‘The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away,’ by Allan Williams.Lennon later bought Shotton a supermarket, and the latter was awfully adept at telling Lennon when the rocker was full of shit, which was often enough. He was there first, romping with Lennon as schoolboy tearaways, and in on all the things that boys do with each other: lots of circle jerks, incidentally, in this candid, and very Northern memoir.

The standard Beatles history posits the star-crossed Stuart Sutcliffe as John Lennon’s best friend, until his tragic death in 1962, whereupon Paul McCartney became Lennon’s chief mate, but Pete Shotton better fit the bill. ‘The Beatles, Lennon and Me,’ by Pete Shotton.Here’s a look at 10 of the other best Fab Four volumes to check out. Philip Norman is an old hand with Beatles-based scholarship, and his massive bio, Paul McCartney: The Life, provides a nice opportunity to survey those shelves of Beatles lit. But considering that we’re talking hundreds of books, there are some top-drawer offerings as well. Romantic other-halves have weighed in on the story/saga side of things ditto competing rivals, A&R men, siblings, business associates, sacked partners. For those are some buckling shelves, filled with worthy tomes, arresting diversions, gossipy trivia and dense accounts of what kind of gear the band used, who their tailors were, how many times per annum they visited the dentist, etc. As The Beatles were keen to start recording, technical engineer Dave Harries oversaw the early part of the session.Considering that it takes some formidable organizational chops to serve as a competent Beatles bibliographer, it can be downright daunting if you’re coming to the stacks of Fab Four literature as a neophyte reader wondering where you might start. George Martin and Geoff Emerick arrived late to the studio as they had tickets for the première of the Cliff Richard film Finders Keepers. Only nine of the takes were complete, and were faster than the previous attempts. This took 15 attempts, numbered 9-24 with no take 19. The first task was to re-record the rhythm track. Although The Beatles had completed a version of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ on 29 November 1966, John Lennon was dissatisfied with the results and had asked George Martin to score a new version for brass and strings. The second session began at 7pm and continued until 3.40am the following morning. The first took place from 2.30-5.30pm, and saw Paul McCartney overdub lead vocals onto ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’. The Beatles worked on two songs on this day: ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road Producers: George Martin, Dave Harries Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Dave Harries

Geoff emerick beatles book