''The Beatles' Story'' is the sixth album by the English rock band

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

in the United States, issued on 23 November 1964 by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

. It is a documentary double album featuring interviews, press conferences, and snippets of original or orchestral versions of Beatles songs, with

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

narration. The album's original liner notes described it as a "narrative and musical biography" of

Beatlemania Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles from 1963 to 1966. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom in late 1963, propelled by the singles " Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and " She Loves Yo ...

. It was produced by Los Angeles–based songwriter and producer

Gary Usher Gary Lee Usher (December 14, 1938 – May 25, 1990) was an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer, who worked with numerous California acts in the 1960s, including the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and Dick Dale. Usher also produced fic ...

and disc jockey and lyricist Roger Christian, and narrated by John Babcock, Al Wiman and Christian. Capitol issued the album in response to the

Vee-Jay Records Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The label was founded in Gary, Indiana, in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a ...

LP '' Hear the Beatles Tell All'', a compilation of radio interviews with the band carried out by Los Angeles disc jockeys. The company also sought to compete with unauthorised Beatles interview records issued by the Radio Pulse Beat label, which released three such LPs hosted by Ed Rudy. ''The Beatles' Story'' peaked at number 7 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart and was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. In 2014, Capitol reissued the album as part of the Beatles' ''

The U.S. Albums ''The U.S. Albums'' is a box set compilation album, compilation comprising the remastered American albums released by the Beatles between 1964 and 1970. The box set was released on 21 January 2014 in the United States, marking the fiftieth anni ...

'' box set.

Development

Originally, Capitol Records intended to create an album from the group's show at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

, which took place on 23 August 1964. A recording was made of the concert, but the Beatles and their producer,

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatle ...

, deemed it of insufficient quality due to the poor sound and the volume of the fans' screaming. ''The Beatles' Story'' nevertheless contains a 48-second excerpt of " Twist and Shout" from the Hollywood Bowl performance. It was the first record to include a recording of the Beatles in concert. Using audio from interviews and press conferences, interspersed with music, ''The Beatles Story'' was produced by

and Roger Christian. Among the segments were items devoted to each of the four Beatles –

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...

and

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

– and others on their manager,

Brian Epstein Brian Samuel Epstein ( ; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was an English music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1961 until his death in 1967. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put hi ...

, and Martin. The Hollyridge Strings performed the

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

versions of the Beatles' songs heard on the album. The voice-over commentary was written and narrated by John Babcock and, on behalf of radio station KFWB of Hollywood, Al Wiman and Christian.

Release and reception

Capitol released ''The Beatles' Story'' in the US on 23 November 1964, on the same day as the band's " I Feel Fine" single. The front cover of the LP contained individual photos of the band members, taken by photographer Joe Covello, above a

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

. The album spent 17 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart. It peaked at number 7 on 2 January 1965 and remained in that position for three further weeks while the band's new studio album, '' Beatles '65'', was number 1. ''The Beatles' Story'' was certified a

gold record Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

on 31 December 1964. It was the Beatles' fifth Capitol album, all of which had been released within a year of the band's commercial breakthrough in the US. Author

Barry Miles Barry Miles (born 21 February 1943) is an English author known for his participation in and writing on the subjects of the 1960s London underground and counterculture. He is the author of numerous books and his work has also regularly appeare ...

comments that the documentary record was "blatantly exploitative" but this was insufficient to deter American fans. The album was also issued in Canada. It was released by Toshiba EMI in Japan on the Apple label (in

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

) in a box set with a deluxe 24-page 12"x12" booklet that contains the entire text of the script in English and Japanese. The album was being prepared for release on

digital audio tape Digital Audio Tape (DAT or R-DAT) is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a Compact Cassette, using 3.81 mm / 0.15" (commonly referred to as 4 mm) magnetic t ...

in 1996, but when the format failed commercially the plan was scrapped. In 2014, ''The Beatles' Story'' was made available on CD for the first time as part of the Beatles' box set ''

''.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

describes it as "a tedious neo-documentary record" and "cornball show biz, with radio announcers delivering a spit-shined script designed to bridge segments between canned interviews". In his review for the ''

Toronto Sun The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid format, tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices are located at Pos ...

'', Darryl Sterdan said ''The Beatles' Story'' was a "cash-grab" by the record company and a "50-minute mish-mash ... dashed off for early Christmas shoppers". He added: "Amazingly, it went gold. This one is also new on CD. Really, they needn't have bothered."

Track listing

Songs

Portions of the following songs appear on the album: * "

I Want to Hold Your Hand "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock music, rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Recorded on 17 October 1963 and released on 29 November 1963 in the United Kingdom, it was the first Beatles recor ...

" * " Slow Down" * " This Boy" * " You Can't Do That" * " Can't Buy Me Love" * " If I Fell" * " And I Love Her" * " A Hard Day's Night" * " Twist and Shout" (live) * " Things We Said Today" * " I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" * "

Little Child "Little Child" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1963 UK album ''With the Beatles''. It was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for Ringo Starr, but Starr was instead given "I Wanna Be Your Man" as his album song. B ...

" * "

Long Tall Sally "Long Tall Sally", also known as "Long Tall Sally (The Thing)", is a rock and roll song written by Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, and Little Richard and released on Richard's album '' Here's Little Richard''. Richard recorded it fo ...

" * "

She Loves You "She Loves You" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released as a single in the United Kingdom on 23 August 1963. The single set and surpassed several sales records in the United Kingdom c ...

" * " Boys"

Charts and certifications

Chart performance

Certifications

References

Sources

* * * * * * *

External links

*
''The Beatles' Story'' on DAT and cassette
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beatles' Story, The 1964 albums The Beatles albums Capitol Records albums Albums recorded at the Hollywood Bowl Documentaries about music Spoken word albums by British artists Audio documentaries