Awards

• Commended for Independent Publisher Book Awards (Performing Arts) 2014

Overview

All the Songs delves deep into the history and origins of the Beatles and their music. This first-of-its-kind book draws upon decades of research, as music historians Margotin and Guesdon recount the circumstances that led to the composition of every song, the recording process, and the instruments used. Here, we learn that one of John Lennon's favourite guitars was a 1958 Rickenbacker 325 Capri, which he bought for $100 in 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. We also learn that 'Love Me Do,' recorded in Abbey Road Studios in September 1962, took 18 takes to get right, even though it was one of the first songs John and Paul ever wrote together. And the authors reveal that when the Beatles performed 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, John's microphone wasn't turned on, so viewers heard only Paul singing.The hundreds of photographs throughout the book include rare black-and-white publicity stills, images of Beatles instruments, and engaging shots of the musicians in-studio. All the Songs is the must-have Beatles book for the any true Beatles fan.

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9781579129521

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Reviews

Since they burst onto the scene 50 years ago, millions of words have been written about every aspect of the Beatles' music and career, from books aimed at teenage female fans to scholarly works deconstructing The White Album. Now comes All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release, an exhaustive tome that gives the inside scoop on every song on every album from their debut, Please Please Me, to their swan song, Abbey Road, as well as all the singles, EPs and B-sides they produced between 1963 and 1970. The book, which is arranged chronologically, is a collaboration between French music writer Philippe Margotin, who has penned books on U2 and the Rolling Stones, and musician Jean-Michel Guesdon, who has spent 30 years collecting information about the Fab Four. All the Songs is a trove of trivia for even the most ardent Beatles fan, featuring facts ranging from who played which instrument on each song to when and where each song was recorded. Margotin and Guesdon also include how many takes each song required as well as who was in the studio when the songs were recorded. While many of the stories behind the songs will be familiar to Beatles fans the classic Yesterday originally was titled Scambled Eggs, the title for A Hard Day's Night came from a Ringo Starr malapropism, Eric Clapton played the blistering guitar solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps there are plenty of others that are obscure enough to keep fans reading. Among some of the more interesting revelations: Several of the songs on Help! You're Going to Lose that Girl, Ticket to Ride and Yesterday required only two takes, while the band got Another Girl right on the very first one. In contrast, the album's title tune took 12 takes while the band's cover of the Buck Owens' Act Naturally needed 13. Paul McCartney wrote the ballad Michelle when he was a student at the Liverpool Institute of Art, inserting French phrases into the song as a ploy to attract women. Members of Pink Floyd, who were recording their first LP The Piper at the Gates of Dawn at Abbey Road studios at the same time the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, sat in the control room while the Beatles mixed the song Lovely Rita in March 1967. There is a discernable burst of profanity at the 2:59 mark in the song Hey Jude, although there is disagreement about whether it was uttered by John Lennon or McCartney. One of Lennon's favorite guitars was a 1958 Rickenbacker Capri, which he bought on a whim for about $150 when the Beatles were cutting their musical chops in Hamburg, Germany, in 1960. He played the guitar, which he had repainted black, on The Ed Sullivan Show and used it in the studio until 1965. His widow, Yoko Ono, said he also used it on Double Fantasy, the last album Lennon recorded before his death in 1980. In addition to the stories behind the songs, the book also contains hundreds of photos from all phases of the Beatles' career, many of them rarely seen. Added together, All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release is an engaging journey through the band's canon that should easily satisfy both casual and die-hard fans.

French musician Guesdon and music writer Margotin take an exhaustive look at the Beatles' repertoire in the meticulously researched title. Arranged chronologically by album, the book includes for each song basic information (songwriter, track length, number of takes, etc.), a brief discussion of how it was written and recorded, and an overall assessment. While the authors include thorough technical details about sound engineering and production, numerous anecdotes and quotations from the group keep the book entertaining and accessible even to more casual music fans. The design further enhances the title's appeal: yellow boxes with trivia for Beatles fanatics are interspersed throughout, and an arrary of photographs features images of the group over the course of their career. Biographical information is incorporated where relevant; however, the emphais here is on the group as they functioned within the studio, and readers will come away with a rich and rewarding appreciation of the Fab Four's innovative and evolving work. VERDICT Although some of the content may be familiar to die-hard Beatles aficionados, most pop music fans will enjoy this engaging and comprehensive guide. Highly recommended.--Mahnaz Dar Library Journal

Impossible not to like for Beatle-types

A perfect giftt for the Fab-Four fanatic The Nation

Author Information

Jean-Michel Guesdon, a musician, composer, and sound engineer. Together with Philippe Margotin, he has written All the Songs books about the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Pink Floyd. Outside of the All the Songs series, Philippe Margotin has written numerous books on music, including biographies of U2 and Radiohead. They both live in Paris. Scott Freiman combines his career as a composer, producer, and educator with his in-depth knowledge of the Beatles to create Deconstructing the Beatles, a series of multimedia presentations about the composition and production techniques of the Fab Four. Freiman presents his lectures to sold-out audiences throughout North America and at colleges and universities. He lives in Irvington, New York.

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