The Beatles

Celebrate our ongoing love affair with The Beatles, the four long-haired, oddly-dressed chaps who appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday evening, February 9, 1964 with half of America watching. Editor Ben Nussbaum traces the beginnings of this first internationally famous boy band, revealing how John, Paul, George, and Ringo created the sonic sensation that changed the course of music history. Nussbaum features: *The band and its impact *Three summers of grueling tours from 1964 to 1966 *The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney *The Soviet Union's banning and bashing of the band, which only increased the youth of the U.S.S.R. to crave The Beatles more fervently *The grandeur of The Beatles song catalog *The inevitable demise of the Fab Four and how the boys, now men, grew apart musically and personally *And much more! Within just two months of the Fab Four's debut on American television, the band had secured all five top spots on BillBoard's Hot 100, and before year's end would sell an astonishing ten million records. Filled with dozens of color and black and white photographs, this popular history details the rise and fall of the band, the stories behind the men, their relationships, the creation of the songs, the tours, the albums, and the unstoppable spread of Beatlemania around the globe. The Beatles' legacy continues to fascinate music lovers and pop culture gurus more than fifty years since their meteoric climb is rendered even more remarkable when one considers that The Beatles would disband just six short years after they sang their first "yeah yeah yeah" on American television. Beatles experts Tim Riley and Patrick Foster choose their Top Twenty Beatles tunes, remarkably with only five songs in common. A special section will be welcome by all record collectors, the complete list of the twenty Beatles albums released in North America, including dates and song titles, from Introducing The Beatles, January 1964 to Let it Be, May 1970. The Beatles also takes a brief look at the long solo careers of the four artists after the dissolution of the band, including their musical highlights and lowlights. Other topics discussed in this vividly illustrated volume are the five top contenders for the "Fifth Beatle" (plus ten runners-up, including Little Richard and Yoko Ono), the story of Capitol Records exec Dave Dexter, who nearly stalled The Beatles' entrance into America, and a section devoted to the band's children, discussing the music careers of Julian Lennon, Sean Lennon, Zak Starkey, James McCartney, and Dhani Harrison.