 | |
| Author | Bob Spitz |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | The Beatles |
| Genre | Biography, music |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
Publication date | November 1, 2005 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 992 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0-316-01331-5 (first edition, hardcover) |
| OCLC | 77561694 |
The Beatles: The Biography is the name of a 2005 biography of the 1960s rock band The Beatles written by Bob Spitz. [1] [2] [3] It was first published by Little, Brown and Company on November 1, 2005.
The Beatles: The Biography was among the first major Beatles biographies published after the band's Anthology multimedia project, which culminated in the publication of an authorized book in 2000. [4] With his biography, Spitz sought to present a fresh interpretation of the Beatles' story and re-evaluate aspects of the band's career. [4]
Spitz spent six years working on the book. He said he carried out 650 interviews during that time and received cooperation from Paul McCartney and George Harrison (who died in 2001). He also interviewed people whose story had not been heard in the context of the Beatles' history, while drawing from private tapes made by John Lennon before his death in 1980. [5] Spitz's personal insights and editorialization feature throughout the book. [5]
The Beatles: The Biography received generally favorable reviews, [1] particularly from The New York Times and The Washington Post . [5] However, some journalists and fans of the band identified factual errors throughout the book. [5] [6] [7] Spitz has generally been bitter towards his critics. When one of the editors of Daytrippin′, a Beatles fanzine, sent the author a list of incorrect facts in his book, Spitz replied: "You need an enema. Really! Do something useful with your life." [6]
Spitz's book was the first major Beatles biography to be published after the emergence of internet forums, fan sites and online publications—an environment that ensured the scrutiny it received was widespread and influential. [8] Beatles historian Erin Torkelson Weber comments that the book's standing suffered as a result of its basic factual errors, and its credibility as a historical work was further diminished by the author's tendency towards editorialization, which revealed a clear disapproval of Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono. [5] According to Weber, Jonathan Gould's 2007 Beatles biography, Can't Buy Me Love , proved more impressive to "knowledgeable readers". [9]
Randolph Peter Best is an English musician who was the drummer for the Beatles from 1960 to 1962. He was dismissed immediately before the band achieved worldwide fame and is one of several people who have been referred to as a fifth Beatle.
Sir Richard Starkey, known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of four others.
Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was a Scottish painter and musician best known as the original bass guitarist of the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a painter, having previously attended the Liverpool College of Art. Sutcliffe and John Lennon are credited with inventing the name "Beetles" (sic), as they both liked Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets. They also had a fascination of group names with double meanings, so Lennon then came up with "The Beatles", from the word beat. As a member of the group when it was a five-piece band, Sutcliffe is one of several who are sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle".
Geoffrey Ernest Emerick was an English sound engineer and record producer who worked with the Beatles on their albums Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) and Abbey Road (1969). Beatles producer George Martin credited him with bringing "a new kind of mind to the recordings, always suggesting sonic ideas, different kinds of reverb, what we could do with the voices".
"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" otherwise known as simply "Norwegian Wood", is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It was written mainly by John Lennon, with lyrical contributions from Paul McCartney, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. Influenced by the introspective lyrics of Bob Dylan, the song is considered a milestone in the Beatles' development as songwriters. The track features a sitar part, played by lead guitarist George Harrison, that marked the first appearance of the Indian string instrument on a Western rock recording. The song was a number 1 hit in Australia when released on a single there in 1966, coupled with "Nowhere Man".
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By October, the press adopted the term "Beatlemania" to describe the scenes of adulation that attended the band's concert performances. From the start of 1964, their world tours were characterised by the same levels of hysteria and high-pitched screaming by female fans, both at concerts and during the group's travels. Commentators likened the intensity of this adulation to a religious fervour and to a female masturbation fantasy. Among the displays of deity-like worship, fans would approach the band in the belief that they possessed supernatural healing powers.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions is a 1988 reference book on the English rock band the Beatles written by Mark Lewisohn. It was published by Hamlyn in the UK and by Harmony Books in the US.
Cynthia Lennon was the first wife of John Lennon and the mother of Julian Lennon.
"In My Life" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on their 1965 studio album, Rubber Soul. Credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership, the song is one of only a few in which there is dispute over the primary author; John Lennon wrote the lyrics, but he and Paul McCartney later disagreed over who wrote the melody. George Martin contributed the piano solo bridge.
William Harry is the creator of Mersey Beat, a newspaper of the early 1960s which focused on the Liverpool music scene. Harry had previously started various magazines and newspapers, such as Biped and Premier, while at Liverpool's Junior School of Art. He later attended the Liverpool College of Art, where his fellow students included John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe, who both later performed with the Beatles. He published a magazine, Jazz, in 1958, and worked as an assistant editor on the University of Liverpool's charity magazine, Pantosphinx.
Mark Lewisohn is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps. He has been referred to as the world's leading authority on the band due to his meticulous research and integrity. His major works include The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), a history of the group's session dates, and The Beatles: All These Years (2013–present), a three-volume series intended as the group's most comprehensive biography.
In His Own Write is a 1964 nonsense book by English musician John Lennon. His first book, it consists of poems and short stories ranging from eight lines to three pages, as well as illustrations.
A Spaniard in the Works is a nonsense book by English musician John Lennon, first published on 24 June 1965. The book consists of nonsensical stories and drawings similar to the style of his previous book, 1964's In His Own Write. The name is a pun on the expression "a spanner in the works".
You Never Give Me Your Money is a book by author and music journalist Peter Doggett about the break-up of the English rock band the Beatles and its aftermath. The book was published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in September 2009, and by HarperStudio in the United States in 2010. In the UK, it was subtitled The Battle for the Soul of The Beatles, while the subtitle for US editions was The Beatles After the Breakup.
The Beatles: All These Years is an ongoing book series about the English rock band the Beatles and their cultural impact. It is being written by English historian Mark Lewisohn based on research he has continued to gather since the 1980s, having prior authored six books about the band.
Peter Doggett is an English music journalist, author and magazine editor. He began his career in music journalism in 1980, when he joined the London-based magazine Record Collector. He subsequently served as the editor there from 1982 to 1999, after which he continued in the role of managing editor. He has also contributed regularly to magazines such as Mojo, Q and GQ.
Lennon Remembers is a 1971 book by Rolling Stone magazine co-founder and editor Jann Wenner. It consists of a lengthy interview that Wenner carried out with former Beatle John Lennon in December 1970 and which was originally serialised in Rolling Stone in its issues dated 21 January and 4 February 1971. The interview was intended to promote Lennon's primal therapy-inspired album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and reflects the singer's emotions and mindset after undergoing an intense course of the therapy under Arthur Janov. It also serves as a rebuttal to Paul McCartney's public announcement of the Beatles' break-up, in April 1970.
The Beatles: The Authorised Biography is a book written by British author Hunter Davies and published by Heinemann in the UK in September 1968. It was written with the full cooperation of the Beatles and chronicles the band's career up until early 1968, two years before their break-up. It was the only authorised biography of the Beatles written during their career. Davies published revised editions of the book in 1978, 1982, 1985, 2002, 2009, and 2018.
Can't Buy Me Love, subtitled The Beatles, Britain, and America, is a book by American author Jonathan Gould that was published in October 2007. A biography of the English rock band the Beatles, it provides a musicological assessment of their work and a study of the cultural impact they had during the 1960s. It was first published in the United States by Harmony Books and took Gould seventeen years to complete, after he had begun working on the project with editor William Shawn for the Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishing company. It was the first book by Gould, who was formerly a professional musician.
Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation is a book written by journalist Philip Norman that chronicles the history of the English rock band the Beatles. The book was published by MJF Books in 1981, and later editions have been published by Pan Macmillan and Simon & Schuster.
