The Day John Met Paul: An Hour-By-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began

by James O'Donnell

Beginning in the hours before dawn, O'Donnell tells the story of this historic meeting, and the deeper story of how each boy was brought to this moment when music took control of their lives. In the early evening, Paul pulled out his guitar and ran through a medley of tunes for John, impressing the young leader of the Quarry Men Skiffle Group with both his playing and his knowledge of rock music. One of the most important partnerships in the history of modern music was begun.
The Day John Met Paul is the story of two spirited boys on the brink of manhood who recognized a shared passion, a feeling for music so intense and pure that their seemingly simple meeting ultimately changed the face of music - and the world.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Biography Memoir

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The tousle-haired sixteen year-old [John Lennon] thinks about the show. Music suddenly fills his mind and body. He looks up and down Menlove Avenue. He knows that, when it comes to playing rock 'n roll, he's the toughest kid on the block. What he doesn't know is that he's about to meet his match." -- on page 48

"Fifteen year-old Paul McCartney knocks off Eddie Cochran's 'Twenty Flight Rock' [on his guitar] and gathers more momentum, plunging into Gene Vincent's 'Be-Bop-a-Lula.' He has no idea that he's opening the book on a friendship that will have all the joy and pain of brotherhood." -- on page 118

Dig this, Beatles fans - folks grow older and/or pass away. Memories fade and/or become unreliable. There is no documented film footage of the event, nor do we have that H.G. Wells-inspired time machine to easily jump back to that Saturday afternoon of 6 July 1957 in Liverpool. What we DO have, however, is author Jim O'Donnell's striking recreation / dramatization of that notable day in rock music history with his The Day John Met Paul, a focused and agile take on adolescent kindred spirits John Lennon and Paul McCartney meeting for the very first time at the St. Peter's Parish Church annual community fair. Lennon was a fatherless and rebellious cut-up headlining a rag-tag band comprised of fellow schoolmates. McCartney was a mourning (his mother had died of cancer the previous year) and sensitive lad yearning for an outlet to display his burgeoning yet uncommonly masterful musical talents. While the introduction of the two did not cause immediate fireworks, it subsequently opened the proverbial door to more interaction AND the eventual music that many of us know and still love to this day. Author O'Donnell's takes all the known information and runs with it, while also blending it well with researched historical and sociological data of the day to provide a full-color snapshot to a bygone time, along with including several turns of clever phrasing that even the witty Lennon would likely approve of it all. It simply does not feel like O'Donnell - an American, but I initially guessed he was a native Brit by how well he captures the time, place, and attitudes - takes any sort of unnecessary liberties in his spry text. I think this is an unfairly forgotten book, and deserves a place alongside other exemplary Beatles-related works. 🎵Yeah, yeah, yeah!🎵

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a bad feeling about this one when I read the author’s note in the beginning defending the garbage he wrote.

His author’s note was basically a sh*t sandwich. It’s where you start with a positive, the top piece of bread on the sandwich, fill in the crap, the meat of the sandwich, then end with another positive piece of bread.

He starts with saying his book is a true story based off of facts and eight years of research and no creation of dialogue. “Cool,” I thought to myself, “I hate made up dialogue in non-fiction books.” Then I got to the sh*t part of the sandwich and my evaluation of the writer dropped.

Author: I did, however, take some liberties…

Me: Oh no, I’ve got a BAAAAD feeling about this…

Author: I indulged in dramatization when describing…

Me: Urge to read…dropping…

Author: I also took it upon myself to occasionally depict what some characters thought and felt…

Me: Then why even claim it’s non-fiction at this point?

Author at positive slice of bread: Otherwise, all information and events-…are the hard facts of a real story.

Me: So what percent is made up and what percentage is “real facts”? Ok. I’m going to give this book a try and see if it’s actually readable or not.

DNF at page 26.

Not. Most definitely NOT readable.

Dude. This is NOT Hawthorne. In non-fiction books, the following from page 23 is not necessary.

“A fine mist drifts across the fresh-risen sun. Some slate-gray clouds threaten rain. A thin yellow paintbrush stroke outlines one thick cloud, torn at the edge. … The morning turns pesky.”

A morning cannot “turn pesky”. “Pesky” is your cat pawing at your face to wake you up so you feed it. This was one of many times when words were used in odd, and not good, ways. All within the first 23 pages too. It was actually pretty impressive how bad this was. Like I thought I read turgid purple prose in sh*tty YA books, but this non-fiction, factual book takes the cake. It’s like the author read one of those YA books and said, “Hold my beer.”

If this was fiction I would DNF it. As non-fiction? Oh Rage Quit. This is like some high schooler’s over eager attempt at a creative writing essay assignment. A for effort, F for execution.

I’m sorry Friend from whom I borrowed this. It was not for me.

1, this author needed to have their dictionary and thesaurus removed forcefully from their hands to protect the English language and to have an editor who cared about their job and did it properly, stars.

[Ella Schilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

A guilty pleasure. For this book, nearly 200 pages, is an indulgence of the highest degree. No new information is unearthed. And in some instances, he raises some eyebrows with inconsistencies: John's checked shirt was red, not blue. (By Paul's own recollection.) As well, he spells Nigel Walley's last name as "Whalley". And what's this about a priest at St. Mary's Church named Father McKenzie? Mighty fine coincidence, if true. Paul watches John play in the field by a church where Eleanor Rigby sleeps, and behind him, in a different church, there's a feller named McKenzie? Especially considering Paul plucked the McKenzie name out of the phonebook when writing the lyrics to the 1966 song. Anyway, I'll have to look this up.

What O'Donnell does, stretching the day across about 140 pages, (the rest is a lengthy bibliography), is fill in the undocumented gaps with details about other people, the weather, and notable events locally and around the world. Also, exercising his self-described "poetic license", he fills the heads of the two main characters with many thoughts and feelings, and he gives them many mundane actions, like eating breakfast, walking the dog, and generally just hanging around on Saturday morning and night, before and after the day's main event. To this point it feels almost like a novel. But it wouldn't exactly fall into the "nonfiction novel" or "fanfiction" category because the flowery details used as fodder are pretty innocuous. For example, I just learned of different species of birds, as O'Donell waxed poetic about the English Bullfinch and what have you.

There are many moody, stellar, black and white photos of Liverpool. Probably my favourite would be the one on page 117, Storm on the River Mersey, featuring the dynamic churning of waves on what must've been a stormy day, with a lighthouse standing tall and brave in the background. Definitely something I'd blow up and frame over my living room couch. In general, no photo is included without merit, and each one indeed tells a thousand words.

Because it is so poetic, we are bound to get pretty and lyrical phrases often. This is what makes it such a pleasure to read, even though we are not learning much at all. I will say, my vocabulary is enhanced, because many fancy words were employed here. The writing is very descriptive and romantic. Not to say that O'Donnell necessarily takes artistic liberties-- he explains how he consulted Naval Observatory records and Meteorological Archives, just to get the day's varied weather on point. Hell, he even got the moon phase right. I'm not joking. If you look it up, you'll find the moon was just past its first quarter on that July 6th evening in 1957, in the Northern Hemisphere. And this is exactly how O'Donnell describes it. Anyway, for O'Donnell's own satisfaction, it was especially worth it when he interviewed Bob Molyneux (who made the "Puttin' on the Style" ; "Baby Let's Play House" recording) who shared his firsthand account, as a spectator, that there was a thunderstorm that day. Why? So he could confirm then say with glee that there were bolts of lightning that day, literally and figuratively, through the first interactions of Paul and John. This apparently disproves, as he says, one McCartney biographer who he quotes as writing "There were no bolts of lightning that day." when describing the legendary encounter. (I couldn't find the book this quote supposedly comes from, so if anyone knows, please tell me!) And one must remember, and O'Donnell includes this, that the meeting was brief and didn't seem to amount to much at the time; it wasn't obvious at all that history was being made. Instead, O'Donnell points out what's more realistic: Paul and John must've felt a connection over their shared love of rock n' roll music. Paul likes to point out in modern interviews that this passion of John's was what singled him out from other friends. Others would quickly move on from the topic of songwriting and devotion to music when Paul brought it up to them, but in the case of John, he was very keen on the topic and would even boast that he had his own repertoire of songs he'd penned or pre-existing records he'd mastered.

One could argue this book is a waste of time. One of the points O'Donnell makes in the introduction is that the story of this day and the John-Paul encounter within, hasn't been told fully, holistically, naturally, in the same way that it occurred. It's a bit fanciful to desire this kind of slow-digestion of every bit of history we read. After all, this book is of the "micro-history" genre, which makes it a luxury, and prone to providing more detail than necessary. What's a bit disappointing is O'Donnell, not being a conventional biographer or journalist, doesn't make it a goal to disprove any myths. He doesn't stop at key points in the story and examine things. One of the most contentious issues of this day is whether Paul brought his own guitar from home, or borrowed one of the Quarrymen's. (By the way, O'Donnell phrases the name as "Quarry Men". Lewisohn does this too, in Tune In, so maybe I should just give in, despite what the band's official website says.) In this book, O'Donnell, without placing any myth-busting importance on it, states that Paul brought his guitar from home. It isn't stated why. This leads the reader to wonder how exactly Ivan Vaughan phrased his proposition to Paul that he come along to see the Quarry Men at the fête that Saturday. After all, it's well-known that Paul's chief interest there was to be the girls. Anyway, I'm very onboard with the version of the story that Paul used his own guitar. After all, he apparently wowed John very much with his skills. If he had to use someone else's guitar, it would be a right handed one, and he'd be greatly constricted. Paul has said that he got used to flipping guitars upside down and learning them that way, for ease of convenience since he often found himself playing on any nearby guitar, nearly 100% of which would be of course right-handed. Anyway, this is the narrative that Tune In provides. For what it's worth, the film Nowhere Boy shows the alternative happening, Paul using his own guitar he’d brought from home. (He plays "20 Flight Rock", and proposes playing Little Richard, but then John stops him and the performing is over.) Other disputed happenings include whether John was drunk or not. Paul has stated he was in the past but might've back-stepped a bit in recent years. O'Donnell kind of shies away from confronting the controversy by simply stating that John had had a few beers that day. He doesn't state John's level of intoxication at the time of the encounter. Anyway, the final issue would be the matter of when Paul was formally invited to join the band. Lewisohn in Tune In presents three different versions:

The quandary for John Lennon was whether or not to invite Paul McCartney to join his group. “Was it better to have a guy who was better than the people I had in—obviously—or not? To make the group stronger or to let me be stronger? And [my] decision was to let Paul in, to make the group stronger … It went through my head that I’d have to keep him in line if I let him join, but he was good, so he was worth having. He also looked like Elvis. I dug him.”7 When this happened is unclear. Until the final interview John gave, it was established that the process was a gradual one, spanning days or even weeks, but here he explained, “I turned around to him [Paul] right then, on first meeting, and said, ‘Do you want to join the group?’ and I think he said yes the next day, as I recall it.”8 Pete Shotton has a different memory. He says that when he and John walked home at the end of that long day, John said, “What would you think if I invited Paul to join the group?” Pete said he didn’t mind. “About ten days to two weeks later I was walking down Linkstor Road and Paul came around the corner on his bike, and it was exactly there, on the corner of Linkstor Road and Vale Road, that he stopped and we spoke. He said, ‘I’ve come up to see Ivan but he’s not in,’ and I said, ‘Oh by the way, do you want to join the group?’ And he looked at me and he kind of thought for a moment, or pretended to think for a moment, and then he said ‘OK,’ got on his bike and rode off. And that was it.”9 Deceived by the age gap, Pete had no idea Paul was about to become his rival for John’s closest friendship. John Lennon didn’t pick partners easily, but at 15 years of age Paul McCartney already had enough about him to impress the big league. A boy who believed he was it, and had the ability to back it up, had met another boy who clearly was it—and the fusion of their talents and personalities would change the world.

O'Donnell chooses to go with the Shotton narrative, and dedicates many paragraphs to describing the setting sun and gleaming puddles and cooing birds and assorted twilight sights and sounds as this conversation occurred between Pete and John walking home, as July 6 1957, and also this book itself, draw to a close. The book ends with John pondering, for what must be the third time, whether Paul should be invited. He considers the age gap, the possible threat to his leadership, and ultimately concludes that Paul's skill is essential for the band. More than that, John acknowledges the deep connection he felt to the 15-year-old who was so passionate and confident, fierce and alive with the guitar in his hands. Essentially, he just had a feeling. Something the historians can't measure.

Some examples of eyebrow-raising coincidence that O'Donnell peppers through the book include, for example, the mentioning that on that July 6th, 1957, there was an article written by a professional journalist about the music business, on page 4 of the (in 1958 absorbed by Liverpool Echo) Liverpool Evening Express. And what makes this so stunning and prophetic is that it reads:

It always shocks me to find that an unknown singer can be shot into the big-money class on the variety stage these days on the mere strength of one gramophone record. Yet it keeps happening.

...

and that the journalist who wrote it was named George Harrison. Sadly, I couldn't find this in newspaper archives online. Not that I don't believe O'Donnell, but it would've been nice to see for myself. Side note: A reporter with the name george Harrison would work closely with the Beatles in a few years time. Was it the same George Harrison, I wonder?

Another example is when O'Donnell tells us what the Libra horoscope was in the Liverpool Echo on July 6, 1957. It reads:

All sorts of things come into the open today. The whole week is good for learning where you stand and how you can best achieve your aims. A little quiet thinking out will be all to the good.

The Libra sign spans the dates of September 23 - October 22, and John was born on October 9th.

Now, you can probably chalk these two instances up to coincidence. After all, "George Harrison" is a common name, and the journalist's comments are applicable to many artists. And are the Beatles really the best example of this? Their first official record, "Love Me Do", wasn't exactly a smash hit, only rising to #17 by intense promotion. As well, astrology is a pseudoscience, its vague and all-applicable horoscopes an example of placebo thinking and confirmation bias. Not to be too cynical or anything. Continue the Number 9 Dream if desired.

There are many metaphors, and much pathetic fallacy, and other examples of literary devices in this book-- enough to make even an English teacher's head spin. I'll select a favourite example of mine, of literary magic within this book, and put it in this review, bolded in context:

There's a landing light on outside his room. Lennon enters the boxlike room, flicks on his lamp, and puts his guitar down. He closes the door and clicks the lamp off. He drops his lean young body on the bed and twines his hands behind his head. He wants a few minutes to think. Then he'll take the dog out and get ready for bed. He steps into himself. He wishes he had a smoke. The submarine vision of his inner world sinks to periscope depth. Time begins to disappear. His face becomes a clock with no hands. He goes beyond time. A little lake of yellow streams under the door with the light on the landing. At Liverpool Airport, there is the whine of a light aircraft taking off.

That paragraph gives a good sense as to what the rest of the book is like. So, if you are a no-nonsense person, driven only by cold hard facts, and you do not see any point in spending time on filler fluff, then this book is not for you. But, if you like to daydream or have a sense of Romanticism in you, then I highly recommend this for a couple hours of bliss; to be transported to this quaint little village of sunny days, fun, food, and frolic, there beneath the blue suburban skies.

[Ruby · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the book is about is fairly explanatory: it is an hour-by-hour account of arguably the most important day in music history - the day that a seventeen-year-old John Winston Lennon met a fifteen-year-old James Paul McCartney. The two of them would later become half of The Beatles, and would be the most successful writing partnership in music history to date.

Before the story even begins, however, there is a disclaimer from O'Donnell which states that some of the book has been dramatised. I had mixed feelings about this: of course, to write a book on just one day, some parts would have to be dramatised in order to drag them out, however I like to read a non-fiction book that is just that - non-fiction. Some of the dramatisation was too long, and too in depth. O'Donnell, for example, spent an entire three chapters (fifty pages!) waffling about how John and Paul had slept. However, the descriptions of a post-war Liverpool were quite moving, and really painted a picture in my mind of the city which I love, so there was some advantage to the ridiculous amount of description and fictionalisation included.

The other thing that I didn't like about this book was that I didn't learn anything new from it. It took the few important and well documented parts of the day; for example what song Paul played to impress John (Eddie Cochran's Twenty Flight Rock), and dressed them up. I learnt absolutely nothing, and instead the book was more like a fairytale. It wasn't realistic in the way that it was written, and that was disappointing as it was a good idea: a book documenting the day that The Beatles arguably started? Fantastic! This book? Not fantastic.

Not to mention the inconsistencies with the aforementioned facts! O'Donnell writes that John Lennon's chequered shirt was blue (Paul McCartney remembered it as red!). Having just finished Colin Hanton's autobiography/biography, I found that this book was poorly researched and put together. How could anybody put a book out into the world which doesn't agree with what the eyewitnesses have written?

So overall, I will admit to enjoying the book to a minimal extent. Whilst I loved the descriptions of Liverpool and the romanticisation of the retelling of the day as a whole, there was too many problems with how the book was written, and how the author had not bothered to check facts. I wouldn't recommend it, and honestly it was one of the worst Beatle books I have read to date.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a fan it is well worth the read. If you don't know much about the Beatles this is a great way to learn some of their beginning story. I learned some new information that I didn't know. I like how O'Donnell, includes what else is happening in the world at the same moment. Historical events happen concurrently all the time. O'Donnell references the Beatles' songs and other Beatle nation stuff with his colorful descriptions of Liverpool & the events of the day.

[Chiara Martorana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just amazing.

[Yvonne Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Felt like I was there... For the beginning of history!!

[Corri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one and listened to it once. Loved this account of the day John Lennon met Paul McCartney - the birth of the Beatles.

[Joe Emery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book, feels like you're there following John and Paul about on that historic day.

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A day in the life
I first bought this on a trip to the USA (the author is American) and read it many years ago. Recalling it happily, I tracked down another copy and re-read it this week before passing it onto a friend. It's an account of the first meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney on the afternoon of July 6, 1957 when McCartney was invited to see Lennon's band The Quarrymen, who were playing a short set at the church fete at St Peter's, Woolton.

The breadth of vision, and the amount of detail the author goes into here is extraordinary, especially considering the book (first published in 1994) was written in the pre-internet era (an afterword describes the time spent "at quaint old desks looking at books and newspaper clippings and microfilm" [p145], and two hundred sources are listed at the end of the book). Thus, for example: "At 1:20 pm, the ocean temperature [on July 6] at Coney Island is 66 degrees. Ten minutes later, the Britannic arrives at New York's West 52nd Street Pier with 749 passengers from Liverpool" [p61]. Much of this material serves to set the scene, but there are some gleaming nuggets in there - e.g. the location of the burial place of Eleanor Rigby in the graveyard of St Peter's church [p13], or the fact that the (Catholic) church next to the field behind St Peter's (Anglican) church where the fete is being held is called St Mary's, where there's a priest called Father McKenzie. More tenuously, the author points out that July 6 was Bill Haley's birthday, and that the original version of "Come Go With Me", which was in The Quarrymen's set that afternoon, was recorded by the Del Vikings [in 1956] in Pittsburgh "whilst they were stationed at a local air force base. One of the air force musicians backing the group on the record is a drummer named Sgt. Peeples" [p97].

These insights are stitched together with some flowery prose which doesn't always hit the mark (e.g. "The street [Lennon] lives on may be Menlove, but the family runs on women-love" [p32]), and there's some supposition about what the protagonists "must have been thinking" throughout the day, but the author does a very good job of conjuring up the zeitgeist, especially in a foreign country (apart from thinking on p125 that there had been a cricket match that day between Britain [sic] and the West Indes). A stimulating, interesting read which is of interest to more than just Beatles fans, I think.

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 3.5 but Goodreads doesn’t allow that.

Once you get passed the cheesy lines and all of the references to songs this book is actually I beautiful testament to the fleeting rose colored ambition of adolescence.

It was a good reminder of all the silly dreams we have as kids. Similarly it was a good reminder that people achieve them.

I really enjoyed it!

[Keith Wise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb reflection of a lost age

I thoroughly enjoyed a well written reflection of a lost world
With so much available this will not appeal to everyone but for those of a certain age alive at the time it will evoke memories
Well researched it is strongly recommended

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just seen the movie Yesterday, and now having re-read this book, I am firmly back in Beatle country. And what a wonderful place to be.

[Daylla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesomely immersive but way too much detail that makes reading a bore.

[Madam Ypsilon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful time capsule. I was there through reading the book. Like afly on the wall who was watchign Paul who wsa watching JOhn, fantastic!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Day John Met Paul: An Hour-By-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began
by James O'Donnell

8 December 1980
His spectacles lay on the pavement in front of the Dakota Building, New York. One glass broken. The owner, John Lennon next to it, death.
A few days later under his bed a chest is discovered, with ‘LIVERPOOL’ in capital letters written on it. A box full of childhood memories. Penny Lane, Strawberry Field, the river Mersey and a warm summery Saturday in 1957.

6 July 1957
The ‘Quarry Men’ skiffle group performs behind St. Peter’s Church in Liverpool. Skiffle is the poor men’s rock-‘n-roll, a washboard, a cheap acoustic guitar and three cords is all you need. After their performance the lead singer John Winston Lennon is having a cigarette when a boy in a white jacked and black skinny jeans comes over. The boy play’s ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ from Eddie Cochran. Lennon is impressed. A week later he invites the boy James Paul McCartney to join his band.

In one hundred and fifth pages Jim O’Donnell gives us a beautifully written minute by minute account of that meeting and what preceded it. The rest is history …

The Quarrymen - That'll Be The Day (https://youtu.be/R4_LMMKq8Hw)
The cover version of Buddy Holly's classic song, "That'll Be The Day", recorded by The Quarrymen on 14th July, 1958 at Percy Phillips' Studio, in Liverpool. On this day, The Quarrymen made what would become known as The Beatles' first recording.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a person who has read many books about the Beatles, I was a bit skeptical that this book would really offer any really important nuggets. It sounded a bit like the most trivial kind of fan-worship, what was John wearing, what did Paul have for breakfast. I was so wrong!

This book is so well done. It is not so much about the music of the Beatles as it is about investigating (and putting to rest) the myths of the Beatles' origins.
In particular, the author uses very solid research methods (newspaper accounts of the day, interviews with Liverpool neighbors who were there) and a dose of common sense to evaluate the accuracy of the story told often by John and Paul about their meeting. Why were the Quarrymen playing on the back of a truck at the fete? Was John really drunk? Did Paul show off his guitar skills on his own guitar (a lefthanded one) or on a borrowed, righthanded guitar?

If these are the kind of questions that get you excited (and I know, there are far more who consider this painfully trivial), then you really should not miss this book.

Finally, I was very happy that when I emailed the author with some follow up questions, he took a lot of time to carefully answer me. Good guy, good book.

[Gaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I loved how the writer described everything in Liverpool, and the boys. I was smiling the whole time with all those great images of young John and Paul dancing in my head. What is worth mentioning is that while the writer claims that he talked with a lot of people in order to write this book, the book itself doesn't quote anyone. The writer focuses on what he thinks John and Paul might have been feeling that day, and it seems that lots of it was based on what John and Paul themselves said about that day. I really enjoyed it. I found it very entertaining. However, those fans who expect a merely biographical book might feel a bit disappointed by the novely type of writing in this book.

There were some fluffy parts that I adored and I got the impression that the writer has a very understandable fixation with Paul's eyelashes.. Not that anyone can blame him... And with John's messy hair.. Not that anyone can blame him either.

I also enjoyed a lot the description of Jim McCartney and Aunt Mimi.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love so called micro-histories anyway and one about the Beatles is really a rip. This book I found to be strangely reassuring as the author waltzes us through the day July 6, 1957 when our pal Lennon met our pal McCartney and gives us pretty much a blow by blow of the whole day, you know, "A day in the life" with what was happening in Liverpool, around the world and with our two protagonists.

It all totes up well with what I've read previously, even in books published after this one. Certainly this is nothing earth-shaking, but its a very interesting re-imagining of events long ago by someone working from archives. This Jim O'Donnell is a good historian of the trivial - which makes this MY KIND OF BOOK.

I'm fixing to read this again, something I never do. So, if you're into the Beatles, into trivia and into micro-histories, you can go wrong here.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of July 6, 1957, the day that 16-year-old John Lennon met 15-year-old Paul McCartney at a church fete in Woolton, the beginning of a partnership that would change the course of music history. Given the significance of this event, it's no wonder that the author felt it was deserving of a book describing the feel of not just Liverpool but the world on this day. The amount of research that he did on this one particular day in history is astounding. What would the world be like today if the Quarry Men had not played at the festival, or if Paul decided not to attend? I shudder to think of it.

[Joel Ungar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting concept. But the book isn't really what it claims - "an hour by hour" account.

What it does do is go over July 6, 1957 in excruciating detail - the weather, the local business scene, the history of the Woolton Garden Fete, and more. That very much was interesting. The author also talks about what was going on in London, America and elsewhere, and I felt that was just filler.

The book also hits upon the importance in the Beatles story of the late Ivan Vaughan, a sometimes member of the Quarry Men who invited his friend Paul McCartney to see his friend John Lennon's band. From that, the seeds of The Beatles were planted.

[Ralphz · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amazing account of an amazing day in the history of pop music, the day Paul McCartney and John Lennon met.

John, a drunk 16-year-old Ted sure of himself and his music, meets doe-eyed Paul, a 14-year-old undoubtedly talented and a threat.

Over the course of the day, John has to make a decision: Keep the band as it is - mediocre - and remain its unchallenged leader, or bring in this talented kid, get much better, and battle for control from here on out.

It's a day worth of its own book, and here it is.

[Haley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book thinking it would give me some more insight into the day the two met, as the title promises. however, I'm over half way through and they haven't met yet, and I'm getting a little tired of hearing the descriptions of Liverpool or Woolton or the grocer and his cart over and over again with nothing else. It's slow and there are too many arbitrary details and that's why I'm giving it 2 stars.

[Kirk Kiefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

While many of the details should probably be taken with a few grains of salt, it's still a fun read, literally giving (as the title says) an almost hour-by-hour account of that famous day. If you don't care about things like John going to buy fish or what Paul was wearing, this book probably isn't for you though.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another almost 2.5, I mean, the WHOLE twenty-four hours for an event that took about twenty-one minutes, total?

But I enjoyed the world history, and the little details about John and Paul's lives, and most of the set up.

But the four pages on their actual meeting was the best part. So what can I say? I kind of liked it, your mileage may vary.

[Tom McDevitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring to the point that O'Donnell says so in the introduction. The idea was to capture a day in the life of Liverpool in general so we can understand the background of John and Paul. It achieves that, but the book is otherwise pointless.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just remember the bad prose and excessive, generic figurative language.