It was like squashing a cockroach, they said.
Put your toe down in one spot, rotate your hips and your ankle, shimmy them shoulders, and snap your fingers to the beat. That’s how you kill a bug, and it’s how you do The Twist — but beware. In the new book “Shake It Up, Baby” by Ken McNab, there are some Beatles you really want around.
The first day of 1963 was remarkable for one thing: Great Britain was in the midst of “an extraordinary polar plunge that would last three long, depressing months.”
Also on that day, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr arrived on a plane home from Hamburg, “just four nameless faces in the crowd.”
They had no idea that this would be the year “when everything changed.”
They were still getting used to one another, jostling for control. Their manager, Brian Epstein, was toiling to make the four men famous, constantly calling record companies, landing gigs, booking recording studios — one at which the Beatles would record an entire album in a single day.
They toured constantly, dozens and dozens of concerts with one reward: their song, “Please Please Me” started to rise on British music charts.
Despite the official word that the “boys” were single, John Lennon welcomed his son Julian into the world in April 1963. Before the month was out, Lennon left for a vacation in Spain with Epstein, who was gay, almost creating a scandal.
By the end of the summer, it was obvious that that didn’t matter; fans — especially female ones — didn’t care what the Beatles did. Screaming fans, fainting fans, obsessive ones met the Beatles wherever they went… except in America. Curiously, there seemed to be a resistance to the Fab Four’s music on this side of the ocean.
But Epstein was tenacious, Harrison’s sister was dogged in her devotion, and DJs began to talk. And at the end of the year, Ed Sullivan said “yes” to a booking…
Charts don’t lie; neither does endurance, and those two things make many people swear that the Beatles were one of the best bands the world has ever seen. “Shake It Up, Baby” puts an exclamation point on that notion.
It’ll be hard not to sing the songs to yourself or check your record collection while you’re in the middle of this book. The mix list here is made of classic Beatles and stories that even the most die-hard fans might not’ve heard (yet) — but while music and the love of the Fab Four are the mainstay, author Ken McNab puts the Beatles and Epstein in focus by pulling outside influences into his narrative. Readers are also reminded of historical events in that pivotal year, as well as the many tunes that made you dance and shout.
Absolutely, this is a book Beatles fans must have, ASAP. Any music lover will enjoy it, and it might start a new obsession. You need your music, so find “Shake It Up, Baby.” Missing it will really bug you.
“Shake It Up, Baby: The Rise of Beatlemania and the Mayhem of 1963” by Ken McNab
c.2024, Pegasus Books
$32.00
408 pages
