Terry Cornell's Reviews > A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles

The book started off as an article for 'The New Yorker' magazine in 1995 regarding 'The Beatles Anthology' project. The author was granted access to the groups musical archives locked away in a room at Abbey Road Studios in London. This gave Hertzgaard the unique perspective of being able to listen to a song being developed in the studio from the first take to the finished product. This well researched book is part biography and part musical analysis of song and album development. The reader also learns tidbits about particular songs and how members of the group functioned together as they evolved. I would have given it five stars, but I felt that I wanted more time spent on the musical development aspects. After all there are many strictly biographical sources on the group. A quick read, it also includes a listing of Beatles recordings, a bibliography, and quite extensive notes that document sources for each chapter. I also recommend former Beatles sound engineer Geoff Emerick's book 'Here, There, and Everywhere'.