Shake It Up, Baby!: The Rise of Beatlemania and the Mayhem of 1963

Music historian McNab (And in the End) delivers a granular chronicle of the Fab Four’s breakout year, which began with the group in relative obscurity and concluded with “four number one singles, two number one albums” and three national tours.” Moving month by month, McNab details the recording and release of the Beatles’ debut album (Please Please Me) as well as a game-changing single (“She Loves You”), and the fervor that had fans fainting at concerts. Though McNab sheds some light on developments in the band members’ personal lives—including John Lennon’s marriage to Cynthia Lennon and Paul McCartney’s burgeoning romance with Jane Asher, both of which the group’s management sought to downplay in the media—he devotes most of the account to TV and radio appearances; contract deliberations; concert set lists; and sketches of the drivers, photographers, and managers in the band’s orbit. The profusion of granular detail is both a strength and a weakness: it provides a revealing behind-the-scenes look into the Fab Four’s day-to-day, but bogs down the narrative and distances readers from the buzz surrounding the group. Still, Beatles superfans eager for new trivia will want to pick this up. (May)