All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release
*Starred Review* This hefty gem of a book catalogs every recording released by the Beatles, in chronological order of album release. The Beatles were early adopters of available technology and were known for using innovative techniques, and this book admirably captures the recording process of their English catalog, including all the singles and studio albums. Each song gets a minimum two-page spread, featuring the credits for the recording, a section on the genesis of the song, a narrative on the production, and a paragraph on technical details. While the bulk of the material is not new information, Guesdon and Margotin have done extensive research. They know their stuff (Guesdon is a musician; Margotin, a music critic), and it shows—especially in the Production and Technical Details sections, where the type of equipment is named and described, recording speeds are discussed, and there is much talk of the number of takes each song required and why. Footnotes are found in each entry. Side boxes of trivia (For Beatles Fanatics) are posted throughout, letting readers in on such trivia as If you listen carefully, you can make out an extra voice in the solo part at exactly 1:32 on Any Time at All. Large-scale black-and-white photos abound, with color shots popping up as well. A short glossary of technical and musical terms, an index of albums and songs, a list of release dates, and a general index round out the work.Comprehensive and entertaining, this is a good reference source of music trivia and a must for the circulating collections of most public and academic libraries. Beatles fans will be clamoring for this one. --Rebecca Vnuk