A tour de force that looks at every one of the Beatles songs and gives the details behind them, both known and rumors (indicating the rumors with a ?). A lot of pictures of the Fab Four, who always seemed to be in just the right pose to make the picture look artistic, complement the work. Discussions of the songs and albums center around the British releases, but the authors provide information about the American releases, as well. There is also abundant information about the lives of the Beatles, their loves, and their petty (and not so petty) quarrels. A must read for any Beatles fan. ( )

Note: I read the first third of this story as a digital ARC from NetGalley, but received the book in print for Christmas, so I finished reading in that format.

This is a hefty, hefty book, but it'll end up being a must-own for Beatles fans. A large portion of the book is devoted to photographs, so it's not a demanding read and there are lots of interesting tidbits for diehard fans, although some of them are common knowledge by this point (eg. John shredding his vocals on "Twist and Shout").

Fans with a background in music will find even more to appreciate, as the instruments and technical details are reported for each song. I skimmed over much of this, but I still found much to appreciate. In the future, I want to read each section and listen to the appropriate album to pick up on the small details mentioned by the authors.

This book won't give you the multi-faceted view of the Beatles the way other biographies have, but that is also not the book's intent. I think it works best as a companion to the substantial amount of Beatles literature, and it's definitely an eye catching book to put out on the coffee table.

A small distraction for me was the author's liberal use of unwarranted exclamation points. Not a major concern, but it was frequent enough for me to take notice. ( )