She Loves Them. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

I'm listening to Alfred Molina reading Bob Spitz's biography of the Beatles that got a lot of attention when it came out in print last year. And, just to be obsessive, I've also decided to watch the Beatles Anthology DVDs straight through for about the fourth time.

The Little(st) Princess, who shares a birthday with Paul McCartney and totally digs Ticket to Ride above all else, was watching part of the Anthology with me tonight. It was the episode where Beatlemania first takes hold in England, when they have their first number one records, but before they come to America. Fall of 1963. Ringo had just joined a few months earlier and everything had suddenly clicked. They were at the height of their powers as a live band, beginning to become a polished live act, with the hair and the suits and the bows at the end of each number.

There's a clip of them playing their new single at the time, She Loves You. It's not the same as this clip, but you can get the idea:

The one on the Anthology is better. Anyway, after they finished the last "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahhh" and they bowed and the screaming faded out, The Little(st) Princess paused, took a breath, then said in a level, even voice, "That was awesome." And you know what? She's right. It was. Is.

Then there was a short clip of the Rolling Stones playing I Want To Be Your Man, followed by the Beatles doing their version. The Little(st) Princess said, "Phhht... I like the Beatles better than the Rolling Stones." Good girl. (I didn't tell her that Mommy was a Who fan, of all things, or that they staggered on stage in Hershey, of all places, last night.)

Meanwhile, Apple (Records) and Apple (Computers) are going to put the Beatles on iTunes. About time. This will goose the digital music market the same way the release of their albums on compact disc helped that technology take hold 20 years ago.

Oh, so anyway, I'm not seeing what's so great about the Spitz book. His gimmick seems to be that he tracked down some of the old Liverpool crew and fleshed out a few incidents and background details. Other than that, it's basic cereal box history. It can't compare to the multimedia Anthology. But they haven't even hit America yet, so I'll give it a chance.