Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Beatles, Beatlemania, and the Music that Changed the World

Bob Spitz
Little, Brown Young Readers (2007)
ISBN 9780316115551
Reviewed by Kirby Jo Franze (age 16) for Reader Views (12/07)

“Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better”...  These are words that almost every American teenager and adult know by heart.  “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” is the story of the Beatles; John, Paul, Ringo and George, quite possibly the best-selling, best song-writing, and downright most amazing group of all time.  Bob Spitz’s fascinating chronicle takes us through the lives of the Beatles and the people that traveled the road with the band on their journey to world-wide stardom.  

We begin at the humble beginning: their early lives and childhoods,  jam sessions in their hometown of Liverpool, England, where young John and other early band members put together a band called the Quarry Men, playing “skiffle”(a pre-cursor to rock ‘n roll).  We are there when sixteen-year-old John meets fifteen-year-old Paul and while recognizing his unique talent and charisma, John still hesitates to include Paul in the band as that would mean relinquishing some control of it.  Not until they formed the Beatles was their goal of perfection reached. 

What followed after that was nothing short of remarkable.  America and the entire world nearly swallowed them up in one large gulp as they burst into overwhelming stardom.  We follow as John goes from teenaged boy to controlling adult and eventually marries his ever-loving, headstrong wife, Yoko Ono, whom he’d spend the rest of his days with.  We discover that talented, ambitious Paul was the one always in it for the band, constantly working and proceeding on for the good of the group.  We get to know soulful George, who made it into the band with his witty guitar playing and lovable personality.  We loved him for his full heart. And of course we come to love endearing Ringo Starr, the one always for everything and up for anything, he seemed to be the peacemaking, easy-going one; friend to all.

We get to see the bad as well as the good.  The group became fascinated by and embraced Eastern music and religion.  They became infatuated with drugs, and it became a psychedelic experience to listen to some of their later songs considering the influence of marijuana on them.

Reading “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” gave me insight into this pioneering band that I would have never had without coming face-to-face with its members.  The book shared interesting and inspiring stories of the lives of these music icons.  Biographies are not often my favorite, but Mr. Spitz has really made this an exciting and intriguing read.  We got to follow along as the Beatles reinvented the sound of rock n’ roll for the rest of time.  I enjoyed the trip!

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