The British Invasion: How the Beatles and Other UK Bands Conquered America

by Bill Harry

The explosion of British bands onto the American rock scene in the 1960s is examined in this thorough history. Marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' first trip to the United States, this look at British rock music covers in detail the pre-Beatles music that first gave Americans a taste of the British style, Beatlemania, and the British acts that followed their lead, including the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Kinks. This account includes in-depth interviews with key figures and fully updated information on this dynamic time in American pop music. Previously unseen photographs and reproduced newspaper front pages provide a visual history of that music explosion.

Genres: Music

250 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dan Shonka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bill Harry includes some great detail here about how much British culture shaped the world's pop culture in the 1960s. That said, the copy editing of this book is some of the worst I've ever seen. Tons of misspelled names and words (and no, I'm not talking about the Brits' alternate spellings of words like colour). On top of that, it becomes extremely repetitive toward the end of the book. I guess Mr. Harry felt a need to fill a certain number of pages. I got this book as part of a lot in an estate auction, and I can simply say I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this work. So, if you're a student of the 1960s or you want to reminisce about the good old days (?), I suppose it's worth the read. But I imagine there are much better choices out there.

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whatever the merits this books has, they are swamped by absolutely atrocious editing. It would take another book to list all the editing mistakes here, ranging from inconsistent formatting, to spelling errors, to an entire repeated page. My favorite is the reference to Queen Elizabeth 11, and this in a book published in the UK! Getting back to the content, much of this book reads like it was cut-and-pasted from Wikipedia articles. While a few interesting facts slip in, I feel like it is a slapdash affair to make a few bucks. There are better books on the British Invasion out there; keep looking!