A DAY IN THE LIFE: THE MUSIC AND ARTISTRY OF THE BEATLES Mark Hertsgaard (Delacorte, $23.95) They wrote and played some of this century's greatest music, and at the height of their powers they rode the wave of a hysteria that ultimately drowned out their sound. The Beatles have long been the subject of books, many viewing the group chronologically or biographically and losing sight of the music that was the band's creative foundation. Hertsgaard has written a study of that music and its creators that puts the Beatles phenomenon in the right perspective. His Beatles are a cheeky yet soulful lot of inventors, restless musical autodidacts rooted in blues and R&B, ambassadors of a culture they, and such counterparts as Bob Dylan, were creating. With the detail of a musicologist and the passion of a fan, Hertsgaard charts the ''eyeball to eyeball'' evolution of Lennon and McCartney and explores how their similar painful losses in childhood wedded them in music history. In brisk, refreshing prose, he makes sense of the singers -- and the success -- by way of the song. B
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