Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records
Spizer chronologically works his way through the 45 rpm singles, then the LPs, then the EPs and finally includes a section that covers a range of related topics, from histories of EMI and 33 1/3 rpm longplaying albums to trail-off area markings on vinyl LPs, the printing of labels, demo discs and Palophone's sister EMI labels. For each recording you get the release history, quotes from reviews, interesting notes about how The Beatles wrote the song and created the recording in the studio, how the label promoted and marketed the record and, of course, this being Spizer, everything you could possibly want to know about all the different release variations. If you've collected Spizer's earlier efforts, you'll definately want this one. And if you've never delved into one of Spizer's discographies, you might want to make this your first, as it covers the entire period from 1962 up through the breakup in 1970. I don't know of a better single-volume history of The Beatles' recordings. --William P. King, Beatlefan, July-Aug 2011