“A must-have for Beatles fans looking for new insight . . . Leonard uncovers fresh ideas [that] . . . six decades of Beatles literature passed over." — The Spectrum Part generational memoir and part cultural history of the sixties, Beatleness is the first book to tell the story of the Beatles and their impact on America from the fans’ perspective. When the Beatles arrived in the United States on February 7, 1964, they immediately became a constant, compelling presence in fans’ lives. For the next six years, the band presented a nonstop deluge of steadily evolving sounds, ideas, and images that transformed the childhood and adolescence of millions of baby boomers and nurtured a relationship unique in history. Exploring that relationship against the backdrop of the sexual revolution, political assassinations, the Vietnam War, and other events, Beatleness examines critically the often-heard assertion that the Beatles “changed everything” and shows how—through the interplay between the group, the fans, and the culture—that change came about. Beatleness incorporates hundreds of hours of in-depth fan interviews and includes many fan vignettes. Offering a fresh perspective and new insights on the Beatles phenomenon, it allows readers to experience—or re-experience—what it was like to be a young person during those transformative years. "This fun and insightful study of pop music fandom is recommended both to older Beatlemaniacs who were there and to younger fans who want to know what it was like to be a part of the phenomenon.” — Library Journal “A must-have for Beatles fans looking for new insight . . . Leonard uncovers fresh ideas [that] . . . six decades of Beatles literature passed over by shifting attention from the Beatles’ personal and professional lives to their fans’ stories. . . . Leonard’s ability to mesh both a strong narrative style and her research adds concrete scenes readers can enjoy and picture throughout the book.” —Payton Davis, thespectrum.com “A book like no other . . . Highly recommended to anyone who was alive when the Beatles rocked our world, or for those who came later that want to visit Beatle magic for the first time.” —Lauren Passarelli, guitar professor and Beatles expert, Berklee College of Music “Explores a vital, yet overlooked aspect of the Beatles’ phenomenon, and the many quotes from fans provide invaluable perspective on the band’s impact on US teens during the sixties.” — The Glass Onion Beatles Journal “For once, a book about the Beatles that differs . . . from the ones that have gone before. Beatleness is a look at the meaning of the Beatles to the ‘first generation’ . . . Told through numerous perspectives, it traces the five-year journey of these fans along with the Beatles from their debut, their progression and their end in May 1970. . . . A worthwhile and deeply interesting read . . . Highly recommended.” —Rob Ross, Popdose “Candy Leonard explores new ground in this glorious examination of how the four lads from Liverpool changed our lives. Beatleness is the story of you, me, and millions of other baby boomers that grew up loving the Beatles.” —Chachi Loprete, host of Breakfast with The Beatles , WZLX Radio, Boston “A fascinating study of the Beatles’ resounding impact upon late-twentieth-century American culture. . . . While hundreds of Beatles books stake claims about being the definitive work, Leonard’s Beatleness finally gets to the heart of the matter, offering readers new insights into the unusual and lasting nature of Beatles fandom.” —Kenneth Womack, author of Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles and The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four “As a college-level Beatles instructor, I find Dr. Leonard’s work accessible to students new to the fields of sociology and critical cultural studies. This text puts the ‘popular’ back in popular culture studies. What Howard Zinn accomplished in A Peoples History of the United States, Dr. Leonard achieves in Beatleness , a true People’s History of The Beatles.” —David Gallant, Suffolk University, Boston “There have been many books through the years about the Beatles, but Candy Leonard’s Beatleness stands out. It’s a wonderful analysis of the Beatles and Beatlemania that will make Beatle fans smile because they can relate to it and see themselves in it. There have been many attempts over the years to describe how the Beatles affected their fans and the world. Pick up Beatleness and discover the Beatles all over again.” —Steve Marinucci, Beatles Examiner “Unique among Beatle books—and I’ve read just about all of them— Beatleness is a heartfelt exploration of the relationship between the lads from Liverpool and first-generation fans, showing how that relationship changed all of us. You will find yourself in these pages, and you will love what you read.” —Jude Southerland Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series “Leonard manages to find a new angle of appr