What follows is a list of 100 most intriguing Beatle books: the good, the bad, the ugly… and the quirky. Five hundred page books have become de rigueur and I wonder whether the casual reader wants books of this length. Lewisohn’s work is also the culmination of a growing trend for larger and larger Beatle books. In a way, I hope so as it will clear my shelf space, but in another way, I don’t, as who is going to buy any of my books once Lewisohn’s has been published? The stakes are high: it is likely to become the definitive work and could discredit the information in many existing books. We can be certain that no book on The Beatles will have been more thoroughly researched. The first volume, up to the end of 1962, is being published next year and like John Richardson with Picasso, we must wonder if he will live long enough to complete his task. Lewisohn has written several Beatle reference books but not yet a narrative history however in 2003 he embarked on an enormous project to write a comprehensive history of The Beatles and their times. Mark Lewisohn is the most highly regarded of the Beatle writers, though not the best known: the notorious Albert Goldman holds that accolade, probably in perpetuity. The wife of one music writer told me that her husband now stayed at home to write his books as he could get his information from the internet. Many more are badly researched (or steal from others’ work), which is partly due to poor advances from the publishers preventing the authors doing all they wish. Some books are written with the worst of intentions. I have assessed them for readability, accuracy, depth of original research and, it has to be said, fairness. Any act with a hit record or anyone who has won a reality show is a potential subject, and a glance at the reviews pages in RC is enough to tell you that there are so many new publications about Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Queen that you wonder what is left to discover.įor this feature, I have waded through the staggering number of books on The Beatles: around 500, by my reckoning.

Contrast that with the book market today. Therefore, nearly every book written about The Beatles has been written with the benefit of hindsight and not as it happened. There were hardly any books about The Beatles during the 60s. When The Beatles were in their heyday, we read about them in newspapers and music weeklies.

Mark lewisohn beatles volume 2