Given the phenomenal fame and commercial success that the Beatles knew for the entire course of their familiar career, their music per se has received surprisingly little detailed attention. Not all of their cultural influence can be traced to tong hair and flashy clothing; the Beatles had numerous fresh ideas about melody, harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, form, colors, and textures. Or consider how much new ground was broken by their lyrics alone -- both the themes and imagery of the Beatles' poetry are key parts of what made (and still makes) this group so important, so popular, and so imitated. This book is a comprehensive chronological study of every aspect of the Fab Four's musical life -- including full examinations of composition, performance practice, recording, and historical context -- during their transcendent late period (1966-1970). Rich, authoritative interpretations are interwoven through a documentary study of many thousands of audio, print, and other sources.

This volume is a comprehensive, chronologically-ordered study of every aspect of the musical life of the Beatles - composition, performance, recording and reception histories - from the group's beginnings in 1956 through to 1965.

From their 1962 debut single Love Me Do to the most recent remastered albums, this is an album-by-album, track-by-track catalogue of every songs ever released by The Beatles Includes: A chronology of key events in the life of the greatest ever rock band Separate sections on compilation albums, the Anthology series and non-EMI recordings Eight pages of colour picturesThis is the books that Beatles fans have been looking for - packed with details, facts and pictures it's the definitive concise guide to the music of The Beatles.

The Beatles: Music Roots delves into the influences behind the Fab Four’s early hits, analysing and teaching you to play the songs that Lennon and McCartney learned, played and loved. Each song is arranged for piano, voice and guitar, accompanied with extensive notes on its history and recording. Through these songs we uncover the story of British post-war youth demanding a musical revolution and finding through American Soul, R&B and Rock ‘n’ Roll. The Beatles would revolutionise popular music, but they first learned their craft from the dazzling electric guitar of Les Paul and the soulful struggles of Ray Charles; the anarchistic rock of Little Richard and harmonious hope of The Miracles. All of these artists played their part in The Beatles phenomenon. This book explains why. The songlist: The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise [Les Paul & Mary Ford] That’s Alright [Elvis Presley] My Bonnie [Ray Charles] Freight Train [The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group ft. Nancy Whiskey] Cumberland Gap [Lonnie Donegan] Last Train To San Fernando [Duncan & The Blue Grass Boys] Be-Bop-A-Lula [Gene Vincent & His Bluecaps] That’s When Your Heartaches Begin [Elvis Presley] Lawdy Miss Clawdy [Lloyd price] Bye Bye Love [The Everly Brothers] Ain’t It A Shame [Fats Domino] Lucille [Little Richard] That’ll Be The Day [Buddy Holly & The Crickets] Honey Don’t [Carl Perkins] Twenty Flight Rock [Eddie Cochran] Baby It’s You [the Shirellles] Anna [Arthur Alexander] Chains [The Cookies] Till There Was You [Barbara Cook & Robert Preston] You Really Got A Hold On Me [The Miracles]

Since the emergence of rock'n'roll in the early 1950s, there have been a number of live musical performances that became hugely influential in the way they shaped the subsequent trajectory and development of popular music. Each, in its own way, introduced new styles, confronted existing practices, shifted accepted definitions, and provided templates for others to follow. Performance And Popular Music explores these processes by focusing on some of the specific occasions when such transformations occurred. An international array of scholars reveal that it is through the dynamics of performance - and the interaction between performer and audience - that patterns of musical change and innovation can best be recognised.

How is popular music culture connected with the life, image, and identity of a city? How, for example, did the Beatles emerge in Liverpool, how did they come to be categorized as part of Liverpool culture and identity and used to develop and promote the city, and how have connections between the Beatles and Liverpool been forged and contested? This book explores the relationship between popular music and the city using Liverpool as a case study. Firstly, it examines the impact of social and economic change within that city on its popular music culture, focusing on de-industrialization and economic restructuring during the 1980s and 1990s. Secondly, and in turn, it considers the specificity of popular music culture and the many diverse ways in which it influences city life and informs the way that the city is thought about, valued and experienced. Cohen highlights popular music's unique role and significance in the making of cities, and illustrates how de-industrialization encouraged efforts to connect popular music to the city, to categorize, claim and promote it as local culture, and harness and mobilize it as a local resource. In doing so, she adopts an approach that recognizes music as a social and symbolic practice encompassing a diversity of roles and characteristics: music as a culture or way of life distinguished by social and ideological conventions; music as sound; speech and discourse about music; and music as a commodity and industry.

From the best-selling author of My Weird School: a new entry in the cheerful and engaging biography series centered on high-interest historic figures. Did you know that John Lennon’s mom called him “Stinker” because he farted so much? Or that Paul McCartney liked playing guitar in the bathroom? Bet you didn’t know that George Harrison once had his friend’s parent sign his report card, or that Ringo Starr’s grandma thought he was possessed by witches! Paige and Turner have collected some of the most unusual and surprising facts about the rock stars, from their childhoods and early days as musicians to the formation of the Beatles and their rise to become the greatest band of all time. Narrated by the two spirited siblings and animated by Allison Steinfeld’s upbeat illustrations, Wait! What? The Beatles Couldn’t Read Music? is an authoritative, accessible, and one-of-a-kind biography infused with Dan Gutman’s signature zany sense of humor.

Whose Music? combines historical, musicological, and sociological materials and styles of analysis in ways that connect to the field of sociology. The analyses of social class systems presented here speak in translatable ways to analyses of musical forms. Not only that, both are connected to an understanding of the organizations through which works are distributed to their audiences. Perhaps most importantly for the contemporary reader, this book depicts the part of the process by which dominant class groups justify their domination--cultural and otherwise.

For the Beatles, 1967 marks a signal crossroads that would both transform the group’s career and place them on a trajectory towards their eventual disbandment. It was a year in which they exploded prevailing rock music demographics through the global onslaught and international success of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band beginning in June 1967. Yet it was also a period that saw them in a precarious state of flux throughout the summer and fall months, as the band attempted to recapture their artistic direction in the wake of Sgt. Pepper and the untimely death of manager Brian Epstein. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper, and the Summer of Love draws readers into that pivotal year in the life of the band. For the Fab Four, 1967 would see the band members part ways with psychedelia and the avant-garde through the trials and tribulations of the Magical Mystery Tour, a project that resulted in a series of classic recordings, while at the same time revealing the bandmates’ aesthetic vulnerabilities and failings as would-be filmmakers and auteurs.

As a devoted fan of the lads from Liverpool, Mark considers himself an expert on their songs, both with the Beatles and during their solo careers. He has selected his favorite forty songs and tells their story in each chapter.