SHAKE IT UP, BABY!

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

The first volume of Mark Lewisohn's massive history of the Beatles, All These Years: Tune In covers the band from the members' birth until the end of the year 1962. Although the second volume will eventually pick up where the first left off, Ken McNab has jumped into the breach to explore the next year, 1963, in depth in his book Shake It Up, Baby! The Rise of Beatlemania and the Mayhem of 1963. McNab explores the year that opened with the Beatles returning from Hamburg and playing regular gigs with a record that peaked at 17. By the end of the year, they would have starred in their own television show, released two albums, performed at the Palladium and at the Royal Variety Performance, and were making plans to come to the United States.

When the year opened, Ringo Starr had only been playing with the band for four months, which was enough time for him to play with the band when they cut their first single, "Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You," although he had known the other three Beatles for several years and even played with them occasionally. Throughout the book, McNab portrays the band as a cohesive unit, even as he notes the hierarchy of the band, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney handling the majority of the writing duties, not only for the Beatles, but for other bands, such as Bill J. Kramer and the Dakotas and the Rolling Stones. Lennon has been married to Cynthia since August of the previous year and Starr was dating Maureen Cox, who he would later marry. The year would see McCartney meet, and begin to date Jane Asher, which gave him a place to live apart from the other Beatles in London.

Although McNab points out these various aspects of their relationships that sets each of the Beatles apart, one of the intriguing aspects of the book is that it is not focused on the musicians as individuals. McNab is chronicling the rise of Beatlemania and the quartet as people often take a backseat to the band as the focal point for Brian Epstein's machinations to help them achieve the success both he and they crave. That isn't to say that they are a blank slate. Lennon's temper and violence sets him apart from the others, as does Harrison's desire to eventually write songs and the trip he took with his brother to visit their sister in rural Benton, Illinois.

What does come across well, and is reinforced by McNab's descriptions of Harrison's trip, is the decrease in the amount of privacy the band members would experience between their arrival in the UK from Hamburg on January 1 at London Airport, described as "just four nameless faces in the crowd" and the crowds they faced One December 31 at The Beatles Christmas Show and with "I Want to Hold Your Hand" climbing the British and American charts. McNab's focus on the phenomenon heightens the impact of the isolation of the Beatles by their fans simply by not focusing on the four men. Others who were involved, such as American Marcia Albert, who helped spark Beatlemania in the United States, come across as more fully realized than the famous quartet. At the same time, people who were integral to the Beatles, like Neil Aspinell, seem to drift in and out of the story.

Shake It Up, Baby offers a detailed view of teh growing awareness of the Beatles as they moved from a band which was mostly unknown to one that people could no longer ignore. The Beatles themselves noted that there was no way of knowing how long their success would last and they were enjoying it for what it was, trying to set themselves up for the future, whether it was the song-writing business Lennon and McCartney were building or Starr suggesting he could be happy running a hair salon. While they were generating millions of pounds, it was clear that Epstein's inability to understand exactly what he was dealing with cost the band millions more, even as the Beatlemania phenomenon made fortunes for others. McNab captures the changing mood of the year and presents the band in a moment of flux, much as Steve Turner does when looking at how the more established band would see a change in their status in 1966 in Beatles '66.

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