THE COMPLETE BEATLES CHRONICLE b<i> y Mark Lewisohn (Harmony Books: $40.; 368 pp.).</i>

If you had to pick two books about the Beatles, you’d probably want Mark Lewisohn’s “The Beatles Live!� and “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions�--the most detailed and accurate accounts of the group’s formative years and in-studio work ever written. If, however, you had to pick one book about the Beatles, Mark Lewisohn’s “The Complete Beatles Chronicle� would be the choice. It combines most of the out-of-print “Live!� and “Recording Sessions� in one volume, and adds a complete record of the Beatles’ radio and television appearances. Not just an encyclopedia of minutiae for students of the group’s history, “Chronicle� ultimately presents an engagingly written, sweeping, unbiased picture of the Beatles’ remarkable history, rivaled only by the reigning “definitive� biography, “Shout!� by Philip Norman (which contains a few factual errors and takes the dopey position that George Harrison was the “ultimate passenger.�) And Lewisohn--regarded by fans (and Beatles producer George Martin, who wrote the foreword) as the world’s leading authority on the group--unearths many little-known facts. Did you know there was once a full-fledged Beatle named Chas Newby?