The Complete Beatles Chronicle

by Mark Lewisohn, George Martin (Foreword)

A massive, gorgeous chronicle of the Beatles' days together, from the producer of the wildly successful The Recording Sessions. Exhaustively documents the group's public and private lives from the early days until their breakup. Illustrations.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Reference, Art, Autobiography

365 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Mark Lewisohn is the acknowledged world authority on the Beatles. Before embarking on The Beatles: All These Years his books included the bestselling and influential The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions and The Complete Beatles Chronicle. He was a consultant and researcher on all aspects—TV, DVDs, CDs and book—of the Beatles own Anthology and has been involved in numerous additional projects for them. Married with two children, he lives in England.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Georgia (my daughter) tells me that the only Beatles songs familiar to her generation - God knows why, I blame the schools - are "Yellow Submarine" and "When I'm 64". So that might be why some kids can't understand what the fuss was about.

But I thought - hey.... I've done that too. This phenomenon, of judging an artist by their worst or least representative work, is not confined to the brain-dead kids. I did it too. Chuck Berry had a gigantic Number 1 hit in 1972 in Britain with.... no, not Promised land or You Never Can Tell or Thirty Days or any of his great songs, it was "My Ding-a-Ling". Which, if you never heard this masterpiece, here's a lyric sample

When I started Grammar School
I used to stop off in the vestibule
Every time that bell would ring
They'd catch me playing with my ding a ling

Now try to tell anyone that Chuck Berry was one of rock's greatest lyricists.

When I was growing up the only Frank Sinatra song I ever heard was one that got played to death on a kids request show, "High Hopes", so that put the kibosh on Frankie for many many years for me. I hated that song. I also know someone who only ever heard "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys & so naturally thought my passion for them was wayward and inexplicable.

So for a whole lot of kids today, the Beatles made annoying novelty records.


Postscript

An interviewer asked Chuck about My Ding-a-Ling, and whether he was a bit miffed for that to be his biggest hit. Oh no, he said, I LOVE that little silly song. It made me more money than all my other songs put together! I love My Ding-a-Ling!

[David Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who could possibly be a big enough Beatles fan to want to actually read about every concert, TV appearance, and detail of their tour schedules, album releases, and on an on. Well..

My favorite is page 171, which includes the concert at which I saw the Beatles live in Detroit.

[David Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is invaluable for gaining a day to day view of the band. All you really need is this book, Revolution in the Head, and the Anthology book to get a clear and accurate picture of the Fab 4.

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow, the Beatles booked the AMI studio for 3:00pm to 5:00pm BUT ACTUALLY OCCUPIED THE STUDIO FROM 3:15 to 5:15pm. Fascinating 🧐

[Grg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the Beatles book I've always wanted! No nonsense, "just the facts", calendar style chronicle of every show, every interview, every recording sessions they did from the day John met Paul in 1957 until the official announcement of the break up in 1970.

I know the author is working on a mammoth three volume (traditionally told) biography of the band, but I wished he'd make an updated version of this. This came out in 1991, and I'm sure there's been a ton of new information discovered since then.

[Alex Stephenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A combination of The Beatles Live and The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, this book obviously retains a lot of the info from those two books in condensed form (and keeping a lot of the same structure - plenty of sentences are lifted wholesale from Sessions, for instance). But it does update the material with newfound information (much of it collected during research for the Anthology project), and it also chronicles the band's radio and television appearances + film dates at a level never before seen, making it essential even for those who have the previous two books.

[Gustav Gerät · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good book, I like it

[M Pye · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is more of a “coffee table” book. Large, and lots of photos, so very heavy. Not what I was hoping for, when I requested it from the library.

[William Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

You want to know what the Beatles did and when? This is the only book to get.

Lewisohn, who's currently writing a bio of the group which should be the definitive one when it's complete, did years of research to complete this encyclopedia detailing what, where, when, who, and why of each date in Beatles history--all the way from the Quarrymen days up through the breakup of the band. He summarizes their recording sessions (gone into in more detail in THE BEATLES RECORDING SESSIONS, also recommended), live performances (previously detailed in the now out-of-print THE BEATLES LIVE!), filming for their movies, interviews, BBC recording sessions and side work for their solo projects. As close to a biography as you can get without delving into their personal lives.

A must-own for Beatles fans, and anyone who loves the Beatles should take a look, if for no other reason than to be impressed by how hard these guys worked for their success.

[Nathan Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Reread.) Most of what I said about the Sessions book applies here, only this is even less readable as a narrative since it delves into TV appearances and the like. However, I needed to root through the book for an upcoming, long-in-gestation Beatles project (similar to the Beach Boys thing last year except now I won’t shut everything else out for four months while I do it and plan to take my time), and this was of course helpful in getting the chronology firmly down. It’s an extremely helpful and essential reference book and deserves a high grade just on that basis.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I once borrowed this book from a friend, and I never stopped reading!! This will tell you anything and evrything about The Beatles!!!!! Concert Dates, T.V. Appearances, Everything!!!!!!!!! Go and get it NOW!!!!!!

[Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE Beatles book to have. And to look up whenever us freaks want to know with detail anything. The level of detail is really frightening at times, and Lewisohn really takes care to write down facts, just facts and nothing but the facts.

[Cyndi Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore the Fab Four I've been collecting the books about them for awhile now also I was sooo fortunate to see them when I was 13 what an experience that was. I will love them forever and listen to their music always

[Bianca, the mushy fairy · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3,5

Quite good in general, maybe a little bit rushy at some parts. It's the perfect read if you want to instantly create a Beatle-culture for yourself and the book keeps some interesting details about the band.

[Thomas Cavanagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun to read

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

does what it says on the cover

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great expansion of Beatle Sessions.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a Beatles fan, but I'm not a "I have to know what every Beatle was doing at every moment of his life" fan.

[Jlspake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book as a reference volume. As I got deeply into Bob Spitz' biography, I referred to it often during the reading. A really well done overview day-by-day style without personal dramas.