Love Me Do!: "Beatles" Progress by Michael Braun

"That was a true book," Lennon told Wenner in his 1970 Lennon Remembers interview. "He wrote about how we were, which was bastards … You have to be a bastard to make it, man. That's a fact, and the Beatles were the biggest bastards on earth." 

The year is 1963 and "Love Me Do" is the Beatles' first number one hit, closely followed by "Please Please Me". John, Paul, George and Ringo celebrate their new found success with a hectic six-week tour, briefly interrupted by an historic live appearance at the "Royal Variety Performance" at the London Palladium. This is the beginning of "Beatlemania" and American writer, Mike Braun, is there to chronicle events and watch as the drama unfolds. A year later, The Beatles are the world's biggest pop group. This book details what really happened in those first magic weeks.

Braun was a former assistant to Stanley Kubrick, and a writer whose work appeared in the Observer and the Sunday Times (he died in 1997; one of his obituaries described him as "a penniless flâneur", drawn to people whose "personal mythology was not limited by prosaic biographical fact"). Contrary to Lennon's picture, his book – a tour diary, essentially, which follows them around provincial England, on to Paris and New York – largely offers a close-up of the Beatles as you might expect it: witty, blunt, quickly breaking out of the drab conventions of British showbiz. 

He evokes ordinary places witnessing quite extraordinary scenes, in incisively simple terms: in the north-east of England, for example, he keeps the Beatles company in yet another hotel, watching them do a phone interview with a DJ in far-away Melbourne, while a gaggle of fans looks up at the window. "When the call was finished," Braun wrote, "they turned the lights out and spent a few minutes looking at the girls through a slit in the curtains before going to bed. The next morning as the Beatles left Sunderland several girls were still gathered in front of the hotel, huddling against the winds blowing from the North Sea." This is what is so compelling about those early treks around provincial theatres and ballrooms: moments of quiet, when the band seemed to marvel at what was happening to them; and the sense of an extended goodbye (by the autumn of 1966, they had stopped touring altogether).

This book was also published in 1964 in the U.S under another title: "The Real True Beatles - Number One"

The 1995 edition has a 1970 Lennon quote on the cover: "A true book. He wrote about how we were, which was bastards"

The original 1964 edition has "4/6" price on the cover and no Lennon quote which distinguishes it from the 1995 re-issue

1964 edition Back cover

The Rocking City: The Explosive Birth of The Beatles by Sam Leach

If you ever wondered about the origins of Merseybeat and just how the Beatles exploded onto the Liverpool scene before Brian Epstein cleaned them up to conquer the world, then THE ROCKING CITY (the Explosive Birth of The Beatles) has the answers for you! Sam Leach tells it like it really was and succeeds in encapsulating all the energy, humour, generosity, and unconventional ways which are so characteristic of Liverpool. He not only puts his finger on the exact moment when Merseybeat was born, he lived and breathed it as one of its leading promoters. Sam's barn-storming bills not only featured The Beatles, whose sheer power and energy in their early days rocked the city to its foundations, but also groups such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes. 

And Sam was almost directly responsible for Brian Epstein's fateful visit to The Cavern one Friday lunchtime to watch a performance by the group he was to make the biggest ever... John Lennon once said "Sam Leach was the pulse of Merseybeat. What he did the rest copied". Paul Mccartney on BBC Radio Merseyside in 1984 called those early days "The Sam Leach Era".

All You Need Is Ears by George Martin

All You Need Is Ears is the story of George Martin, the man who spotted the Beatles' talent, who recorded and produced them from the start, and who brought their musical ideas to life. In this witty and charming autobiography, he describes exactly what it was like to work in the studio with the Beatles--from the first audition (and his decision to scrap Pete Best on drums) to the wild experimentation of Sgt. Pepper (complete with sound effects, animal noises and full orchestras in evening dress at the direct request of Paul McCartney).

This is a singular look at the most important musical group of all time, and how they made the music that changed the world: No other book can provide George Martin's inside look at their creative process, at the play of genius and practical improvisation that gave them their sound; it is an indispensable read for Beatle lovers and anyone interested in the music world.

Sir George Martin writes as he talks, which is straightforward and with great knowledge of the record industry. So this book is awash with great little stories from his career, together with a lot of interesting information on the many artists he had produced at the time this book was written. Obviously more time is spent on The Beatles, but he combines this discussion of the artists with quite a bit of technical information charting the history of recording techniques as they developed. 

     

Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties by Ian MacDonald

As dazzling as the decade they dominated, The Beatles almost single-handedly created pop music as we know it. Today, their songs are cited as seminal influences by stars like Oasis and Blur. Eloquently giving voice to their time, The Beatles quite simply changed the world.

Fully updated to include material from The Beatles Live at theBBC and the Anthology series, this acclaimed book goes back to the heart of The Beatles - their records. Drawing on a unique resource of knowledge and experience to 'read' their 241 tracks - chronologically from their first amateur efforts in 1957 to 'Real Love', their final 'reunion' recording in 1995 - Ian MacDonald has created an engrossing classic of popular criticism in which the extraordinary songs of The Beatles remain a central and continually surprising presence.

The Complete "Beatles" Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn

This much-acclaimed chronicle covers every working day of the Beatles' career, and author Mark Lewisohn, who is recognized as the world's leading authority on the subject, also includes track-by-track details of every Beatles recording session.

Lewisohn first came to attention as Philip Norman's researcher on the acclaimed Beatles' biography Shout!, then went on to become the definitive chronicler of their work in his own right. This chronicle is a must for any serious student of Beatles' history and a mine of information for fans or those with a reasonably strong interest in the group's professional work. It incorporates details of their live work (which Lewisohn previously documented in the groundbreaking and now rare 'The Beatles Live!') plus all the gist on their radio/tv appearances and, most importantly, recording sessions. The memorabilia scattered throughout makes for fascinating reading but what impresses most is the accuracy of detail, gleaned from countless exclusive interviews, memos, obscure clippings and so much else. Even the notes at the rear are a revelation. Who else but Lewisohn would throw in chart positions in every music paper in the UK and US, for instance? Brilliantly annotated and expertly laid out, this must be the ultimate Fab Four reference book and crucially, it's one you can completely trust. Applause!

  

Updated version (incorporating "Beatles Live" & "Recording Sessions"

Remember: The Recollections and Photographs of the Beatles by Michael McCartney

Photos taken of the Beatles by Michael McCartney along with captions and comments to the photos by McCartney. Most photos were from their days in Liverpool and on the set of Help!

This collection of color and black-and-white candid shots--some never before published--features the "Fab Four" and their friends, girlfriends, family members, and hangouts around Liverpool during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Beatles on Vee-Jay by Bruce Spizer

The fascinating story of the Beatles in America on Vee-Jay Records before they were picked up by Capitol Records. In the limited time that Vee-Jay retained its rights to sixteen Beatles songs, they managed to repackage them into ten 45s, one EP, three variations of the first Beatles album, two variations of a compilation album, and one elaborate double album combining the Beatles and the Four Seasons.

Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt.Pepper by George Martin

On 1 June 1967, at the height of the Summer of Love, the Beatles made "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". In this book the band's producer George Martin tells his story of the nine months it took to make the recording, featuring songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" to "A Day in the Life" and "She's Leaving Home". 

1966 had seen a crossroads in the Beatles career, with the band under strain from the pressures of live performances. They decided to make an album that was like a show. Martin follows through the creation of the album's songs and offers an insight into the recording process itself.

     

The Beatles: The Ultimate Recording Guide by Allen J. Wiener

 "A dream-come-true for any Beatles fan or collector, this is the only up-to-date, complete, accurate Beatles record reference published to date. The only books in the Beatles literature that can compare with the quality and value of this volume are those written by Mark Lewisohn, particularly his "COMPLETE BEATLES CHRONICLE." 

Wiener's book, unlike Lewisohn's, includes every recording the Beatles ever made, both as a group and later as individual solo artists. It also includes all of their unreleased recordings, of which there are hundreds ranging from studio outtakes to crude home demos, rehearsals, concerts, radio and television appearances, and even recorded interviews. Of even greater value is the listing of dozens or bootleg records and CDs on which these rarities and curiosities can be heard. With the exception of the recent "ANTHOLOGY" releases, the book is a complete, accurate guide to all known Beatles recordings, and at an incredibly low price."

Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles' " Let It Be" Disaster by Doug Sulpy & Ray Schweighardt

Beatles experts Sulpy and Schweighardt have written a detailed chronology of the Let It Be sessions. Studying hundreds of hours of tapes originally filmed for a television special and later released as a movie, the authors provide a minute-by-minute account of the events from January 2 to January 31, 1969. 

They divide the rehearsals into songs/improvisations by day: A take of "I Me Mine," for example, becomes 8:39 as the 39th Beatle activity of January 8. The authors find embedded in the sessions familiar causes of the Beatles' breakup: John concentrating on Yoko Ono; George feeling a lack of respect from the others; Ringo bored and haggard; and an optimistic Paul seemingly the only Beatle interested in continuing the legacy of the group. 

I'll Never Walk Alone: An Autobiography by Gerry Marsden

In 1962 Gerry and the Pacemakers were signed by manager Brian Epstein as his second group after the Beatles, and made their name with ballads like "Ferry Cross the Mersey" and "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" as well as raunchy pop. But it was a Rodgers & Hammerstein song, "You'll Never Walk Alone", which had enthralled Marsden since he saw the film "Carousel" in his youth, that was their biggest hit. For three decades it has remained the anthem of the crowds at Liverpool Football Club, played before kick-off every Saturday, inscribed on the club gates and always the most popular concert request. 

In this autobiography Gerry Marsden emerges as a driven man, an artist with enormous confidence and a unique spirit. From his streetwise boyhood and early love of music to his friendship - and keen rivalry - with the Beatles, hunger for fame and hard-won success, his story is one of grit, warmth, humour and determination.

The Beatles: A Private View by Robert Freeman

An intimate view of the world's most famous group. Photographs include Ringo's wedding, the Harrisons at home and many studio 'working' pictures.