The Best Beatles Book Ever

by Paul Charles

On March 22, 1963 the album Please, Please Me was released and a phenomenon was sparked. Now, 50 years later, The Beatles remain one of the most successful and recognizable groups on the planet. In this detail-filled book, musicologist Paul Charles looks at the years The Beatles were writing and recording music together. With an open, and certainly opinionated eye, he explores their music, their cronies, and their stories. This is rock `n' roll chronology at its best, from an author who knows a thing or two about the music business. "To share a fan's passion for the music... Single by single, album by album, Charles gushes."-Kirkus Reviews "Very strongly recommended reading for their legions of fans."--The Midwest Book Review, August 2013

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2013

About the author

Paul Charles was born and raised in Northern Ireland. He now lives and works in Camden Town, where he divides his time between writing novels and short stories and working in the music industry.

Reviews

[Eric Jensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

To compare this book to a fourth grader's class report on the Beatles is to do a very grave disservice to fourth graders everywhere.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big Beatle fan so I thought this would be a good book for me to read. I don't know why it took me such a long time to finish it but I guess the layout of the book made it a bit difficult to get into. It was fun to see the UK Charts for specific weeks to compare who was on them at the same time as the Beatles.

I did think his thoughts on Brian Epstein were very compelling. There were so many people who blamed Yoko for the demise of the group but the author makes the point that things could have been very different had Brian lived. The thought that they could have benefited from his business expertise is one of those wonderful what ifs.

[Justin Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at the library and was intrigued because it looked like it was published from home. It was a fun, quick, opinionated history of The Beatles and their music. The writing is informal and the author covered a lot of interesting facts I hadn't heard before. He was very comfortable telling the reader which songs and albums are best. He spent a lot of time defending their manager Brian Epstein - I didn't realize he needed so much defending. Worth the short read.