The Beatles in America: The Stories, the Scene, the Memories

Beatles expert and author Leigh (Bob Dylan: Outlaw Blues) details the Beatles’ invasion of the U.S. from 1964 to 1966. Using dozens of fascinating photos and new interviews, he begins with the prelude to Beatlemania and quickly moves to February 1964, when the Fab Four appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and took America by storm. Leigh meticulously chronicles the 25-city concert tour in August/September 1964, when the foursome traveled 22,000 miles in one month. Leigh includes a city-by-city description of the 10-concert American tour in August 1965 and the 14-city junket the next year. He also breezes through several other British invasion bands (such as the Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, and Peter and Gordon) and inserts informative sidebars about Beatle memorabilia, the Monkees as the American counterparts to the Liverpool lads, Beatles novelty records, the Fab Four’s meeting with Elvis, the importance of teen magazines on their growing popularity, the Beatles “butcher” album cover, and promoter Sid Bernstein.