The Lost Album of The Beatles: What if The Beatles Hadn’t Split Up?

by Daniel Rachel

An award-winning music author takes a serious look at a playful question of pop what if the Beatles had created one more album?

This is the story of the great lost Beatles album.

The end of the Beatles wasn't inevitable. It came through miscommunication, misunderstandings and missed opportunities to reconcile.

But what if it didn't end? What if just one of those chances was taken, and the Beatles carried on? What if they made one last, great album?

In  Like Some Forgotten Dream , Daniel Rachel -  winner of the prestigious Penderyn Music Book Prize  - looks at what could have been. Drawing on impeccable research, Rachel examines the Fab Four's untimely demise - and from the ashes compiles a track list for an imagined final album, pulling together unfinished demos, forgotten B-sides, hit solo songs, and arguing that together  they form the basis of a lost Beatles masterpiece .

Compelling and convincing,  Like Some Forgotten Dream  is  a daring re-write of Beatles history , and a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2021

About the author

Daniel Rachel is a musician turned award winning and best-selling author. His works include:
Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters (a Guardian and NME Book of the Year),
Walls Come Tumbling Down: the music & politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge (winner of the Penderyn Music Book prize),
Don’t Look Back in Anger: the Rise & Fall of Cool Britannia (An Evening Standard and Metro Book of the Year),
The Lost Album of The Beatles: What if the Beatles hadn’t Split Up? (Guardian Book Choice)
Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story: Rude Boys, Racism and the Soundtrack of a Generation

He has also co-authored
Oasis: Knebworth: Two Nights That Will Live Forever (with Jill Furmanovsky – A Sunday Times Bestseller),
When Ziggy Played the Marquee by Terry O'Neill (editor)
Ranking Roger's autobiography I Just Can't Stop It: My Life in The Beat (a Vive Le Rock Book of the Year).
One For The Road (The Life & Lyrics of Simon Fowler & Ocean Colour Scene)
David Bowie: Icon

HIs latest book, This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich is published in November 2025

Praise for Isle of Noises

‘Without doubt the finest book I've ever read about songwriters and the songs they write.’ NOEL GALLAGHER

‘I was astounded by Daniel’s knowledge and even after all these years to be asked original questions that surprise you was very impressive.’ ROBIN GIBB

‘It makes for a fascinating read. Especially if you're trying to get a sense of what it takes to write songs.’ ANNIE LENNOX

‘…sometimes you know straightaway if someone’s going to be trotting out the same old stuff. Daniel’s obviously got a real feeling for the esoteric, romantic and spiritual side of it.’ JOHNNY MARR

Reviews

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 3 out of 5]

These sorts of exercises, very popular on music blogs, are a bit sad (sometimes you've got to just let go!) but appealing if you're a bit sad yourself. And I am, so I enjoyed much of this lively attempt to conjure up the imaginary sequel to Abbey Road, which on this evidence would have been vastly superior to Let it Be. If I have reservations they're about some of the Terminator-style paradoxes the time travel process creates. You can't have 'Early 1970' or 'God' on a Beatles album!! They're songs about the Beatles breaking up!!

I think an even more fun exercise would be forcing oneself to make a listenable album out of all the unreleased Get Back guff - so not only the rather lovely versions of 'All Things Must Pass' or the half-cocked ones of 'Every Night' or 'Child of Nature', but also 'Watching Rainbows', 'Madman', the German 'Get Back', all those awful covers, real undiscovered beauties like 'Palace of the King of the Birds'. This book probably exists too, and I should seek it out.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before the Beatles broke up John suggested their next album should be made up of 4 songs each by John, Paul and George, with two from Ringo. The author of this book speculates what that album would’ve been like and using only songs that were written before the end of the Beatles. The first half of the book details the history of the end of the band and goes through much of the events in the last three years. The second half goes through the tracks that would make up a double album of 6 tracks from each member.
I enjoyed reading this book. It’s interesting to speculate what those songs that we know as solo tracks would’ve sounded like as Beatles tracks. (I admit I only knew all the John songs, just a few of the others). Theres a lot of detail, (probably more than I needed!), and it’s well researched. A fun ‘what if’ read.

[Deb Lonnon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book reviews 3/2022 - 'Like some forgotten dream' Danel Rachel

I bought this in my great 'Boxing day Waterstones half-price hardbacks book swoop' - and it was probably still overpriced on that basis.

I am a huge Beatles geek. HUGE. I had just watched 'Get Back' (twice) on Disney+ and felt I might enjoy the 'whatiffery' of the Beatles not breaking up when they did, but squeezing out another album and then spatting off into their separate ways. Spoiler: I did not.

The author allows each Beatle a side of a double Album, based on songs that appear on their solo albums written between the 'Get Back' sessions and the day in 1970 when McCartney served papers to dissolve the Beatles . So we have very strict rules here - the kind of rules that seem a great idea when you are sitting in the pub half trashed with your mates arguing about the running order of the White Album and someone thinks it is a good idea to get another round in and discuss - Oh at LENGTH - whether Billy Preston WAS the 5th Beatle or whether it was Stuart Sutcliffe.

..and that is all this is. Men sitting in a pub running scenarios. All I learned from this book - and I'm not sure I wanted to learn this - is that George had an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen.

That's it. The book is the opposite of ' Don't let me down'

2/5. Generous, because it's the Fabs and its nice to visit old friends, not for premise or author.

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the more enduring what ifs in pop culture is “What if the Beatles kept making music together,” and Daniel Rachel’s book is a good take on that idea, although in the end I wondered if it does much more than submit one fan’s fantasy track list for debate.

For the first 140 pages he delves into the group’s breakup. This is a richly researched account, but it will perhaps be best aimed at fans still getting into Beatles history. Bluntly, there are a lot of books out there already that cover this. That said, it’s all Beatles, and I could gladly read about them all day; it just seems like the intended audience for this book already knows most of it, which seems an odd sales pitch.

We then move onto the would-be album. Rachel takes an idea of Lennon’s to heart: a four sided album, each devoted to one Beatle’s compositions. It is certainly interesting to think about, although I’m not convinced Lennon’s idea would have made for a very smooth listen, or that the track list here is the best it could have been. (Rachel seems very enamoured with Paul’s Come And Get It, and there’s a big difference between ending the White Album with a Ringo lullaby and ending the last ever Beatles album with wall-to-wall Ringo.) But that spirit of debate is just the thing that birthed the book, so fair enough, have at it.

What this actually translates to as a book, however, is a history of each song, from composition to recording (or in some cases, abandonment). Again this is all very interesting and enjoyable to read, because Beatles, but the general thrust of it is known information, not a what if. Nothing much is being said here apart from “these are ex-Beatle songs and this is their story”; these potted histories could just as easily fill a book about random solo compositions as this one about an imagined compilation, and if he had picked different songs, the content of the book would be different. It all feels a bit arbitrary.

I still had a good time reading it because, well, it’s the Beatles and they’re fascinating. I also learned plenty about the songs in this list. On some level I suspect the concept of the Beatles recording one more album *and then still breaking up*, as seems to be the idea here, just wasn’t going to do a lot to stir my imagination.

[Ralphz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is something that interests me, a look at how and what the Beatles would have done had they stayed together.

I confess, I've played around with such scenarios and put together playlists for albums in the '70s. I've seen other people do it too and many of them suffer from the same problem - either their lists are too long per side or they keep ordering up double and triple albums, so they don't have to leave out anything.

This book does same, postulating a double album just after Abbey Road, with each side taken by one Beatle. Right off the bat, there are not enough Ringo songs to carry out the theme, and let's be honest, it's going to be the least-played side!

The first half of the book recounts the group's actual history until the breakup, the second goes over the proposed double album. And follow-up EP. An appendix gives a single-album version, which I like better.

The book also has a couple of quick errors in the first couple of pages - do publishers need more editors? Because I'm available!

There are also lots of unnecessary footnotes that don't really illuminate or add any real value.

I was hoping for better.

[Michael Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The conceit is weak; as other reviewers have said, it’s basically one fan’s theory put up for debate. But as an oral history of the Beatles’ breakup and their attitudes towards themselves and one another in the immediate aftermath, it’s much stronger. There’s plenty of the detail, insight and trivia you’d want, and Rachel is ultimately a lot more convincing in his arguments about why the Beatles broke up than he is in what might have happened if they hadn’t.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title promises new discoveries but fails to deliver. Beatles fans will learn nothing new from this. The ‘lost’ album turns out to be a collection of solo tracks released by the Fab 4 in the late sixties and early seventies. The idea that each group member would have one side of a double album devoted to their songs is laughable. Lennon and McCartney would never allow Ringo and George an equal share of writing and singing duties.

[Ross Maclean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brisk summation of the death throes of The Beatles that’s occasionally repetitive but ultimately a nicely judged runthrough with just the right amount of information to give you context for what follows. And what follows is a playful, though grounded in logic, ‘what if’ regarding The Beatles’ future. I’m not sure the thesis entirely holds up but it’s a fun thought experiment and, if nothing else, a nice assessment of the various solo works floating around in the ether around the time of the breakup.

[vivaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I were to describe this book in terms of weather, I'd compare it to the lightning that gives us a glimpse of a sunny day. The sunny day being The Beatles, and the lightning being the book.

[John Steel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a Beatles fan I enjoyed the book well enough. Only 3 stars? There was too much technical stuff for the average person (my opinion of course). Like this : Three notes, F sharp, A and C sharp climb the major scale. The melody then rises two further notes, B and C sharp, before dropping down to an A. That means absolutely nothing to me. This kind of thing spoiled the book for me.

[John Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the great "what ifs" is at the heart of this book which Beatles fans have debated over 50 years. It's an interesting read and the song choices are quite subjective. I'd have picked many different songs myself and can't see how "God" would have ended up in this given Lennon is slagging off the beatles in that song. There's tons of pages leading up to song choices and I guess these are included for those people who may not have an in depth knowledge of the fab 4 as otherwise for those who have, its pretty much well known information taken from other sources and nothing new although it's nice to have it all in one play (again).

[Oliver Shrouder · Rating 3 out of 5]

An undeniably interesting look at what might have been post-1970 for the beatles, but ultimately it comes off a little too much like a pet project than an analysis of their post-fame careers. The first half, which looks at how the beatles broke down and eventually split, is by far the most interesting although it lacks a bit in detail. The rest of the book is a quick look at the songs they wrote during the late 60s and how they might have made an album and, after putting together the author’s playlist, maybe it was for the best they decided to go solo.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well researched and thoughtful exploration of what could have been the Beatles' next album if they hadn't broken up. As an avid reader of Beatle-related books, I enjoyed reading someone else's reasoning for how this last album could have been created and what it might have meant for the group moving forward. A couple of errors (one on the first page, the semaphores on the album Help do not spell out Help) did not detract me from enjoying the book. Made a spotify playlist to see how it all would have sounded.

[Alex Edel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book was good with a lot of insightful “alternate history”. My biggest issue with it is that it gets bogged down with the real history of the Beatles break up before it gets in to the “Lost Album”. I may be mistaken but casual Beatles fans aren’t going to be picking this up, but I understand the desire to want readers to be lost. Overall enjoyable read.

[Christopher Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this, reading it swiftly while listening to a playlist of the selected tracks. At times the writing was a bit repetitive and laboured several points, but it’s always fun delving into the Beatles history - both factual and potential.

[Andy Howells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Music journalist Daniel Rachel explores the final years of The Beatles' career by analysing interviews and recordings from various sources. He compiles a track list that includes a range of unfinished demos, overlooked B-sides, and popular solo songs to create a conceptual final album titled Four Sides of The Beatles. This concept holds some validity, as John Lennon had proposed the idea of recording another Beatles album shortly after the release of Abbey Road in 1969.

Rachel delves into the development of tracks such as Instant Karma, Teddy Boy, All Things Must Pass, and It Don’t Come Easy, providing insights into how these songs may have been influenced by The Beatles' creative process (particularly Ringo Starr’s) more than many listeners might realise.

Additionally, those who have viewed Peter Jackson’s Get Back film will recognise some of these tracks as they were demoed during the Get Back sessions, and Rachel’s meticulous research aligns well with the film's narrative.

My only minor criticism is that I occasionally found the footnotes as engaging as the main text. It is commendable that the author has conducted such extensive research, resulting in a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining book about John, Paul, George and Ringo and what might have been had The Beatles stayed together for one final album.

[John Fetzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of detailed history of the Beatles, pre and post breakup, then the author's totally speculative what-if. Since John, George, and Paul never made any real moves or comments on reuniting in the few years after - all liking the newness of not being a Beatle or playing their new music as one, there is not even a hoped for basis for fans. That did not come until after the murder of John and the passage of 25 years. The choice of songs is arbitrary, and like many such lists, based on what were solo hits. There are several that in lyrics or themes were good solo efforts, but would never have been Beatles songs - Jealous Guy, Cold Turkey, Early 1970, and a few of George's that were heavily based on Hinduism blatantly pushed (Circles was alluding to reincarnation, but subtly and, in my opinion, be a more likely choice. I just do not but the premises nor the song selections. They are not based on the dynamics of the band.

[Nick Towers · Rating 5 out of 5]

While ‘What ifs’ are not to everyone’s liking, I found the author’s premise of imagining a hypothetical next album of the Beatles to be grounded enough in historical investigation to keep his imaginative game in balance, based as his imaginary album is on songs the four members of the Beatles were working on while they were still together and which were presented to the others for consideration but left unfinished for whatever reason but which subsequently came out on the various solo recordings shortly following the Beatles split. As an introduction to the last days for the Beatles, I found it an informative and entertaining read. Leaving the ‘lost album’ idea aside, the author’s suggested album makes for a good introductory playlist to explore the early solo albums of the four Beatles, which is what I was hoping for.

[Robb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg I love Beatles biographies so much. I have so many on my shelves and I just seem to buy them faster than I can read them. But I started this one since I also had it on my kindle and I wanted to read one on my trip to Liverpool. Its safe to say I really enjoyed this book, as many Beatles biographies can be quite a slog to get through and repeat so much information that most Beatles fans will already know. Whereas this one was split up into smaller and more digestible chunks which made it so much easier to get through. I loved that the author built upon things that I already knew which was nice. I found myself liking and appreciating George and Ringo so much more because of this, as most Beatles biographies tend to just focus on John and Paul, which was nice. It felt like he had a huge love of the band as a whole and the members as individuals instead of just Paul and John then George and Ringo. I really loved this and I recommend it to anyone who likes The Beatles.

[Irwin Fletcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I bought this on Amazon I just thought it was another Beatle book (of which I've read many), I didn't know it was going to be some what-if about The Beatles staying together long enough for one more album. I've already been down that road with the moronic novel "Once There Was A Way", one of the worst books I've ever read (The Beatles make a Lord Of The Rings trilogy, John is kidnapped by the SLA and is found by Steve Jobs through computer magic... just to give you a taste of the idiocy) so had I known the premise of this book I would have probably skipped it. Luckily this book tries to stick to the realm of belivability and not re-w

[Tvermar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a 2.5 for me. Was ok better on recapping the break up than the idea around four sides. Didn’t get me to revisit any Beatles or solo really - and I still havent listened to Let It Be album and have no additional desire to based on this book

Did get me to relisten to Nina Simone’s brilliant version of Isn’t it a pity - and to investigate the back catalogue of Billy Preston

[Jordan Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, well researched, well structured. Not much more you could ask for, and it nails the pivotal knack of speaking to its reader as an equal, as someone who knows The Beatles and doesn’t need telling what they already know. Brilliant.

[Baran Yakut · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read the same facts and opinions about Beatles history a million times now, but I enjoyed some of the dissecting of their music and also the hypotheticals of the Beatles staying together were interesting and fun.

[David Spanagel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A birthday gift from my son Paul, who found this in an Oxford (UK) bookshop. I said, with some mischievous glee, upon unwrapping the gift "I could have written this book!" Heidi replied "Those are almost exactly the words Paul said when saw this for sale in the shop."

[Andy Holdcroft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a bit I'd already been aware of, but a lot of new insights. A lot of speculation on the author's part which he cheerfully admits. Altogether an interesting read

[Charlie Eikenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid but lots of postulating that I didn't care for

[Matthew Banyard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the last days of the Beatles. And I've toyed with the same concept many times

[Trvlr Greer]

Interesting information about each of the Beatles, and many other musical artists of the time. Confirms that Yoko was indeed a major factor in the breakup of the group

[William Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK read

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing.