The Beatles' Story
The Beatles' Story is the sixth US Capitol album by the English rock band, released on 23 November 1964. It is a documentary double album with interviews, press conferences, and short musical snippets, all tied together with voice-over narration. The liner notes called it a “narrative and musical biography” of Beatlemania. It was produced by Gary Usher and Roger Christian and narrated by John Babcock, Al Wiman, and Christian.
Capitol released it to compete with Vee-Jay’s Hear the Beatles Tell All and with unauthorized interview LPs from the radiolabels. The album reached number 7 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and was certified gold by the RIAA. In 2014, it was reissued as part of The U.S. Albums box set.
Capitol had originally planned to release a recording from the Beatles’ Hollywood Bowl concert (23 August 1964), but the sound quality wasn’t good enough. The album does include a 48-second excerpt of Twist and Shout from that show—the first record to include a Beatles live performance.
The program mixes interview audio and press conference clips with music, including segments about each Beatle (John, Paul, George, and Ringo) and their manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin. The Hollyridge Strings provided easy-listening versions of the songs. The narration was written by John Babcock, with Al Wiman and Christian voicing for KFWB Hollywood.
The cover features individual photos of the band above a Union Jack. The Beatles' Story stayed on the charts for 17 weeks, peaking at number 7 on 2 January 1965 while Beatles ‘65 was at number 1. It was certified gold on 31 December 1964 and was the fifth Capitol album released within a year of the band’s breakthrough in the U.S.
critics have mixed views: Barry Miles called the documentary exploitative, but fans bought it anyway; AllMusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine found it tedious; Darryl Sterdan of the Toronto Sun called it a cash-grab and a 50-minute mish-mash, though it still sold well.
The album also appeared in Canada and Japan (on Apple in stereo, with a boxed booklet). A planned 1996 digital audio tape release was scrapped when the format failed. In 2014, it was released on CD again as part of The U.S. Albums box set. Portions of the songs are included on the album.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:15 (CET).