The Beatles: The Biography

The Beatles: The Biography
by Bob Spitz

The Beatles: The  Biography
List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $10.44
You Save: $29.51 (74%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.98 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Bob Spitz
Narrator: Alfred Molina
Edition: Music CD
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Published: 2005-11-01
ISBN: 0743551419
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Book Reviews of The Beatles: The Biography

Book Review: Fascinating Despite the Factual Errors
Summary: 4 Stars

Let's face it: Beatles fans know their trivia after forty-five years of discussion about a group that was one of the major catalysts for societal and cultural changes in the sixties and beyond. This book, while highly interesting and well written, just gets under the skin with so many factual errors splattered across the pages. It is amazing that the text was not vetted by whatever editors were assigned to birth this book on rock and roll legends. As another reviewer has noted, the biography appears to have been rushed to market.

All that having been said, it does offer fantastic stories about the Beatles that fall into various categories: stories we've all heard before but are here viewed from a slightly different narrative and psychological viewpoint; stories we've heard that have new information; and, thankfully, many stories that are brought to light for the first time.

More time is spent on the band's formation than it's break-up, which seems an inexcusable error since any comprehensive biography needs to cover the entire life of its subject(s). The break-up has always been a source of great discussion, with numerous accounts as to how, when, and why the band fell apart. Even THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY proved that there are different perspectives on many aspects of the group's history from the surviving members themselves. So was it Paul's overbearing nature? Yoko's constant presence?; George's feeling that he could live quite happily without the melodrama?; or was it just that it was time for four creative geniuses to go their own ways? Was it John or Paul who pulled the plug ... or pulled the plug harder? This book doesn't delve deeply enough on a crucial era in Beatles' history. Spitz seems to favor Paul's personality over Johns's, but regardless, the end of the book skimps on too many important details.

Despite its problems, this book is an important addition to the history of four very talented men who were in the right place at the right time. For a true Beatles' fan, there's no such thing as too much information about a band that still serves as inspiration for contemporary artists. It's a good book. Period.

Summary of The Beatles: The Biography

Even before the Beatles hit the big time, a myth was created. This version of the Beatles legend smoothed the rough edges and filled in the fault lines, and for more than forty years this manicured version of the Beatles story has sustained as truth -- until now.

The product of almost a decade of research, hundreds of unprecedented interviews, and the discovery of scores of never-before-revealed documents, Bob Spitz's The Beatles is the biography fans have been waiting for.

Never before has a biography of musicians been so immersive and textured. We are there in the McCartney living room when Paul and John learn to write songs together; backstage the night Ringo takes over on drums; in seedy German strip clubs where George lies about his age so the band can perform; and at the Ed Sullivan Show as America discovers the joy and the madness. From Shea to San Francisco, through the London night, on to India, through marmalade skies, across the universe-all the way to a rooftop concert and one last moment of laughter and music.

It is all here, the highs and the lows, the love and the rivalry, the drugs, the tears, the thrill, the magic never again to be repeated. Bob Spitz's masterpiece is, at long last, the biography the Beatles deserve.

Rock Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Rock Books
Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division ImageTouching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division
by Deborah Curtis
Faber & Faber; Published: 2007-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.72
Price in other shops: $17.00
Scar Tissue ImageScar Tissue
by Anthony Kiedis, Larry Sloman
Hyperion; Published: 2005-10-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.60
Price in other shops: $14.00
Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road ImageGhost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road
by Neil Peart
Ecw Press; Published: 2002-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.27
Price in other shops: $19.95
A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties ImageA Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties
by Suze Rotolo
Broadway; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.93
Price in other shops: $22.95
Slash ImageSlash
by Slash, Anthony Bozza
HarperEntertainment; Published: 2007-10-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.45
Price in other shops: $27.95
Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001) ImageHeaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)
by Don Felder
Wiley; Published: 2008-04-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.40
Price in other shops: $25.95
Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me ImageWonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me
by Pattie Boyd, Penny Junor
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2008-05-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.40
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star ImageThe Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star
by Nikki Sixx
Pocket Books; Published: 2007-09-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.47
Price in other shops: $32.50
The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band ImageThe Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Nikki Sixx, Neil Strauss
HarperEntertainment; Published: 2002-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops: $15.95
Clapton: The Autobiography ImageClapton: The Autobiography
by Eric Clapton
Broadway; Published: 2008-05-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.01
Price in other shops: $15.95
Similar Books and other products
Tell Me Why: The Beatles: Album by Album, Song by Song, the Sixties and After ImageTell Me Why: The Beatles: Album by Album, Song by Song, the Sixties and After
by Tim Riley
Da Capo Press; Published: 2002-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops: $19.95
Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me ImageWonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me
by Pattie Boyd, Penny Junor
Harmony; Published: 2007-08-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.50
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Beatles: 10 Years That Shook the World ImageThe Beatles: 10 Years That Shook the World
by DK Publishing
DK ADULT; Published: 2004-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.41
Price in other shops: $39.95
A Hard Day's Night ImageA Hard Day's Night
Buena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2002-09-24; DVD
Best price: $5.42
Price in other shops: $14.99
Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America ImageCan't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
by Jonathan Gould
Harmony; Published: 2007-10-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.91
Price in other shops: $27.50
A Hard Day's Write, 3e: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song ImageA Hard Day's Write, 3e: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song
by Steve Turner
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2005-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.87
Price in other shops: $25.00
John ImageJohn
by Cynthia Lennon
Crown; Published: 2005-09-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.57
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Beatles Anthology ImageThe Beatles Anthology
Release date: 2003-04-01; DVD
Best price: $51.97
Price in other shops: $79.98
The Beatles Anthology ImageThe Beatles Anthology
by Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Chronicle Books; Published: 2000-10-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $38.85
Price in other shops: $60.00
Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles ImageHere, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles
by Geoff Emerick, Howard Massey
Gotham; Published: 2007-02-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops: $15.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories