George Harrison, Brian Epstein, and John Lennon during the Beatles’ tour of Japan, 1965.

The Fifth Beatle

While John, Paul, George, and Ringo became the most recognizable names in the world, Brian Epstein worked behind the scenes to keep the boys together. Nearly 60 years on, we revisit his memoir

By Craig Brown

With his polite side parting, unflashy suits, diffident manner and public-school accent, Brian Epstein appeared much more mature than the Beatles. In interviews, he would call them “my boys” or “the boys”; they would always refer to him as “Mr Epstein”.

So it comes as a surprise to realize he was only six years older than John and Ringo. In April 1964, when he embarked on his memoir, A Cellarful of Noise, he was 29. That same month the first five places in the American Top Ten were occupied by the Beatles, and there were a further seven Beatles’ singles in the Top 100, along with two songs about them — We Love You Beatles by the Carefrees and A Letter to the Beatles by the Four Preps.