Authentic and reliable Beatles websites?

A library should have a few books on the history of The Beatles. Sometimes paper works better than the Internet.

Use this as an object lesson in research! This is the sort of thing academic researchers run into all the time. Was Lassus born in 1532 or 1534? Could this piece have been composed by 1555, when the first performance of it that we know about was in 1560? Or, more recently: what we know as “facts” about Mozart, for instance, is a mix of actual facts, propaganda put out by his father (who surely profited by having a musical prodigy as a son), propaganda put out by Mozart himself, since he knew the publicity value of cultivating a mysterious public image, and hagiography by Mozart’s biographers in the 19th century.

See if your student can read through the different versions and come up with a summary that’s likely to be accurate while acknowledging the differences. This is likely to be better research than finding the one that’s “true.”

@cwilbur We have gone through that together. And he is an advanced student—but they are so vastly different that it is really tripping him up.

I would encourage him to use that as a part of his quest. Something as phenomenal as the Beatles requires a certain amount of mythology behind them. Every famous person has some sort of story that is not entirely true.

Steven Spielberg is a classic example. I have heard more stories of how that man got into the film business you’d think he has sixteen different careers

There are a number of excellent books written about The Beatles. If the student is looking for something a little more entertaining but still very informative, have him rent or purchase The Beatles Anthology. I know Blockbuster online has it available for rental, I’m not sure about in-store. I bought it and It is well worth the money.

What do you teach, @Supergirl?

Nice nickname, wish my teachers looked and acted more like supergirl (circa Smallville).

;-)