The Beatles At Shea Stadium

The Beatles performance at New York's Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965 is one of the most exciting and important concert events in the history of popular music. Produced by Sid Bernstein and introduced on stage by television legend Ed Sullivan, John, Paul, George and Ringo played, sang, sweated and laughed for a record crowd of 55,600 fans. It was the height of Beatlemania and launched the modern era of outdoor stadium shows. "The Beatles At Shea Stadium" tells the story of this concert through researched commentary and exclusive interviews with Beatles insiders, friends and fans. The story begins in 1963 with Bernstein scheduling the then-unknown group for two concerts at Carnegie Hall and the first wave of U.S. Beatlemania. Follow events leading up to the concert as the Beatles arrive in New York, tape "The Ed Sullivan Show" and attend a never-before revealed dinner at Rockefeller Center. Then go backstage as they nervously prepare to face their largest live audience. The concert and excitement surrounding their performance are described in detail based on unedited live recordings and eyewitness accounts, and gives new insights into making the television special, secret recording session to overdub the live audio for network broadcast, and subsequent restoration of the classic film. Book includes rare photos, memorabilia, and never-published correspondence, documents and production notes.

In August 1965, during a sweltering heatwave, 56,000 people traveled by plane, car, bus, ferry, and subway train to pack New York's Shea Stadium on a Sunday evening—not for a baseball game, but for a rock and roll concert. This idea was the crazy dream of concert promoter Sid Bernstein. No rock band had ever played a baseball stadium, and no one believed he could pull it off. But on that glorious night, The Beatles sold out Shea Stadium, shattering all existing box office and attendance records in show business history. Oh, and they also changed the world. Against the backdrop of a remarkably volatile year in our nation's history, Top of the Mountain: The Beatles at Shea Stadium, 1965 delivers all the detail and excitement of Shea and the spirited, curious new generation who would soon claim the decade for its own. Told through first-person interviews and quotes, a unique cast of characters tells the story: celebrities then and celebrities now, writers, agents, producers, photographers, opening act performers, fans, security guards, radio personalities, cameramen, and media—all of whom were part of the night. Caryn Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg) and Steven Lento (Little Steven Van Zandt); future Beatle wives Linda Eastman and Barbara Bach; established stars like Bobby Vinton and Ed Sullivan; and artists hoping one day to equal this success, such as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Felix Cavaliere and The Rascals, Marvin Gaye, and more share their memories of this remarkable night in Top of the Mountain.

50th Anniversary of The Beatles in America. The Beatles' performance at New York's Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965 is one of the most exciting and important concert events in the history of popular music. Produced by Sid Bernstein and introduced on stage by television legend Ed Sullivan, John, Paul, George and Ringo played, sang, sweated and laughed for a record crowd of 55,600 fans. It was the height of Beatlemania and launched the modern era of outdoor stadium shows. "The Beatles At Shea Stadium" tells the story of this concert through researched commentary and exclusive interviews with Beatles insiders, friends and fans. The story begins in 1963 with Bernstein scheduling the then-unknown group for two concerts at Carnegie Hall and the first wave of U.S. Beatlemania. Follow events leading up to the concert as the Beatles arrive in New York, film "The Ed Sullivan Show," and attend a never-before revealed dinner at Rockefeller Center. Then go backstage as they nervously prepare to face their largest live audience. The concert and excitement surrounding their performance are described in detail based on unedited live recordings and eyewitness accounts, and gives new insights into making the television special, secret recording session to overdub the live audio for network broadcast, and subsequent restoration of the classic film. Book includes rare photos, memorabilia, and never-before published correspondence, documents and production notes. Reviews: "The concert and excitement surrounding the performance is described in amazing detail based on unedited live recordings and eyewitness accounts which appear throughout the book, including hundreds of little-known facts about the TV special produced by Ed Sullivan which aired on ABC, as well as the secret recording session to overdub the live audio for network broadcast." - Queens Gazette "In this new book, author Dave Schwensen focuses solely on this Beatles concert and the history surrounding it. What follows is a fascinating book that chronicles the entire life cycle of this legendary show, from its inception to its execution and aftermath." - The Rock and Roll Chemist "The book reveals everything one would want to know about the historic concert, from the weather to the songs to the sound system and marketing. 'The Beatles at Shea Stadium: The Story Behind Their Greatest Concert' makes a welcome addition to any Beatle fan's library, as it fills in a significant knowledge gap."- Something Else! Reviews "'The Beatles At Shea Stadium' offers multiple and valuable perspectives. Recollections from audience members, the concert photographer, a reporter and DJs put the reader at the scene, effectively presenting a complete picture of the sights and sounds of the humid New York night. Schwensen wisely stands aside and lets his subjects tell their stories... These figures reveal small moments such as Ringo Starr sitting alone on a bench signing autographs, and George Harrison anxiously peeking out onto the stage to witness the ecstatic crowd." - Beatlefan Magazine

Known as the "Father of Festival Sound," Bill Hanley (b. 1937) made his indelible mark as a sound engineer at the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair. Hanley is credited with creating the sound of Woodstock, which literally made the massive festival possible. Stories of his on-the-fly solutions resonate as legend among festivalgoers, music lovers, and sound engineers. Since the 1950s his passion for audio has changed the way audiences listen to and technicians approach quality live concert sound. John Kane examines Hanley’s echoing impact on the entire field of sound engineering, that crucial but often-overlooked carrier wave of contemporary music. Hanley’s innovations founded the sound reinforcement industry and launched a new area of technology, rich with clarity and intelligibility. By the early seventies the post-Woodstock festival mass gathering movement collapsed. The music industry shifted, and new sound companies surfaced. After huge financial losses and facing stiff competition, Hanley lost his hold on a business he helped create. By studying both his history during the festivals and his independent business ventures, Kane seeks to present an honest portrayal of Hanley and his acumen and contributions. Since 2011, Kane conducted extensive research, including over one hundred interviews with music legends from the production and performance side of the industry. These carefully selected respondents witnessed Hanley’s expertise at various events and venues like Lyndon B. Johnson’s second inauguration, the Newport Folk/Jazz Festivals, the Beatles' final tour of 1966, the Fillmore East, Madison Square Garden, and more. The Last Seat in the House will intrigue and inform anyone who cares about the modern music industry.

The Beatles in Los Angeles takes you past the velvet ropes and inside the mansion gates where The Beatles loved, explored, and experienced all the adventures and mystical chaos that swirls around LA like no other city. With brand new interviews from those who were there, along with recently discovered exclusive photographs, The Beatles in Los Angeles is a kaleidoscope of stories spanning over 50 years and covers the group’s adventures in the City of Angels as both a band and solo artists, including: • New Details on how The Beatles first appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964 almost didn’t happen. • Exclusive pictures from the only meeting EVER between The Beatles and Elvis Presley at his Bel Air estate in 1965 and the story behind this photographic discovery. • George Harrison’s and John Lennon’s dangerous nights on the Sunset Strip and how they narrowly avoided the law. • Insight into Paul McCartney’s lavish LA mansion parties throughout the 1970’s and the Hollywood royalty that attended them all. • Unknown stories about John Lennon’s Santa Monica Beach bachelor pad and his wild ride down Pacific Coast Highway. • Ringo’s reckless Los Angeles talk show appearance, and why two Beatles crashed the Paramount Studios’ “Happy Days” set. • The story behind Paul’s 2019 concert at Dodger Stadium where he reunited with Ringo and performed an unexpected Beatles classic. The Beatles in Los Angeles brings you up to date and takes you behind the scenes for some of the most exciting and still unknown adventures in Beatles’ history. You’ll feel like you are with John, Paul, George, and Ringo every step of the way during their wild LA nights and triumphant LA days.

“A must-have for Beatles fans looking for new insight . . . Leonard uncovers fresh ideas [that] . . . six decades of Beatles literature passed over." —The Spectrum Part generational memoir and part cultural history of the sixties, Beatleness is the first book to tell the story of the Beatles and their impact on America from the fans’ perspective. When the Beatles arrived in the United States on February 7, 1964, they immediately became a constant, compelling presence in fans’ lives. For the next six years, the band presented a nonstop deluge of steadily evolving sounds, ideas, and images that transformed the childhood and adolescence of millions of baby boomers and nurtured a relationship unique in history. Exploring that relationship against the backdrop of the sexual revolution, political assassinations, the Vietnam War, and other events, Beatleness examines critically the often-heard assertion that the Beatles “changed everything” and shows how—through the interplay between the group, the fans, and the culture—that change came about. Beatleness incorporates hundreds of hours of in-depth fan interviews and includes many fan vignettes. Offering a fresh perspective and new insights on the Beatles phenomenon, it allows readers to experience—or re-experience—what it was like to be a young person during those transformative years.

For teenagers, the world changed when Ed Sullivan introduced The Beatles. The 1964 Beatles tour filled auditoriums with screams of delight, excitement, and full-blown fan hysteria. This was the case in Cleveland, Ohio, where police stopped the show, ordered the Beatles off the stage, and banned them from the city. In August 1966, the group launched their final tour, but the innocence from two years earlier was missing as controversy over John Lennon's remarks about Christianity made safety more of a concern than ever before. A scheduling change brought them to Cleveland Stadium where thousands of fans crashed through police. It was obvious The Beatles could no longer be protected. The Beatles In Cleveland brings to life two of the wildest concerts in Beatles history. Catch the excitement through eyewitness accounts and never-before published photos.

Births, deaths and marriages, No1 singles, drug busts and arrests, famous gigs and awards... all these and much more appear in this fascinating 50 year almanac.Using a page for every day of the calendar year, the author records a variety of rock and pop events that took place on a given day of the month across the years.This Day in Music is fully illustrated with hundreds of pictures, cuttings and album covers, making this the must-have book for any pop music fan.