The Fest for Beatles Fans will be held in Chicago from August 9–11, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. Some of the guests who will appear are Billy J. Kramer, Mickey Dolenz, Randy Bachman, Freda Kelly, Chris O’Dell, and Steve Holley and Laurence Juber of Wings. There will also be other musicians, panelists, historians, disc jockeys, experts, and writers. Bruce Spizer and Aaron Badgley are two authors who will be there who have recently published Beatles-related books. Here is a roundup of recent Beatles-related books, included those from Spizer and Badgley.
The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night & More by Bruce Spizer (498 Productions) Happening concurrently with the 60th anniversary of the release of the film A Hard Day’s Night, and related soundtrack and non-soundtrack albums, Bruce Spizer has come up with yet another indispensable book on The Beatles. Along with Mark Lewisohn, Ken Womack, and arguably a few others, Spizer is one of the most authoritative chroniclers of The Beatles.
This new book is Spizer’s eighth in his recent album series of books. The eight books prior to this series, which launched Spizer, focused on the various record labels the group recorded for during their short time together in the 1960s. This is the fourth book in the album series in which Spizer covers multiple Beatles albums.
The previous books in the series covered Please Please Me, With The Beatles, Introducing The Beatles, and Meet The Beatles; Yellow Submarine, and Magical Mystery Tour; and Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Yesterday and Today, respectively. This book is focused on the British and American versions of A Hard Days Night, The Beatles’ Second Album, and Something New.
The beautiful hardcover book begins with carefully researched writing on the four albums and singles from this period, along with album jacket art, singles sleeve art, and a healthy dose of rare memorabilia of all kinds. There is also coverage of other music that was released and, in some cases, popular at the same time, along with details on then current movies, and further context on the news and cultural makeup of the era.