The Beatles follows the extraordinary development of four self-taught musicians from Liverpool, from their beginnings, until the break-up in 1970. This biography sets the groups evolution against the backdrop of a popular culture explosion in the 1960s. A serious study of the Beatles music is expanded here by consideration not only of the groups commercially released disks but also of rare working tapes which both shed light on the compositional process and reveal how many of their milestone recordings took shape in the studio. It also examines why the innovative music of the Beatles created, at least initially, as ephemera has remained so durable.