The year was 1964 -- Sunday evening, February 9, 8-9 p.m. to be precise. Over 73 million people tuned in to watch the Ed Sullivan Show, creating one of the largest television audiences ever in the United States. Four teen-aged mop-topped boys from Liverpool invaded the American scene, and the world was never again the same.
Ask any person coming of age in the 1960s, and you'll get immediate answers to two questions: "Where were you when JFK was assassinated?" and, "Where were you when you first saw The Beatles?"
Thousands of young girls fell in love that night, their tear-flooded eyes matching their screams, as Paul McCartney crooned, "'Til There Was You." Hundreds of young men started growing their hair while taking their first guitar lessons.
Even Elvis Presley realized there were new boys in town and called the group to wish them luck.
All was not as it seemed, however, and this audiobook reveals facts about American audiences not previously brought to light.
This biography is the result of extensive research and offers never-before-told stories of the Beatles past and present, in a way that brings to life each of these boys from Liverpool. Author Bob Spitz tells their stories in a way no biographer has yet captured. Little is left out.
Their relatively obscure lives before they ran head-long into fame, the obsessiveness of the fans and of people around them, their parts in the drug scene of the era, the loves and exploits, and all the rivalries -- for better or worse -- are covered.
There is also the music. The stories behind the songs, how they came to be, the struggles and interaction among the composers and their teams -- provide a backdrop after which listeners will turn to much-beloved Beatles' songs with a renewed understanding from this day forward.
American journalist and writer Bob Spitz has written a number of biographies. His work has appeared in Conde Nast Travel, Men's Journal, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine and The Washington Post.
"Amazing and incredibly informative biography. Bob Spitz is very detailed in his account of the Beatles. I learned that in the beginning the Bealtes really sucked but they had incredible charisma that landed them a manager and a record deal. I also learned that their long time manager, Brian Epstein was CRAZY and RECKLESS within his personal life. And I learned that for the most part John Lennon was on an acid trip when he wrote "I Am the Walrus," although he did loosely base his text on a Lews Carroll poem entitled, "The Walrus and the Carpenter." There's so much more great information I got from this book. This a must for the die hard Beatles fan."
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Ebony (5 out of 5 stars)