lennon” has good facts and damnn lies about John; but they all usually bring some light to their subjects.
Bob Spitz’s “The Beatles” is also a good biography, very comprehensive and impartial, but exceptionally full of errors and poorly written.
I would recommend a minor book, “Beatles Gear” by Andy Babiuk; although it’s mainly focused on instruments and equipment used by the Beatles, it’s probably the best book to recount how Stu Sutcliffe left the band.
Pete Doggett’s “You Never Give Me Your Money” is brilliant, and focuses on the money problems the Beatles endured from 1968 to 1995, which other biographies don’t usually cover.
But Mark Lewisohn is writing his own Beatles biography right now (in three volumes), and it surely will be the only Beatles biography anyone will ever need to read.
Hi Rafael. I don’t consider “Beatles Gear” to be a minor book. It’s a monument to Beatle freakism! That book is just pure hardcore porn for us beatlemaniacs with guitars.
And yes, I’ve just finished Pete Doggett’s “You Never Give Me Your Money” and fully agree with you, top notch book about the financial mess the Beatles created.
And on that subject, I can recommend “Beatles For Sale” by John Blaney, too.
If you want a book that slobbers over McCartney ,and is biased against Harrison ,read Geoff Emericks book. Even Ken Scott ( whose book is not all BEATLES, but much better) took emerick to task over this book, and his remarks about the lovely George.
I have to be honest — I would probably rank Philip Norman’s SHOUT! the most disappointing Beatle book I’ve ever read — probably because I expected so much from it. I had heard it was one of the very best Beatle bios out there, but while it did contain some interesting stuff, and I like Norman’s way with words, it was also very very opinionated, and it was clear Norman was a Lennon fan. The version I have is the 2003 update, so I am lead to believe it’s not quite as anti-McCartney as the original 1980’s version, but it tells you something when he titles the chapter on Paul’s solo work “Those freaks was right when they said you was dead”. But the depiction of George is what really gets my dander up. “Chronically bitter” is how Harrison is described in this book. There’s no doubt George could be curmudgeonly at times, but Norman’s account makes it appear that’s the ONLY mood Harrison had. Over and over, you read about “unsmiling George” (Ringo’s mum opens the door to George’s unsmiling face, George Martin crosses the studio floor to unsmiling George Harrison with his rehearsal guitar, etc). If you ever see interviews of George (and there are lots of them on YouTube), you are struck by his droll, self-deprecating sense of humour, but there are no glimpses of that in SHOUT. Norman concludes by writing “George was not great, just an average guitarist who got incredibly lucky” — and then I think about songs like “Something”, “Here Comes the Sun”, “Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Blow Away” and the CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH and wonder to myself exactly what constitutes greatness. So overall, while there are some interesting parts of the book, overall I’d give it a fairly poor rating.
I have to agree with you Walrus. Norman’s book is riven with errors (some corrected in the later editions) and full of his unsubstantiated opinion. The comments on George really angered me and are totally unjustified.
Seconded or thirded. Although I enjoyed the book immensely at the time it came out, I was a little too young to see how I’d been hoodwinked. Norman’s agenda is to overcome his subjects with his own literary ‘genius’ and thus ‘Shout’ is a novel of sorts and one which also reflects his own upper-class pretensions (this is after all a notoriously right-wing establishment author). In short, I came to the realisation that for all his words, Philip Norman is about NEGATING the 60’s class-liberation that The Beatles were part of. As the powerful survivor, McCartney, of course, must bear the brunt of his assault but I agree that his attitude to George is probably what caused McCartney’s one-word review of this book, namely “SH*TE”
I agree with most of your observation on this book. While Mr. Norman does have an interesting way with words, his clear and obvious biases tended to bother me even in the revised edition. I share some of Joe’s expressed animosity toward Norman in the forum on this website for the contexts he tried to place the Beatles in, but I also couldn’t get past his tendency to allow his observations on Lennon in particular cloud his judgment of the band as a whole, and this unfortunately carried on to his more recent biography of Lennon even if in more subtle ways. As much as I respect Lennon, it is my own observation that it has become more and more difficult to look at the man freshly with all the over-analyzing that has accompanied his legacy ever since his unfortunate murder, which is what makes writings such as these frustrating to someone such as me who prefers to try and understand the strengths and flaws of all four members which is why I cannot recommend any of Norman’s works on the Beatles to anyone with a similar mindset to mine on this.
By the way, I recently read that Phillip Norman is now planning on writing a biography of Paul McCartney. If this is true I very much doubt I will read it, but at the same time I have to wonder just how well he is going to be able to get past his previous observations on McCartney many of which I found to be unfair and not especially well thought out.
Has Paul McCartney approved this new bio? Or is it one of those ‘unauthorized’ things that I run from when I see them? There’s so, so much info out there for public consumption that it would be easy to pull out a volume or ten without ever even interviewing a single person.
It would be a great job to have, wouldn’t it, to be the person responsible for some of the fact-checking, and publishing rights for all those quotes and photos in these books? I’d do it!
I just read Pattie Boyd’s “Wonderful Tonight” and she dropped names and told stories as much as anybody, and I read it with just a teeeeeeny tiny grain of salt. George was always my favorite Beatle. It’s hard to picture his doing some of the things he was supposed to do. Now there’s some clown saying she and George put him up for adoption just after they were married? Bah…
Of all of the books I’ve read (and I’ve read all of the ones mentioned on this page), Geoff Emerick’s “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles” was the most enjoyable to read. His perspective as an engineer was unique and the book is very well written. A few stories about recording sessions were new to me.
I agree…I have read dozens of Beatle books and this one is one of my favorites….one of the few people who knew the Beatles but did not push his relationship to them throughout the book, as so many others did.
It’s one of my favorite books (along with Beatles Gear) but its very biased towards Paul and against George and Ringo for simply “not being friendly” to Geoff.
I have to agree with HB. Emerick’s book was by far my favorite of the 6 Beatle books I have read. But this book has the narrow focus of the recording process. This is not a book for the mainstream Beatle fan.
Ken Scott called Emerick out for running around Abbey Road asking people for stories after his book deal, seems his memory wasn’t the best and he couldn’t remember much.And his errors regarding Harrisons abilities as a guitarist are just the beginning.
For the songs, I loved Revolution In The Head and for the story, I liked Peter Brown’s The Love You Make. As a Scot, I also really enjoyed The Beatles In Scotland.
Thanks Alan. I liked the fabs in Scotland too.
I am a first generation fan- what about the authorized Biography by Hunter Davies ???
John Lennon said in one of his Rolling Stone interview with Jann Wenner, that it contains 90% of falseness. it was not written entirely based on the truth..
personally, i like that book though 🙂
The authorized bio was apparently sanitized by BEATLES, family etc, so it should be read for what it is, but …
I would avoid George Martin’s “All you need is ears” and Geoff Emerick’s “Here, There, and Everywhere….” both of which, while interesting at times, are heavily biased in favor of Paul. Further, both books contain numerous attacks (sometimes vicious) on George which are unnecessary and often unwarranted (Martin reduces the masterpiece “Something” to being only `quite simple, really’).
If anything, I think the Geoff Emerick’s book was quite even-handed, although it did get somewhat exasperated towards the Beatles themselves going into the White Album days. If it was hard on anyone, it was hard on George Martin.
Ah, I just ordered Martin’s book and LOVED Emerick’s book. I am interested in the Beatles recording process and the Emerick’s biases are only a small part of the book, the main focus being the songs and how they were recorded.This isn’t a book for the mainstream Beatles fan.
I have also been reading “The Beatles: An Oral History.” and I will never look at Paul or Ringo the same way. I feel like I have a personal connection with them now. I am in my thirties so I missed the days of Beatle mania but this book puts me right there.
I also read Geoff Emericks book and thought it fab(what else would it be ?)Maybe a bit bias towards paul during Apple days but also very easy to believe it was just that way since he doesn’t build himself up buy taking credit for their success like some others seem to do.
You should include Hunter Davies biography of the beatles.
Check out “The Beatles in Scotland” by Ken McNab for an insight in to the group’s (especially John’s) connections with Scotland. Some interesting insights, stories, photos and views from fans and other sources.
“Shout” and “the love you make” are good reads but they aren’t factual. I enjoyed”Imagine this” by Julia Baird, John’s half sister.. I will say it must be accurate because I don’t think anyone could make up all that she has to say.I saw her at Fest for Beatle fans a couple weeks ago and she was very nice and apeared to be sane. : )
If you’re up for some historical fiction that includes a meeting between John and Elvis Presley when Elvis was serving in the U.S. Army in Germany in 1960, I humbly suggest downloading my novel “Rather See You Dead.” It’s a thriller that moves between the past and present; the Beatles and Elvis stuff is all based on fact, though the meeting itself didn’t happen (as far as I know.)
Hello everybody. I’m new to the site and I have enjoyed reading all of your comments. Like you, I’m a huge Beatles fan, and I have been since I saw them on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The Fab Four have been an important part of my life since then. I visited Liverpool & London 25 years ago, and it became my personal pilgrimage. If you’re into fiction, I’d like to make a gentle plug for “Mersey Boys,” a Beatles novel. The Beatles’ legend is retold by an American professor who had to contend with a wise guy student by the name of Lennon. The book is a light-hearted & humorous account that has you wondering if Professor Moran is making it all up, or if he’s telling the truth. It’s not meant to be taken as history…or even seriously It’s one aging man’s homage to a band and a city he dearly loves. For a Yank to duplicate the Scouse dialect of the early Sixties is probably impossible. Instead, you have a Yank trying to replicate what his ears have heard. Anyway, thank you for reading my post. Cheers. God Bless the Beatles, the Mersey Sound, Liverpool & England.
A very good and informative read is The Beatles by Hunter davies talks about the early years and beatle mania from 63-67
To have an idea of the beatles ´s real story, one should read all the books mentioned above. The next thing is to forget everthing and think that they were very young and humans.
Beatles ´s music is the real thing
Some excellent books about the Beatles have been left out.
Tune In: The Beatles all These Years, by Mark Lewisohn. This is the first of a planned three volumes. The unabridged Extended Edition clocks in at 1700 pages, and it takes you to dawn of 1962. It’s well known the Mark Lewisohn is by far the most knowledgeable man on earth about the Beatles, and this demonstrates it. If there is anything to be known about the Beatles, it is here.
All the Songs by Phillipe Margolin et al. There are many books out there which discuss the Beatles song by song. All are incomplete in some way, but this one is one of the best. Background for each song, as well as a pretty complete summary of the recording of each, not as full as in Lewisohn’s Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, but very good.
The Beatles on the Record, by Guitar World. Discusses the recording process and equipment of each Beatles song. Being a gear magazine, these guys focus on the gear, but it’s actually really well written and a great summary as well.
The Beatles off the Record by Keith Badman. This is basically a compilation of Beatles interviews, but organized chronologically and edited somewhat. It’s a very complete look at the Beatles by the Beatles themselves.
Hi, @SirHuddlestonFuddleston,
Joe’s review of Lewisohn’s ‘Tune In’ is above.
Hadn’t heard of the Guitar World book, thanks for the tip!
A Date With A Beatle. Not a significant surprising rare book, but a MUST READ!
Just when it seems there are no other angles to cover to shine a spotlight on the Beatles, there are no some cool books about The Beatles’ HOMES. There is THE DAKOTA SCRAPBOOK, and FRIAR PARK: A PICTORIAL HISTORY, and also FRIAR PARK: 1919 ESTATE AUCTION CATALOGUE. Part of learning about the Beatles is knowing about the environments they were in that inspired them to write such great songs.
What about The Beatles by Bob Spitz?
I have read many books on The Beatles. The above mentioned Bob Spitz biography, I really enjoyed, because of it’s fairness in the way it portrays the four Beatles. As a kid in the late 70’s I loved Nicholas Schaffner’s The Beatles Forever.I first discovered it in a local library, way back in 1979. In 2013 I was delighted to obtain a second hand copy of this. It is a treasure trove of information. Hunter Davies contributions have stood the test of time and I loved his The John Lennon Letters, a couple of years ago.
Mark Lewisohn is rightly regarded as the world’s premiere Beatles scholar. In the early part of 2014 I read The Beatles All These Years Volume1: Tune In. It is part one of three. It is 900 odd pages of utter brilliance, finishing at the end of 1962, with obviously so much more to come. I cannot wait for the next installment. Detailed and compelling. It brings to light all the humor, tragedy, trials and tribulations that molded the collective and individual genius of the Beatles. It was particularly interesting how in the latter part of the book , he rightly connected the simultaneous emergence of The Beatles in the north of England and The Rolling Stones in the south; coinciding with Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys across the Atlantic on the east-west coast of The United States. Such brilliance emerging at the same time, the likes of which will never be seen again.
Here is a new book about the Dakota Apartment building where Lennon lived and died. Put together by the same team who did FRIAR PARK: A PICTORIAL HISTORY & THE DAKOTA SCRAPBOOK.
A day in the life by don mccullin is a great book of photographs of one Sunday injuly 1968.can anyone confirm that there are many other shots from this day that have been published yet do not appear in this book?
I’ve always enjoyed re-reading ‘The Long And Winding Road’ by Peter Brown.
Though it’s been condemned for having been researched by Brown under false pretences, used to get interviews, particularly with Paul, before dishing a lot of dirt, it’s got lots of exclusive detail that wasn’t so much disputed as resented by the band. He’s coming at it from a very Epstein-loyalist perspective but co-writer Steven Gaines gives it the pace acclaimed in Philip Norman’s novelistic, opinionated and innovative ‘Shout’ (which I don’t like because of an overarching haughtiness from Norman) and it’s the biography which is unputdownable, a totally engaging read.
The opposite of unputdownable is ‘Anthology’ which I love but STILL haven’t read a lot of because it’s so big and heavy and you need a substantial coffee-table to put it on while straining your back to read. It’s fabulous of course as a collection which is essentially a collaboration between Paul George and Ringo with Neil Aspinall but I do wish they’d make the text available in a pocket edition sometime so I can actually get into reading it!
Have just in the last few days obtained my own copy of “The Beatles” by Bob Spitz. I read it 10 years ago via the local library. I am re-reading it, a brilliant book. I have read the”Anthology” and that is fantastic. I own the DVD set of that and it is riveting.
I must look into the Bob Spitz book. I started “Anthology” and am loving every page. The personal pics are simply amazing and the childhood stories are so telling. Mark Lewisohn’s “Tune In” has stood alone, atop the mountain of Beatles literature for me. Lewisohn brings a level of intimacy and sharpness in his writing that I have yet to find in other authors when it comes to the Beatles, but “Anthology” is holding it’s own. The pictures bring it all to life. Great Great Stuff
“Anthology” is a must, of course, I’m surprised no one mentioned “John Lennon, in my life” by Pete Shotton. Obviously, it’s Lennon biased , but full of details from 1956 to 1976. The writing session of “Eleanor Rigby” is witnessed, for example, by members of the Moody blues, the first meetings of John and Paul are also documented, etc…it’s a lively book, full of interesting facts that was , if my memory serves me well, relesaed in 1983. Probably out of print and out of stock by now, but you can always try flea markets around the world!
Jude Southerland Kessler’s John Lennon Series is a fantastic read. She is currently working on book 4 which will be out in June 2018, I believe, and all told, there will be 9 books. Each one is 800+ pages filled with in depth info that is footnoted. They read like wonderful novels, putting you right there as a fly on the wall spectator! Really good stuff!!!
I have and have read some of these and found most but not all too biased for and against different Beatles, many times overlooking George, ringo, and with a vendetta against McCartney personally or, if discussed, against his solo music. Thus, I got disgusted with Beatles books though last read one by Spitz which was detailed and seemed unbiased for or against any certain Beatle. I do want to get some of these listed but have learned unfortunately two I’d researched and was interested in are now OOP. I regret not getting the autographed/leather version of I, Me, Mine and didn’t know about the much later autographed special edition of the McCartney blackbird singing book, cheaper then considering what it was.
I do think that the heavy pro Lennon bias in these books, a few published in the seventies but more published after Lennon’s death, greatly affected a generation or two’s notions of the value of the other Beatles members and their solo efforts but George’s death and younger fans appreciation of him and McCartney’s archive re releases and upgraded reviews by critics have corrected some of these old biases. Also, the advent of the internet meant all of their Beatles and solo music could be heard without the biases of the old rock kingmaker critics and book authors. As for books, though it’s whitewashed, I always preferred The Hunter Davis biography which I have a hardback first edition of.