Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0316803529, Hardcover)

As soon as the Beatles became famous, the spin machines began to construct a myth, a myth that has continued to this day. Biographers have come and gone, each repeating the story precisely as they were meant to. But the truth is much more interesting, much more exciting, and much more moving. Now, after years of research around the world, hundreds of unprecedented interviews, and the mining of tens of thousands of documents (many never before seen), Bob Spitz has written the masterpiece biography that Beatles fans have been waiting for. Spitz restores the Beatles to what they were: a loud, angry, rock and roll bandkids who became gods, not gods who happened to look like kids. This is a biography of a band in full, not the story of John and Paul and their two mates from Liverpool. Here we see a vibrant Ringo, sharply portrayed for the first time, willing the Beatles to produce the classic White Album. And here we see in vivid focus Georges wild passion for innovative music.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0316013315, Paperback)

"Irresistible....A captivating picture that hasn't beenseen before....THE BEATLES amplifies and corrects some of what is knownabout the band's formative years.... It powerfully evokes both theexcitement and the price of such a sudden rise." --NEW YORK TIMES At last in paperback: the biography the Beatles deserve. It's all here, rawand right--the highs and the lows, the love and the rivalry, the awe andthe jealousy, the drugs, the tears, the thrill, the magic never to berepeated--in a vast, exuberantly acclaimed book that's as brilliant andjoyous and revelatory as a Beatles record itself.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0743551419, Audio CD)

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.