First released: 1964, November 23

Sheet music, guitar tabs, song books at Sheetmusicplus.com

Fans seemed to want anything by the Beatles on record in 1964, and toward the end of that remarkable year, Capitol Records responded with this two-LP documentary record, which contained almost no previously unavailable Beatles music (the exception was 48 seconds of "Twist And Shout" recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl on August 23, 1964). What it did contain was a biographical narration ("It started in Liverpool, England...") written and spoken by disk jockeys John Babcock, Al Wiman, and Roger Christian over symphonic versions of Beatles music. Fans screamed and cried and tried to explain themselves, crowds roared, and there were excerpts from Beatles' press conferences. — William Ruhlmann