The Beatles 1963: A Year in the Life by Dafydd Rees

The Beatles 1963: A Year in the Life Reviews

• 
  Ruby

  'The Beatles 1963: A Day In The Life' is an exhaustive account of what The Beatles did on every single day in 1963, with many accounts from eyewitnesses. It is one of the most well-researched books that I have ever read, but it was a chore to get through at times because there was just so much and the writing was very small. It made my eyes hurt.
  
  However, I enjoyed it. I devoured Rees' latest work over several long distance train journeys from London to Liverpool, and found it almost unputdownable. It was a tad too heavy to travel with, really, but this cannot be helped. Rees has achieved something magnificent, and I am beyond grateful that he had the patience to research such a book - I'm waiting for his book on 1964!
• 
  Susan

  This is an extremely long and detailed, day by day account, of The Beatles in 1963. For The Beatles of course, you could pick almost any year of their existence and find endless amounts to discuss. However, without doubt, this was the year that The Beatles, and Merseybeat, exploded in the UK. They started the year, rather unwillingly, seeing out an agreed trip to Hamburg. They were unwilling as they could almost touch stardom and they were willing to work for it and work they did, from the start to the finish of the year and beyond in an exhausting schedule.
  
  By the end of the first month, the single, 'Please Please Me,' had been released and they had their first appearance on, 'Thank Your Lucky Stars.' The news that the single reached number one was announced at the Cavern, with Pete Best drumming with Lee Curtis, before The Beatles, never to see him again, headed to London to take the famous photo of them at the EMI building, looking over the stairwell. They then embarked on endless tours, through snow, fog, rain and summer heat. Firstly, the Helen Shapiro tour, which barely finished before they started a tour with Chris Montez and Tommy Roe.
  
  Julian's birth on the 8th April was within the same month that the band released, 'From Me to You,' met the Rolling Stones for the first time, Paul met Jane Asher, John went on his famous holiday to Spain with Brian Epstein and Paul, George and Ringo headed to Tenerife. Meanwhile, Beatlemania was gaining momentum and was soon to sweep the country in a tide of hysteria. The facts of the Beatles life - from car to concert to hotel - is interspersed with interesting stories from those there. Those performing on the same shows, fans queueing for tickets, from those who knew them well, to those who met, or saw them, only once, but still remember that time well. It was definitely 'see' rather than hear, with poor sound systems and the screams of fans drowning out more than a few snatched words. There are some brilliant stories, including one from a fan who wrote to George Harrison and received a reply from his mother, who turned out to be a reader of her mother's romance novels and who had recognised the name. This book of full of such lovely incidents and, generally, the stories are fun and light, although there are also some that are tragic, such as two girls who were attacked while heading to a concert.
  
  The summer saw the band on a third UK tour with Roy Orbison and it is interesting to see how popular such seaside holidays were then when travelling abroad was rare. By now the Beatles Monthly had appeared and a second album was being recorded. We have Paul's infamous 21st birthday party and August saw the band's final appearance at the Cavern. George visited his sister Louise in America and sat in with a local American band, where those watching suggested the band try to keep him as he played guitar well! There was the highlight of the London Palladium, trips to Ireland and Sweden and the suggestion of a feature film. The Sweden trip was particularly important for the reason that Ed Sullivan was at the airport and witnessed the hysterical crowds waiting to greet their return and thought they obviously had, 'something,' and that he wanted them for his show.
  
  In England though, Cliff Richard had been 'the' star and, reading between the lines of comments from him, his nose was obviously put out of joint a little. He had to be, and was, polite and congratulatory. Still, like so many of the country, he was obviously nonplussed at this wave of enthusiasm which saw him knocked off his pedastal. His success, like so many others, was overshadowed and things would never be quite the same again. The Beatles even charmed at the Royal Variety Performance, and, by the end of the year, 'I Want to Hold Your Hand,' was played on US radio, where it took off and broke the British Invasion.
  
  This really is a very detailed and wonderful read. The research is excellent and it is brilliant that the author has included so many stories from those who viewed those concerts or met members of the band. Mostly, these are very positive and the members of The Beatles come across as being kind and patient, especially considering the difficult situations they encountered. This is a book every fan will love and I recommend it highly and am glad that I discovered it.
• 
  Vincent Coole

  It’s not often I find a Beatles books a slog, but this unfortunately is a rare exception. A shame, as the research, scope and ambition of the book is to be admired. But unlike Mark Lewisohn (who lent some of his own research to the book) Rees is not a great storyteller. The main narrative is often very dry and factual, and while there are jump out moments like, oh look that’s when they wrote She Loves You, there are just too many chart rankings and newspaper reports to get through. Rees has made his own attempt to inject some personality into the book by having anecdotes from fans who saw them or interacted with them. Some of these are genuinely interesting and insightful, and a few of them big names in the Beatles story. But sometimes less is just more. There are simply TOO MANY , so much so that they often get repetitive and the whole endeavour quickly starts to outstay its welcome. After a while I started just skipping them…
  
  There could have been a really great book here, a Tune In just for 1963. But you get the feeling that the objective here was more to satisfy Rees’ curiosity and passion and less to do with entertaining the reader.
• 
  Jojo

  Well, we did it. Made it through the year. This was quite the undertaking but to be honest, I don't think it quite worked. I'm a huge Beatles fan and you def would have to be to read a book of this nature but even so, I found it to be tedious and repetitive. Now obviously I suppose the repetitiveness more so has to do with the group's day to day actions but still...I think my main problem with this is the way it's written: it's written very factually and boring, just not particularly engaging. I think the most interesting part of the book were the blurbs from the various people (which is what I had hoped the previous book I read was going to be more like). Those little blurbs were quite cool to read. Anyway so yeah, it was a bit disappointing.
  Grade: C
• 
  Baard

  In Liverpool town, a band did play
  Their fame would soon reach far away
  One hit single, success was there
  But '63 would be their year
  
  Two albums out, their sound refined
  And Beatlemania, it would soon find
  The world was theirs, they were on top
  Their music would never, ever stop
  
  Dafydd Rees tells this tale so well
  Of how four lads rose, and did excel
  Their journey, in detail, we can see
  'The Beatles 1963', a great read indeed
• 
  Glenn Smith

  A brilliant piece of oral history, I've read the vast majority of the go to Beatles books and this is up there with Mark Lewisohn.