I loved the coverage of what's been happening to the Holly legend since his death in 1959. All the quotes, especially those from the English bands, are invaluable. The letter from John Lennon to the author, dated 1974 and copied in the book, in which Lennon talks about Holly's effect on the Beatles, is worth the book's price alone.

This book goes through the life of Buddy Holly via a series of quotations by friends, relatives, acquaintances and others whose lives and careers he touched. As a quick overview of his life, those with little knowledge of Buddy Holly's life and career should find this book interesting. How he influenced John Lennon of the Beatles is fascinating to read in Lennon's own words. For those more knowlegable of the Buddy's life, this is a fascinating read. Although I knew most of the facts of his life, I found it interesting to read of his life through the words of those who were influenced by him. The British Invasion of the early 1960's was precipitated by Buddy Holly and the Crickets' tour of England. This is an enjoyable, interesting and easy to read book. I recommend it to all Buddy Holly fans.

I read an extract from this book in THE INDEPENDENT (UK national newspaper) of March 4th 1998. The extract gave the story behind the writing of the Stones' "Satisfaction" which fascinated me, making me want to read the book. I'm delighted to find it is available in the U.S..

Few would argue that the Beatles are the most well-documented and critiqued act in entertainment. Admist a vast sea of literature, there are bound to be books that don't necessarily give those who are casually interested in the Beatles or those who are avid fans the best and most interesting source of information. This book is one of those examples. To the casual fan, the book will mean nothing since it does not serve as an introduction to the group's history. More notably, to the more serious fan, the book presents nothing new -- these "myths" have been known and understood for years. For example, it's safe to say that a handful of them stemmed from Philip Norman's "Shout" and Nicholas Schaffner's "The Beatles Forever" - two far more superior books, but not without their flaws and questionable interpretations. If you are an avid fan or a more serious Beatle "scholar", you may want to skim through this book as I did and see the humor in it. Then, toss it in the pile of other trivial Beatle books to recycle. If you are a casual fan and want more of an introduction to the greatest rock act of all time (including all the "mythology"), you are better off investing your hard-earned money elsewhere.

Obviously, Spencer Leigh and Alan Clayson haven't written enough books on the Beatles....here's another one...sighhh. I wonder if either of them have ever had a real life and have ever experienced (or accomplished) anything for themselves, and not through (on the coat tails of) the Beatles. Nonetheless, their rantings and ravings on all types of non-interesting topics and tidbits of the Beatles in this book makes it so obvious that they have nothing left interesting to say and that this is just another chance to remind the world that they are out there and are desparate to be heard. Here's another myth debunked: This book is worth buying.

Alan Clayson (author of many music related books - including biographies on John, Paul, George and Ringo) and Spencer Leigh (also an established author, e.g. "Drummed Out - The Sacking Of Pete Best") have gotten together to once and for always put paid to the many, many misconceptions that exist around The Beatles. Misconceptions which seem to crop up in almost any new tome about the Fab Four, as there would seem to be very much copying and very little proper research going on.
As the title indicates, there are 101 topics in this book, each in a separate chapter for easy reference. A lot of the topics described here are of course already known to avid Beatle collectors, but there might well be a few things in this book that might surprise you. For instance, I didn't know that "Love Me Do" was not the first Beatle lyric ever to appear on an official record. It turns out that Johnny Gentle recorded a song called "I've Just Fallen For Someone" under the name of Darren Young. This song features a middle eight by John Lennon and was recorded and released (July 1962) prior to "Love Me Do" which was released a few weeks later!
And for any would be author of a new book on John or indeed all four: This book once again proves that John was NOT born during a luftwaffe bombing raid! Many, many books claim that he was (some even claiming that the raid was particularly fierce on Wednesday morning 06:30 on October 6, 1940) but the Liverpool Echo for that week confirms that there wasn't a single German aeroplane over the city for that night or even the following night!. Let's hope we won't encounter that mistake again in any new books about The Beatles.
So, all in all a very pleasant book to pick up every now and again to check on certain topics and certainly a must buy for anyone planning to write anything at all on the Fab Four!