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Okay, first of all, none of the memoirs by various people, because entertaining as many of these are, they depend on you actually already knowing some of the basic cast and circumstances quite well. For the beginner who likes the songs, or just some of the songs, and is curious about the band, I'd recommend:
Gould, Jonathan: Can't Buy Me Love. (Subtitle in some editions: The Beatles, Britain and America.) Why? Because it's focused on the music and the cultural impact while adding biographical context and does for my money a good job with all four plus George Martin and the engineers at Abbey Road. You may not agree with everyone of his song opinions, but afterwards you'll know far more about how the songs were produced, have an idea of everyone's personalities, and as an added bonus, will know your Mal Evans from your Neil Aspinall (both roadies). Oh, and it's not too long for a newbie, either.
Then, I'd go with:
Connolly, Ray: The Beatles Archive. Ray Connolly started to cover the Beatles as a journalist from ca. 1967 onwards, which means he was there for both the artistic peak and the breakup period. (Though by necessity he missed out on the beginnings and the middle, which he always regretted.) He was particularly close to John in 69/70/71, somehow miraculously managed to be on friendly terms with Paul through the breakup period as well (I don't think any other press members pulled off that one, they all took sides for one or the other), wrote the script for one of Ringo's most successful film appearances (That'll be the day), and was and is friends with Paul McCartney's younger brother Mike throughout the decades. The Beatles Archive is a collection of his articles on the band and later individual members, interviews as well, presented as written, i.e. without the benefit of hindsight (though he adds some narrative context via introduction or footnotes). This gives reading these articles a feeling of freshness, immediacy and being there. Connolly's interviews were the source for many a quote that subsequently ended up in biographies, and they're vividly written, plus if you're pressed for time, the fact these are all individual short texts is helpful. If Connolly isn't quite the Boswell or Pepys of the Swinging Sixties and Dangerous Seventies, he comes close.
If you then feel up to one of the big biographies with hundreds and hundreds of pages which do focus on the personal above the musical: Spitz, Bob: The Beatles. Why not Philip Norman's Shout! (from 1981) or the first volume of Mark Lewisohn's yet unfinished magnum opus? (Pubished only a few years ago.) Shout!, leaving the author's biases aside - everyone is biased, and of course I'm going to feel more friendly towards books that reflect mine -, the research is severely out of date, and good lord, but Norman has no compunction of ascribing emotions and thoughts without having the citations to back them up, famous case in point, his description of Brian Epstein's first impression of the Beatles. (Norman describes Epstein falling in love with John Lennon on sight. Possible? Absolutely. But short of being told so by the late Brian Epstein, which he wasn't, or having access to a diary entry, which he didn't, it's speculation presented as fact.) Lewisohn, on the other hand, is someone who spent literally decades of obsessive research on his subject, and backs up every single assertion by footnote, but his writing style is dry, and exhaustive to read if you're not already a fan. Spitz I find to be a happy medium: he writes more vividly than Lewisohn, but provides far better source citation than Norman, plus he's good with all the surrounding cast like the various family members and significant others. He's definitely not perfect - this was the first big biography published in the days of the internet, and of course it wasn't long before a list of errors appeared in the forums - but he provides a plausible and very thorough picture.
The Other Days
Gould, Jonathan: Can't Buy Me Love. (Subtitle in some editions: The Beatles, Britain and America.) Why? Because it's focused on the music and the cultural impact while adding biographical context and does for my money a good job with all four plus George Martin and the engineers at Abbey Road. You may not agree with everyone of his song opinions, but afterwards you'll know far more about how the songs were produced, have an idea of everyone's personalities, and as an added bonus, will know your Mal Evans from your Neil Aspinall (both roadies). Oh, and it's not too long for a newbie, either.
Then, I'd go with:
Connolly, Ray: The Beatles Archive. Ray Connolly started to cover the Beatles as a journalist from ca. 1967 onwards, which means he was there for both the artistic peak and the breakup period. (Though by necessity he missed out on the beginnings and the middle, which he always regretted.) He was particularly close to John in 69/70/71, somehow miraculously managed to be on friendly terms with Paul through the breakup period as well (I don't think any other press members pulled off that one, they all took sides for one or the other), wrote the script for one of Ringo's most successful film appearances (That'll be the day), and was and is friends with Paul McCartney's younger brother Mike throughout the decades. The Beatles Archive is a collection of his articles on the band and later individual members, interviews as well, presented as written, i.e. without the benefit of hindsight (though he adds some narrative context via introduction or footnotes). This gives reading these articles a feeling of freshness, immediacy and being there. Connolly's interviews were the source for many a quote that subsequently ended up in biographies, and they're vividly written, plus if you're pressed for time, the fact these are all individual short texts is helpful. If Connolly isn't quite the Boswell or Pepys of the Swinging Sixties and Dangerous Seventies, he comes close.
If you then feel up to one of the big biographies with hundreds and hundreds of pages which do focus on the personal above the musical: Spitz, Bob: The Beatles. Why not Philip Norman's Shout! (from 1981) or the first volume of Mark Lewisohn's yet unfinished magnum opus? (Pubished only a few years ago.) Shout!, leaving the author's biases aside - everyone is biased, and of course I'm going to feel more friendly towards books that reflect mine -, the research is severely out of date, and good lord, but Norman has no compunction of ascribing emotions and thoughts without having the citations to back them up, famous case in point, his description of Brian Epstein's first impression of the Beatles. (Norman describes Epstein falling in love with John Lennon on sight. Possible? Absolutely. But short of being told so by the late Brian Epstein, which he wasn't, or having access to a diary entry, which he didn't, it's speculation presented as fact.) Lewisohn, on the other hand, is someone who spent literally decades of obsessive research on his subject, and backs up every single assertion by footnote, but his writing style is dry, and exhaustive to read if you're not already a fan. Spitz I find to be a happy medium: he writes more vividly than Lewisohn, but provides far better source citation than Norman, plus he's good with all the surrounding cast like the various family members and significant others. He's definitely not perfect - this was the first big biography published in the days of the internet, and of course it wasn't long before a list of errors appeared in the forums - but he provides a plausible and very thorough picture.
The Other Days
