Despite the enormous amount of writing devoted to the Beatles during the last few decades, the band's abiding intellectual and cultural significance has received scant attention. Using various modes of literary, musicological, and cultural criticism, the essays in Reading the Beatles firmly establish the Beatles as a locus of serious academic and cultural study. Exploring the group's resounding impact on how we think about gender, popular culture, and the formal and poetic qualities of music, the contributors trace not only the literary and musicological qualities of selected Beatles songs but also the development of the Beatles' artistry in their films and the ways in which the band has functioned as a cultural, historical, and economic product. In a poignant afterword, Jane Tompkins offers an autobiographical account of the ways in which the Beatles afforded her with the self-actualizing means to become less alienated from popular culture, gender expectations, and even herself during the early 1960s.

Hunter Davies, the only ever authorised biographer of the group, has produced the essential Beatles guide. Divided into four sections – People, Songs, Places and Broadcast and Cinema – it covers all elements of the band’s history and vividly brings to live every influence that shaped them. Illustrated with material from Hunter's remarkable private collection of artefacts and memorabilia, this is the definitive Beatles treasure.

A legendary record producer and performer takes readers on an alphabetical journey of insights into the music of the Beatles and individual reminiscences of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Peter Asher met the Beatles in the spring of 1963, the start of a lifelong association with the band and its members. He had a front-row seat as they elevated pop music into an art form, and he was present at the creation of some of the most iconic music of our times. Asher is also a talented musician in his own right, with a great ear for what was new and fresh. Once, when Paul McCartney wrote a song that John Lennon didn’t think was right for the Beatles, Asher asked if he could record it. “A World Without Love” became a global No. 1 hit for his duo, Peter & Gordon. A few years later Asher was asked by Paul McCartney to help start Apple Records; the first artist Asher discovered and signed up was a young American singer-songwriter named James Taylor. Before long he would be not only managing and producing Taylor but also (having left Apple and moved to Los Angeles) working with Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Robin Williams, Joni Mitchell, and Cher, among others. The Beatles from A to Zed grows out of his popular radio program “From Me to You” on SiriusXM's The Beatles Channel, where he shares memories and insights about the Fab Four and their music. Here he weaves his reflections into a whimsical alphabetical journey that focuses not only on songs whose titles start with each letter, but also on recurrent themes in the Beatles’ music, the instruments they played, the innovations they pioneered, the artists who influenced them, the key people in their lives, and the cultural events of the time. Few can match Peter Asher for his fresh and personal perspective on the Beatles. And no one is a more congenial and entertaining guide to their music.

The cottage industry of Beatles publications is more prolific now than it ever was. As the band recedes into the mystic fog of 20th century history we get more and more documentation about their music, their love lives, their personalities, and their finances. I wanted to try to make sense of it by reviewing the best and the worst of the Beatles tomes as they stand side by side in bookstores everywhere. I spent 40 years reading about them knowing that one day I would share my accumulated knowledge with the fans in Pepperland. Having read the book, I'd love to turn you on.

Thirty years after The Beatles split up, the music of Lennon, McCartney, Harrrison and Starkey lives on. What exactly were the magical ingredients of those legendary songs? Why are they still so influential for today's bands? This ground-breaking book sets out to explore The Beatles' songwriting techniques in a clear and readable style. It is aimed not only at musicians but anyone who has ever enjoyed the work of one of the most productive and successful songwriting parterships of the 20th Century. Author Dominic Pedler explores the chord sequences, melodies, harmonies, rhythms and structures of The Beatles' self-penned songs, while challenging readers to enhance their appreciation of the lyrics themselves with reference to the musical context. Throughout the book the printed music and lyrics of The Beatles' songs appear alongside the text, illustrating the author's explanations. The Songwriting Secrets Of The Beatles is an essential addition to Beatles literature - a new and perceptive analysis of both the music and the lyrics written and performed by what Paul McCartney still calls 'a really good, tight little band'.

Help! Can you find the Fab Four? This quirky, vibrant, and comically-illustrated book features scenes inspired by The Beatles' rock star lives and their rapid rise to fame. Find Yoko Ono, George Martin, David Bowie, and many others, too. Between us, we can work it out (with a little help from our friends)!

In little under a decade, four young men from Liverpool became more than anyone could have predicted. The Beatles provided the soundtrack for the 'Swinging Sixties', wrote and recorded groundbreaking albums, made films and had fans around the world. Featuring intimate photographs, familiar publicity shots and a lively account of their career, from the band's early days to their break-up, this book looks back at the story that is The Beatles. Alongside the year-by-year and album-by-album descriptions, there are also comprehensive guides to their singles and movies, as well as a whole host of surprising facts. The Beatles is a worthy tribute to one of the greatest bands of all time.