A must read for any fan of The Beatles. My one caveat: if John is your favorite this book does not always cast him in the best light. The research is thorough and meticulous. The information is packed onto every page. And the nostalgia is real.

Thanks to Netgalley and Polygon for the gifted digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Everything about the Beatles is worth reading, and devouring and savouring. This was no different. Loved it!

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. Any fan of the Beatles should read this book, I found it well written and informative.

I really enjoyed this book! This book was generously provided to me through NetGalley. Highly Recommended!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy for review.

Over the years I have read a few biographies on the Beatles. They have been one of my favorite bands for as long as I can remember. Most of the books I have read really focus on the rise and height of Beatlemania, and then the fall gets a small part of the end of the book. A lot of the focus ends up being on just the personality split and the polarizing, ever present Yoko Ono. What makes this book so great is that it goes really in depth to the last year of the Beatles. Ken McNab does an amazing job breaking 1969 down into the months and detailing what was going on. The amount of financial issues they were dealing with at the time, is honestly mind blowing. The bad contracts, the loss of Northern Songs, and the death of their longtime manager put incredible strain on their relationships with each other. When you factor this into the fact that musically they all were starting to want to do new things it's honestly a wonder they didn't implode earlier.

Along with financial aspects, McNab goes into fairly intricate detail about what recording Abbey Road looked like, as well as the songs that would make up Let It Be. There were moments that were pure Beatle magic, and other times where it was so forced it's a wonder the album got made at all. He also has insights from longtime Beatles inner circle like George Martin and Peter Aspinell to name a few. This was an incredibly well researched and well written look into the final days of the Beatles. McNab does a great job of interweaving financial, fame, music, and the varying personal aspects that all played a part in disbanding the Beatles. I could probably continue for several pages, but I won't ramble on, I definitely recommend this for fans of the band,

"And for an instant, the gossamer illusion of The Beatles as a working collective remained delicately preserved for an unsuspecting world."
And In The End is an in-depth chronicle of the factors that combined to ground one of the biggest bands in history.
Thank you to St. Martin Press for my ARC for review!
One must be a fan of The Beatles to dive into this story, or at least familiar with the background of their rise to fame. Author Ken McNab's detailed account wastes no time on backstory, and for the intended audience it is unnecessary.
I'm a rather big Beatles geek and have been for many years. I've read many of the numerous books available on the band from various angles.
And In The End begins with The Beatles' famous final live performance on the roof of the Apple building in January of 1969 and fans out the story of their slow descent, documenting monthly for one year.
Included is much of the behind-the-scenes dealings of the music industry, as well as specifically the issues of the band members. Recall this was the time of John and Yoko, of Paul and Linda, of "Paul is dead", of creative differences between the usual Lennon and McCartney compositions versus the George and Ringo attempts to spread their musical wings.
As with all other historical accounts, the outcome of the story is known - ultimately the breakup of the Fab Four as a band - but the route that led there is an interesting read. Again, for established fans. Recommended!

I ran an interview with the author of this book in our 11 newspapers and websites. I ran an interview with the author of this book in our 11 newspapers and websites. I ran an interview with the author of this book in our 11 newspapers and websites.

Mick Jagger has a quote about The Beatles that pretty much sums up their existence: “The Beatles were so big that it’s hard for people not alive at the time to realize just how big they were.”

Amen to that. And if you were alive at the time, you get it. There was nothing but Beatles day and night, every day. Radio stations played only their songs. Department stores sold Beatles wigs, shoes, jackets. The arrival of a new doubled-sided single by the group eclipsed everything. Their lyrics were poured over as if they were messages from another civilization. There is simply nothing comparable today.

And all that explains why it’s so hard for any writer to make current day readers understand why he’d want to tackle yet again the magnetic pull of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Literally every moment of the Beatles existence has been combed over by the best journalists out there. There is almost nothing new to say.

Ken McNab, author of And in the End, is the latest journalist to give it a go, and he does a very credible and worthwhile job of making The Beatles’ last picked over year quite interesting. His conceit is to tackle--month by month--the Beatles last days they existed as a foursome creating music that would last forever even as the group itself was circling the drain.

McNab, to his credit, has tracked down some people who crossed paths with the boys in that fateful year of 1969. And yes, these folks sometimes have some good yarns to spill.

One standout story is the recording of “Give Peace a Chance” in a hotel suite in Montreal. The now-iconic song was “created” by record producer Andre Perry who entered John and Yoko’s room carrying a 4-track recorder and a bag containing four microphones and two speakers.

“Seconds later,” McNab writes, “he was face to face with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a room swarming with people that included scandal-hungry journalists, celebrity liggers, prurient hangers-on and mantra-chanting devotees from the Canadian chapter of the Radha Krishna Temple. ‘It was complete chaos,’ recalled Perry, then Montreal’s most in-demand record producer and a man with impeccable credentials.”

John was very chill that day. He watched Perry set up the mics and then said, “That looks fine to me.” The lyrics to the song were pinned up “on huge signs on the walls, like hippie graffiti.” There were some 50 people in the room including Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, Dick Gregory, and Allen Ginsberg.

One can imagine the daunting challenges in trying to get some reasonable sound from such a room with such a gathering of so many people. One of the few actual singers in the room was Petula Clark. She was hurt by an audience reaction to her performance in that Canadian city and sound out solace from, who else, but John Lennon whom she barely knew.

There was no security in those days, and Clark waltzed into John and Yoko’s room where John threw his arms around her and gave her a bit of advice on how to deal with adversity, advice that she does not repeat to this day. But Clark stuck around for the recording of John’s song.

She always thought she was on that famous recording, but Perry reveals how unlikely that is. After recording the song, he went to his studio and listened to it. John’s voice and guitar shone through but the sound from the backup singers was horrendous, mainly because of the poor setting it was recorded in. Perry kept what was good and then pulled in some professional backup singers, banged on a garbage can, put some echo on the record and brought it back to John. “That’s fantastic,” he said and so the legendary peace chant was born.

Stories like that are the reason to read McNab’s book, and there are quite a few that will make even the most knowledgeable Beatles fan smile.

The problem with dissecting the year 1969 is that McNab must deal with odious Alan Klein, the businessman whom only three of the Beatles trusted. Paul famously never gave the American an inch. If one never reads about Alan Klein again, it will be too soon—although McNab does a credible job. It’s just a very tired story.

Everyone knows how vitriolic that last year was among all the members of the group except perhaps Ringo. John and Paul had major problems, and George was sick of being the forgotten songwriter. The most amazing thing is that the Beatles alchemy—despite all fights and arguments—shone through and the boys produced what is arguably their finest album Abbey Road. Producing that gem in the middle of all they were going through proves, once again, that The Beatles were not just a band but a magic act.

“January 10. Got up. Went to Twickenham. Rehearsed until lunchtime. Left The Beatles. Went home.”—George Harrison’s diary of the first split up of The Beatles in 1969 from And in the End, a book about the band’s breakup.

Was it really Yoko who split up The Beatles? Well, she certainly didn’t help the widening divide between John and Paul. John’s increasing heroin use also didn’t restore their collaborating spirit. In fact, all the band members felt Paul was using all three as “McCartney’s sidemen” rather than equal collaborators as they used to be. The failure of Apple Corps, the business end of The Beatles, was also seen as Paul’s failure, which caused many in the band to lose a substantial portion of their personal wealth.

Born at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation, I missed Beatlemania. I knew who they were, of course, but they had already broken up by the time I started listening in earnest. And in the End is great at setting the scene so even if are unfamiliar with the news at the time, you can still relate to the story.

In fact, it is an almost universal band breakup story. All the members became famous as a group. But as individual members looked around at the others, they began to perceive they were being treated unfairly or their voices were not being heard. Also, their personal yes-men were building them up only to have a more famous member of the band tear them back down. As a long-term band member friend told me, “a band is like a marriage between 4 people and when they grow up their paths and motivations change just as anyone’s would.”

There are many surprising secrets within this book. If you are a Beatles fan, or wonder what all the noise is about, this is a must-read behind-the-scenes look at a famous band amidst their breakup. 5 stars!

Thanks to Thomas Dunn Books, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

4 stars

You can read all of my reviews at NerdGirlLovesBooks.

This was a fascinating non-fiction book about the last year or two that the Beatles were officially a band. It focuses on the business fights regarding band managers, royalties and control of Paul and John's original songs, as well as the philosophical differences of the band members.

Considering how influential The Beatles are, it's crazy to remember they were only together as a band for 10 years, and stopped performing live the last couple of years. This book starts with events in January 1969, just as the band starts working on the "Get Back" film and album project. Right away the author sets the scene, describing the frayed nerves and tension between band members. We then take a rollercoaster ride of hurt feelings, betrayals, egos, and business and legal positioning. It's shocking that they were actually able to produce an album during the chaos.

It's clear the author did his research. He weaves band member interviews throughout the book to tell the stories, as well as interviews he conducted of people that witnessed certain events. Not having a head for business, I must confess that most of the business shenanigans went over my head. There is A LOT of that in this book, so reader beware. After a certain point, I found myself skimming those sections because it was just too much for me.

While public opinion largely blames Yoko Ono for the break up of the Beatles, the author doesn't bash her too much in this book. She was definitely an odd, quirky "artist" and a polarizing personality. It's clear, however, that there were many reasons for the band's split, and she was just an easy scapegoat. Don't get me wrong, she definitely seemed to have hastened the band's break up, but based on everything else that was going on, it was just a matter of time before the foursome parted ways.

There are too many issues discussed in the book to go into detail, but if you're interested in the Beatles and want to know what REALLY happened right before, and during, their break up, this is the book for you.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

An in depth month by month breakdown of the Beatles final year.
At this point its nearly impossible to find NEW information, but none-the-less these are always enjoyable reads.
Very informative, well researched and well written.

I'm a hardcore Beatles' fan of several decades and have read scores of books about them, but it sure doesn't stop me from jumping at the chance to read more. I find it amazing how 50 years after their breakup new books are still being written. I always hope to extract some new kernel of information out of each new book since I am somewhat of a Beatles expert myself. This author actually used several books I own from many years ago as sources for this book.

First off, it's depressing to read about this particular part of The Beatles history. I always feel a joy and excitement in my heart reading about their childhoods and rise to fame, but books about their demise are a slow moving tragedy. As this book begins The Beatles are embarking on recording and filming what became the "Let it Be" project. It was a very gray and melancholy time in their career. George Harrison often referred to it as "the winter of discontent". Paul had hoped that they could find a rebirth of sorts by documenting an album in the making. Crucially, Paul hoped for the band to tour small clubs again and get a fire in the belly like they had when they were hungry for success. John Lennon thought Paul was daft and wanted no part of it. In the end they settled for a hastily planned concert on the roof of their offices on Savile Row in London, Apple Corp. Their company was bleeding money because they weren't businessmen, they were just artists and idealists. The employees and hangers on at the Apple offices were taking advantage of The Beatles with caviar from Harrods, liquor and all sorts of largesse. After their manager Brian Epstein died Paul tried to guide the band through different projects, but it was time to find a new manager to deal with all the contracts. As much as Brian Epstein loved his Beatles with a passion, he was a novice and didn't make the best deals for the band. Brash and boisterous Allen Klein of New York who already managed The Rolling Stones always dreamed of snagging The Beatles. He managed to ingratiate himself to John Lennon and Yoko Ono after a meeting in a hotel where he flattered John with his knowledge of John's work. This convinced John to hire Klein to manage his own affairs, and he pressed fellow Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr to follow suit. The only holdout was Paul McCartney, who was immediately turned off by Allen Klein's uncouth and burly personality and dicey reputation. More importantly, his new wife Linda Eastman came from a wealthy family of New York entertainment lawyers that were also vying for the position. They clashed in ugly, argumentative meetings that resulted in Klein getting the endorsement of Lennon, Harrison and Starr, but Paul never consented to his management deal.

Klein immediately set out on three fronts to renegotiate deals. He wanted to buy out Brian Epstein's NEMS Holdings company from which Epstein would draw 25% of The Beatles earnings. In the wake of Epstein's death, his brother Clive and mother Queenie were the heirs. Another huge issue was Lennon-McCartney's publishing company "Northern Songs Ltd" of which The Beatles did not have a controlling interest. Klein was wheeling and dealing to find a way to get The Beatles to 51% controlling shares. Lennon was blindsided when he found out that Paul had purchased some additional shares behind Lennon's back. The third problem was re-negotiating The Beatles record deal with EMI as they were getting paid poorly in comparison to other musical acts like The Rolling Stones. Klein only succeeded in this last negotiation, but literally as The Beatles congregated to sign the new record contract Lennon dropped a bomb on McCartney that he wanted a divorce from the band, just like he divorced his first wife Cynthia. According to longtime Beatles assistant Mal Evans, once the other Beatles left following this outburst, Paul was bereft in tears. Ultimately, Klein demanded that John Lennon keep his news a secret, for with a new and much improved record contract, news of a Beatle quitting would destroy everything.

The relationship of John and Yoko put a great strain on the established working structure of The Beatles. They wanted to be together 24/7. Prior to this, no Beatles wives ever entered the domain of the recording studio. Now suddenly they had a large bed being delivered to Abbey Road Studios from Harrods, to be installed in full view of The Beatles working space so she wouldn't miss anything. Yoko, John, her daughter Kyoko (with former husband Tony Cox) and John's son Julian (with first wife Cynthia) had recently been in a car accident in Scotland. The final icing on the cake was when she asked for a microphone to be suspended over the bed in case she needed to comment on the musical proceedings.

Linda was pregnant with Paul's first child, and he had adopted Linda's adorable young daughter Heather from her previous marriage. John and Paul married Yoko and Linda within about a week of each other, and their lives were growing apart. Still, somehow Paul managed to lasso his bandmates to make an album "like we used to" with their regular producer George Martin at the helm. The "Let it Be" sessions were a debacle and it took veteran "wall of sound" producer Phil Spector to gloss them over into a pleasantly listenable album. Producer Glyn Johns hadn't been able to satisfy The Beatles with his version of the disc. Paul was angered, however, with how Spector used a girl's choir on his song "The Long and Winding Road". Martin only agreed to produce what would become The Beatles last album "Abbey Road" if they all agreed to let him produce them like he always had, without the chaos and rancor that had culminated in their last album.

This all was very heavy on the heart, but the detailed account of the recording of "Abbey Road" was my favorite part of the book. Hearing how The Beatles sang 3-part harmony at the same time for the gorgeous "Because" track, how they created what is known as the suite on side two with snippets of unfinished songs, melded together into a seamless masterpiece, how they convinced Ringo to perform the first and only Beatles drum solo on a Beatles album on the bridge between "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry that Weight", and how exactly photographer Iain Macmillan photographed The Beatles crossing Abbey Road- was a delight to read.

All in all, for me this was a sometimes painful but lovely nostalgia trip on a subject I always love to revisit, The Beatles. I found the intricate business dealings quite confusing to grasp, but reveled in the rest of the history. This is a very good book about the final chapter of The Beatles. Someone who knows nothing about The Beatles would learn a lot about the band's demise, and even if you already know a lot like me, you would still appreciate the quality of this book.

And in the End is a January-December chronicle of the triumphs, struggles, banalities, and curiosities of the Fab Four in 1969, the year the Beatles broke for good. McNab correctly predicts that readers will need no introduction or backstory due to the endless subject matter already published on the band and dives right into the narrative, covering momentous events such as the band's Apple rooftop performance, Let It Be/Abbey Road sessions, and the legal struggles over Lennon/McCartney's songbook. Lingering in the background of the entire story is the gradual dissolution of the group mentality of the band into what would become four distinct and increasingly Beatle-weary personalities: new father Paul, spiritual and confident songwriter George, actor Ringo, and Plastic Ono Band John.

While the majority of this year and every other aspect of the Beatles has been covered in countless other books and media, McNab keep things interesting throughout with a variety of interviews with people close to the band as well as interesting tidbits about the members that I'd never heard before (who would have imagined that Ringo offered himself up as Samwise Gamgee if Lord of the Rings was made into a film?). Give this book (and peace) a chance.

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to St. Martin's Press**

“And in the End” is a meticulously researched chronicle of the last year of the Fab Four, the one and only Beatles. There are surprisingly twelve chapters for the final year, one for each month of 1969. Perhaps you’ve heard bits and pieces of the final year, but now you get it all in chronological order. You get the bickering over the songs, the omnipresent personage of screaming Yoko, the frustrations, and the financial machinations.

The Beatles’ business affairs were a mess. Like many young bands, they trusted management and accountants and had little choice in the beginning. But, they sold off their catalog early on. And they were running Apple 🍏 Music as if it were Congress and the national budget, spending frivolously like there would never be any end in sight. They were so spread out financially that they couldn’t even get the rights to their own songs back. Two solutions presenter themselves, two dueling solutions. One was the Eastman family Paul married into who knew their way about copyright law, but not in the hard nosed music industry. The other was Klein, the kind of businessman who promised the world and rarely delivered.

John was consumed with Yoko and sleep-ins and every political cause he could find. Yet, two more albums were due, Abbey Road and Let It Be.

It’s a tragic tale in that these four (still young men) had accomplished so much, but never found a way to continue together, not even sporadically. There could have been another decade of triumphs or perhaps fading away into obscurity. By splitting up so young at the end of the Sixties, the Beatles fixed themselves in time and never suffered the mediocre years other bands did.

Great book. So much information. If you are not intimately familiar with all the names involved, you might need to research independently as this book assumes you know roughly about the earlier Beatles years. Overall, a fantastic boon for those of us who love rock history.

Thank you to NetGalley and Polygon for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.
It’s 1969. Four of the most famous men in the world walk through a zebra crossing in London. Photographs are taken and one will be the cover of the Beatles last love letter to their fans.
Author & journalist Ken McNab has written an easily readable, endlessly engaging and well detailed account of that year. Each of the twelve chapters is broken down by the month and we get a keen sense of what was happening that will lead to the demise of the band. This will also be a year of many firsts. Allen Klein is hired as manager (much to Paul’s chagrin). Paul McCartney marries New York divorcee Linda Eastman, becomes a father for the first time and struggles to engage his partner and his band mates to move forward, John Lennon is heavily involved in the Peace movement and heroin, marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar and returns his MBE. George Harrison evolves in Eastern religion, Hare Krishna and plays with Delaney and Bonnie. Ringo Starr pursues his acting career with Peter Sellers in the film the Magic Christian. This is a year unlike any other that the band has ever faced before, personally or professionally.
As a lifelong Beatles fan, I devoured this book. Ken McNab casts a light on some very dark days and proves that in lieu of the trials of these times, the Beatles have moments of togetherness and triumph. Just listen to Abbey Road where the sum of its parts shines brilliantly.
Thanks to Ken McNab for this wonderful book.
Highly recommended.

I am assigning an editorial piece that will include this book and will run in 11 newspapers and websites. I am assigning an editorial piece that will include this book and will run in 11 newspapers and websites. I am assigning an editorial piece that will include this book and will run in 11 newspapers and websites.

For anyone who was a child of the 60', the Beatles were the ultimate musical band. The four Beatles lived large in the consciousness of young and old world-wide, and the world was stunned and saddened when the group decided to disband.
This book chronicles the events leading up to the Beatles' split, and answers some of the questions about why it was inevitable.