The Day John Met Paul: An Hour-By-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began [Paperback]

James O'Donnell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1996

Rock journalist Jim O' Donnell spent eight years reading, researching, traveling repeatedly to Liverpool, and conducting many interviews with local people to thoroughly reconstruct--minute-by-minute--the events of the day in 1957 on which John Lennon and Paul McCartney met and began one of the most important collaborations in the history of modern music.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Since the '60s, the Beatlemaniac has proven to be a different breed of rock fanatic, but even the most passionate of the Fab Four's cult eventually grew up to realize that the world didn't revolve around John, Paul, George and Ringo. O'Donnell (Wonderful Tonight) would do well to add that to his many notes. His eight years of intensive research among all variety of resources provide the reader with an overwhelming panorama of what turns out to be a split-second glance into a pretty average summer day. And while O'Donnell's fictionalized portraits of the young Lennon and McCartney circa that fateful July 6 are charming enough, his book is never just about the young Beatles. O'Donnell has penned an eloquent if slow-going ode to 1957 and everything the least bit relevant-especially the weather. No matter how great their legacy, the Beatles have suffered enough secondhand speculation: they set out to write songs, not history. Their various personas are secure in a handful of movies and books better than this one (listed in O'Donnell's helpful bibliography). Meanwhile, their music continues to arrest the attention of new listeners, just as it did in the band's heyday. This attempt to glimpse the origin of that mystery presumes too much.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140253017
• ISBN-13: 978-0140253016
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,422,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Birth Of A Legendary Team, January 1, 2004

By 

W. C HALL (Newport, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Day John Met Paul: An Hour-By-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began (Paperback)

In the all-time gallery of Beatles photographs, there are several that have achieved iconic status. The one on the cover of this book is probably the earliest. It was taken on July 6th, 1957, and shows John Lennon and his original group, the Quarrymen, performing at the St. Peter's Parish Church Garden Fete. Among those watching the performance was a young man who would be introduced to Lennon later that day. It was one of those meetings that changed history, because that young man was Paul McCartney.

For all that's been written about the Beatles, it's amazing how much of their history has been obscured. The year of the Lennon-McCartney meeting has been variously published as 1955 and 1956, in addition to the correct 1957. In this volume, O'Donnell gets the year right--and a lot more. "The Day John Met Paul" is a vivid, hour-by-hour recreation of that momentous day in music history. O'Donnell's exhaustive research also allows the reader to understand the city of Liverpool, the skiffle music craze, and all the other elements of the world of 1957 that came together to create the Beatles. O'Donnell pulls this all together with a spellbinding storytelling technique. "The Day John Met Paul" is a must for anyone who wants a better understanding of the birth of the Beatles.--William C. Hall

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable and unique book transcending music biography, March 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Day John Met Paul: An Hour-By-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began (Paperback)

How did such a normal day lead to such a phenomenen? Was it destiny? Did John Lennon and Paul McCartney have any idea as teenagers as to what lay ahead of them? These are questions that can never be answered, but eight years of painstaking research and a little artistic license has produced a book which plants many a romantic thought in the mind about how the Beatles started. "The Day John Met Paul" is a book about the 6th of July 1957, focusing primarily on events in Woolton, a leafy suburb of Liverpool, where a local village fete leads to the first meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, later to become the driving forces behind the band that became the Beatles. Author JimO'Donnell describes these events as a present-tense review of the day, and it is this approach as well as the remarkable factual detail which makes his book unique and compelling. His introduction to the book is mesmerising in itself, as he explains how his research sought to capture the atmosphere of that place at that time. He also describes world events which were happening simultaneously, taking into account time differences, meaning that these events were literally happening at the precise moments. This gives emphasis on the physical normality of what happened that day but as it is written now, it is an experience to read the book while obviously knowing what happened subsequently. This is where O'Donnell engrosses the reader, forcing us to imagine the scenes taking place, and the book, although really an acquired taste, actually works on a historical level as well. For those who never saw 1957, images are conjured of life at that time on a Saturday in the middle of summer. What O'Donnell also acheives is as mentioned the romanticism of the Beatles story and myth and the idea that the real reason for their success and incredible longevity as a part of people's lives was the personal relationships between them and the higher spiritual plane that they seemed to stumble on together. As Paul watches John play at the fete, and later vice versa, there is a "meeting of minds" and a sharp vision. Whether the true story was anything like this is always open to speculation, but the telling phrases used by O'Donnell in his book lead us to believe that was a union so important that it must have been written in the stars. O'Donnell starts off from the early hours of the morning as the teenagers and most of Liverpool sleeps, and he describes the surrounding scene before the main protagonists have had a chance to contribute to events of the day. We see the build-up to the event which, while not big in itself, began something special, and as the event unfolds, his vivid imagination is given full rein as he describes what might have been going through their minds, and how they were spurred on not just by the sound of the music but what it really meant to them on a personal level, creating the collective vision that would eventually be shared with the world. This is of course primarily a book for Beatlemaniacs and positively demands multiple readings and musings.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ghosts of yesterday..., March 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Day John Met Paul: An Hour-By-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began (Paperback)

This is a beautifully atmospheric tale. The writing is so skilled you forget that you're reading; it's like someone is whispering in your ear. You can practically smell the beer on young John Lennon's breath. This is a wonderfully detailed, lovingly told and quite original addition to the Beatles collection of any serious fan. Few rock bios actually touch your heart; few even try. This one does. It's absolutely haunting.