Dummies.”

That’s a good thing, by the way - because no matter how much we 1960s refugees assume the Fab Four are a permanent centerpiece of popular culture, the truth is that many fine, upstanding young music fans today still need to meet the Beatles.

“On Record” tracks the group’s music from the Cavern Club in 1962 to the rooftop show in 1969. …

It’s an in-house production, directed by Bob Smeaton Apple Corps, and accordingly, it pays zero attention to the personal drama that finally broke up the band.

So for deep Beatles fans and scholars who find the internal tension fascinating or critical, “On Record” provides no new insight.

On the other hand, those who really only care about the music should be delighted.

The show follows the group from its basic R&B-influenced tunes of the early days through the growing sophistication of “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver” into “Sgt. Pepper,” the White Album and “Yellow Submarine” and “Abbey Road.”

By then, John Lennon Ringo Starr themselves sensed the end was near, which we know because we see interviews in which they say so.

In fact, “On Record” is narrated entirely by the four Beatles and their producer, George Martin, as seen in vintage interviews from the Apple archives.

So yes, the whole thing is a clip job. Again, in a good way.

Past Beatles documentaries have also explored the creation of Beatles’ music, at times focusing on something as narrow as the complex layering of “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

“On Record” takes a broader view. While the hour is filled with Beatles music, it’s almost all the recorded versions of the songs we know, from “Please Please Me” and “Help” to “A Day in the Life,” “Blackbird” and “Let It Be.”

The band members’ own commentary is charming if not revelatory. In the beginning, Harrison speculates that the group might last “four years.” Lennon says that even when they were all at odds toward the end, they still “gave 1,000%” to the music.

He’s got that right. However it was created, the music is extraordinarily durable, like the golden-age pop of a generation before.

People who hear it like it. So even if “On Record” won’t offer much insight to the hard-core fan, it’s the solid intro course that everyone at some point needs.

dhinckley@nydailynews.com

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