Beatlesinfoarchive - Beatles Archive

Ringo: the only thing I'm guilty of is being adorable!

Ringo: and also illegal street fighting

Paul McCartney discusses the design for Sgt Pepper with Mike Read in an interview for BBC Radio 1 (broadcast 1989)

PAUL: See I always hark back, when I'm making a record, in my mind, to me - in Liverpool I used to get on the bus, Saturday morning, go down to this big department store called Lewis's, go in the record department, get my record, that was a big favourite I'd been saving up for, get on the bus, upstairs on the bus, and unwrap it. And then I had a half hour to look at it. I couldn't play it, but I could look at it, and read the sleeve note and look at the pictures and everything. So I knew that other people would be doing that kind of thing so we designed Pepper with that in mind, you know, the person who's just been to his version of Lewis's, he's got that half hour to go home. So we'll give him masses, he could look at this one for months, you know, because after all its only cardboard and it really doesn't cost more to put a complicated picture on than it does just to put a picture of an orange, or something. READ: Of course Brian Epstein's idea was it being brown paper bags. PAUL: Well Brian was very keen on the album, we'd played it [for] him once it was all finished out at George's house. He was very sort of flamboyant [Brian impression] 'Oh! It's wonderful.' He really loved it, you know, he did this big, theatrical [Brian impression] 'Oh it's a wonderful album!' And we said 'Well we're still thinking about the cover, you know, we can't quite decide how to do the cover.' He said [Brian impression] 'Put a brown paper bag on it, it doesn't matter. It's so wonderful.'

Beatles Resources Masterpost

I've never seen anyone collect different Beatles resources all in one place, so I thought it would be nice to create a masterpost for newer or less research savvy Beatles fans looking for where to find them and learn more

Included below are Beatles movies, autobiographies, biographies, magazines, miscellaneous files, archive sites, and much more

This is by no means a comprehensive list of Beatles resources, as there is an often overwhelming amount of sources relating to and informative about the Beatles; this is simply a post to gather more important, prominent, and larger Beatle related texts and media together, as I would love for the online Beatles fan community to be more organized in its research and archive efforts

This is an extremely long post, enjoy!

*PLEASE READ DISCLAIMERS*

This post does not include links to Beatles music videos or where to listen to their music; however, I highly recommend listening to the updated remasters of The Beatles' albums done by Giles Martin, George Martin's son (the remasters done AFTER 2009) instead of the 2009 remasters when possible

There is a plethora of misinformation online about The Beatles so PLEASE do your own research, using reliable sources

Some sources have disclaimers attached, in case I believe they may to any degree be misleading or require additional context

All sources have been listed within sections chronologically, not in order of importance

If at any point any of the hyperlinks are broken or are not working, let me know and I’ll try my best to fix or update them

Some of the literary sources here are no longer being published, which is why I’m happy to supply the links here to read them online. However, if they are still in print and you’re able, please go borrow them from your local public library! Some of the movies and documentaries linked below can also be found on streaming or bought online; they are linked below for those unable to easily access them or for whatever other reason

There are some other important sources I could not find reuploads or scans of, but are still listed below in case someone is looking for more important sources

If I come across links to said sources I will edit this post and add them as hyperlinks. Additionally, if someone finds a working, safe link for anything listed without a link or for something they believe should be listed, they can message me and I'd be happy to add it

Movies Starring The Beatles as a Group

A Hard Day's Night (1964) dir. Richard Lester

Help! (1965) dir. Richard Lester

Magical Mystery Tour (1967) dir. The Beatles, Bernard Knowles

Yellow Submarine (1968) dir. George Dunning (The Beatles themselves do not voice their cartoon selves in this film)

Fictional/Partially Fictional Movies made by and/or Starring Beatles (A short selection of the films most often mentioned by Beatles fans)

How I Won the War (1967) dir. Richard Lester

Two Virgins (1968) dir. John Lennon, Yoko Ono

Candy (1968) dir. Christian Marquand

The Magic Christian (1969) dir. Joseph McGrath

Imagine (1972) dir. John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Steve Gebhardt (Some of the aspects in this film are fictional, and some are akin to a documentary)

Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984) dir. Peter Webb

Documentaries/Docuseries

Bed Peace (1969) dir. John Lennon, Yoko Ono (Yoko Ono has since said in 2020 she and John were naïve to think that doing the Bed-Ins would change the world)

Let It Be (1970 Original) dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Let It Be (2024 Remaster) dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg

The Concert for Bangladesh (1972) dir. Saul Swimmer

Imagine: John Lennon (1988) dir. Andrew Solt

The Beatles Anthology (1995) dir. Geoff Wonfor, Kevin Godley, Bob Smeaton (Focuses mainly on pre-1966 Beatles history and does not cover post-breakup events)

ep. 1 ep.2 George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) dir. Martin Scorsese

The True History of the Traveling Wilburys (2007) dir. Willy Smax

ep.1 ep.2 ep.3 Get Back (2021) dir. Peter Jackson

Yoko's Films (including films that list John Lennon as a co-director)

Rape (1969) dir. Yoko Ono, John Lennon

Fly (1970) dir. Yoko Ono, John Lennon

Up Your Legs Forever (1971) dir. Yoko Ono, John Lennon

Movies Made about The Beatles

The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978) dir. Eric Idle, Gary Weis (Beatles parody)

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) dir. Robert Zemeckis

The Hours and Times (1991) dir. Christopher Munch (This film is speculative)

Two of Us (2000) dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg (This film is speculative)

The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2003) dir. Eric Idle (Beatles parody)

Books Written by The Beatles

In His Own Write (1964) by John Lennon

A Spainard in the Works (1965) by John Lennon

I Me Mine (1980) by George Harrison

Skywriting by Word of Mouth (posthumous, 1986) by John Lennon (Partially autobiographical and partially fictional)

The Beatles Anthology (2000) by The Beatles (Book version of the docuseries)

Postcards from the Boys (2004) by Ringo Starr

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present (2021) by Paul McCartney

Books Written about The Beatles

A Cellarful of Noise (1964) by Brian Epstein

Yellow Submarine Comic (1968) by Paul S. Newman

The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (1969) ed. Alan Aldridge

The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics 2 (1971) ed. Alan Aldridge

A Twist of Lennon (1978) by Cynthia Lennon

Loving John (1983) by May Pang

Rock 'N' Roll Times: The Style and Spirit of the Early Beatles and Their First Fans (1983) by Jürgen Vollmer

John (2005) by Cynthia Lennon

Wonderful Today (2007) by Pattie Boyd with Penny Junor

Miss O'Dell: my hard days and long nights with the Beatles, the Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the women they loved (2009) by Chris O'Dell

George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) by Olivia Harrison

George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door (2013) by Graeme Thomson

NOTE: Many beginner Beatles fans tend to read books written by authors Mark Lewisohn and Philip Norman as introductions to the Beatles; however, both of these authors can be incredibly biased for and against certain figures in Beatle history and require often hefty amounts of context to properly analyze them in an accurate manner, Norman in particular.

Magazines

The Beatles Book (Only Original 77 Issues) (1963-1969)

Paul McCartney Playgirl (1982)

Paul McCartney Playgirl (1985)

Archive and Timeline Sites

Meet The Beatles For Real (A site with mostly paparazzi, fan, and personal photos of the Beatles and their associates, along with some transcribed interviews, fan stories, and much more)

Beatles Bible (Primarily useful for basic information surrounding The Beatles' music together and solo can be found here, such as album/single release dates, in addition to pictures, a fan forum, and other basic info; not cumulative)

DM Beatles (Basic outlined timelines for 1963-1970 and album/single releases; not cumulative)

The Beatles On Film (A collection of almost every publicly available filmed video of The Beatles, together and solo, logged for reference purposes)

Beatles Interviews Database (Not cumulative)

Harrison Archive (Actively updating archive of interviews, fan encounters, quotes, and stories from or surrounding George Harrison; fun fact: Olivia Harrison, George's widow, follows the Instagram version of this archive)

The Paul McCartney Project (Archive of Paul McCartney interviews, dates for concerts, and more)

Misc. Documents/Videos

Around the Beatles (1964) dir. Rita Gillespie

The Beatles in Rishikesh Home Videos (1968)

The Beatles in Rishikesh Archival Footage and Home Videos (1968)

The John Lennon and Yoko Ono Playboy Interviews Transcript (1980)

The John Lennon and Yoko Ono Playboy Interviews Audio (1980)

John Lennon FBI Files

The Beatles FBI File

The Beatles Accepting Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction (1988)

The Beatles/Threetles Reunion at Friar Park (1994)

The Beatles/Threetles Studio Footage (1995)

Paul and George Anthology 3 Studio Interviews for VH1 (1997)

Concert for George (2002)

Animatics and Test Footage for Scrapped Motion Capture Yellow Submarine Remake (2009)

Audio Files

Beatles Christmas Records 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969

The Beatles Artifacts (Different takes/demos of songs along with studio chatter; the link supplied simply lines out what is on all of these Artifacts, as many of them are currently unavailable on Internet Archive)

John Lennon Last Interview (1980)

When my uncle told Lennon that I was born near Frankfurt, the son of a Jewish-American father and a German-Protestant mother, John quipped that I was lucky to belong to both the Chosen People and the Master Race. He then began peppering me with German phrases he remembered from his early days in the red-light district of Hamburg with the Beatles, for instance: “Um zweiundzwanzig Uhr müssen alle Jugendliche den Saal verlassen” – At 10:00 p.m. all minors must leave the premises – and “Ficken, lecken, blasen!” – fuck, suck, blow.

John Lennon: Living on Borrowed Time, Frederic Seaman (1991)

Pages from Klaus Voormann's ICONIC – The Graphic Novel of The Beatles Revolver Cover Artwork

George Harrison interviewed for Good Morning Australia in 1982.

“A very sincere gentleman. He’s got a great philosophy, a wonderful sense of humor. And I didn’t find him the quiet one.” - Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Good Morning Australia, 1982

“Ex-pop star, peace-seeker, gardener, ex-celeb, until now.” - George Harrison (on how he would describe himself in 1982), Good Morning Australia, 1982

Kerri-Anne Kennerley: “Do you think life is all predetermined?” George Harrison: “In some respects it is, although we do have control over our actions right at this moment. I think that what we are now is the result of our past actions. What we’re going to be is going to be the result of our present actions. As again, they said in the Bible, ‘God is not mocked, whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap.’ That means the law of karma — action/reaction. There’s certain things that maybe there’s no way out, like, there’s no way I wasn’t going to be in The Beatles, even though I didn’t know it. In retrospect I can see that’s what it was — it was a set-up. At the same time, I do have control over my actions and I can do good actions or bad actions or I could try being a pop star forever and going on TV and do concerts and be a celebrity, or I can be a gardener.” - Good Morning Australia, 1982 (x)

Stuart was going to stay in Hamburg, cos he’d fallen in love with this girl Astrid [Kirchherr], who was part of a little set who called themselves the Exi’s, existentialists. They were very cool in black, tight trousers, little high-heeled boots. She was blonde, she had a short Peter Pan pageboy haircut, she looked dead cool. We’d never seen a chick like it. She dressed like a boy, a very slim little boy, so it was all, Fuckin’ hell, look at her!  I think we all fancied her but she fancied Stuart, who’d been the one guy who’d never been able to pull anything in our band. We’d always pulled before old Stu, but he got these great shades and struck a James Dean pose, got his hair going groovy like James Dean, so she went mad for him. And their group used to really like Stuart. I think it went: Stuart, John, George, me, Pete Best. That was their order of preference. They took some great photos of us. 

- Paul McCartney interview in Paul Du Noyer, Conversations with McCartney (2015) pp.34-35

Drawings of John Lennon by Klaus Voormann

HE WHAT