A new interview with Hunter Davies, who published the Beatles' authorized biography in 1968 and author of the recent "Beatles Lyrics: The Unseen Story Behind Their Music."
My advance for The Beatles’ biography was modest – £3,000 – the same that I got for Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. When I got the contract for it in 1966 one of the directors of the publishing house said The Beatles were boring. To them it was just another book.
Then two things happened. Sgt Pepper came out and people realised that The Beatles were brilliant. Second, Brian Epstein offered a clause in the contract we had not asked for, nor thought about.
He said, I will guarantee that nobody else will have access to my boys for two years after your book comes out. The book came out in 1968. Two years later, in 1970, The Beatles had disbanded, so my book had become the only authorised one.
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