The Beatles Complete Discography

by Jeff Russell

The Beatles Complete Discography is the only one-stop resource that lists all the complete recordings by the Beatles—including full background details for each recording and complete musical credits, as well as reproductions of album sleeves. All this is contained in a compact format that lends itself to browsing or makes a perfect gift. This volume is a fully revised and updated edition of the directory of the Beatles' recorded work from 1961 to the present. It was acclaimed upon first publication as the only resource to list their complete recordings and to give full background details and musical credits for each recording. This updated version is complete and includes everything ever recorded by John, Paul, Ringo, and George—the British albums, the American albums, even the Christmas albums. The Beatles Complete Discography is the perfect companion for any fan or collector!

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Ville-Turkka Paukkonen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposed to be some sort of reference book, but it contains so much inaccurate or just plain false information that it is completely useless. The author attempts to list exact instrumental credits for each Beatles song, but seems to be guessing most of the time, and not always very well (Ringo played drums on Back in the USSR? Paul played bass on She Said She Said? John played lead guitar on Let It Be? George played violin on Don't Pass Me By? John didn't sing backing vocals on Eleanor Rigby but did on Here Comes the Sun? Electric pianos are organs? John, Paul and George all sung lead vocals on Nowhere Man but Yoko singing one line on her own on Bungalow Bill counts as a harmony vocal?). I could easily list a hundred examples and probably wouldn't even make it halfway through the book. Get Ian McDonald's Revolution in the Head instead.

[Brian Haining · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Jeff tracks the Beatles recordings and record releases detailing the individual tracks, including who played what and an overview of each album. There were sometimes differences between the titles and track listings released in the UK and US. The original albums ceased in 1970 when the group split up. However, Jeff goes on to detail all the follow-up albums, including live recordings, alternative takes, different compilations, and new recordings for the 1990's anthology records, as the record companies continued to 'squeeze the lemon'. The book is written in great detail and acts as a reference point for the music and record releases of The Beatles

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like the holy grail for Beatles fans – it’s effectively a printed database of every Beatles album that was ever released, including all of the variations that were released across the world, with comprehensive notes about the tracks which appear upon them.

Each song includes all of the information that you’re ever likely to need, including the length of the track, the personnel who feature on the recording, the dates and locations of the recording sessions, and a summary by the author, which highlights interesting trivia that even the most hardened Beatles fan might not happen to know.

It’s clearly a very well-written and very well-researched collection of information, but I do feel like it was difficult to just ‘read’ – it’s the sort of book that someone might keep in the bathroom or something, because you can only really dip in and out of it. It gets kind of overwhelming if you try to read it from start to finish, like I did.

The actual physical dimensions of the book are unusual, too – it’s square–shaped, which makes it stand out on my bookcase, and which is presumably an aesthetic choice to try to make the book more of a collector’s item or a novelty item. I think more could have been done with the design and the layout, perhaps by pulling this together into an A4 sized hardback, but the information is there either way – it’s just that there’s probably a better way to present it.

I’m a huge Beatles fan, which made it a lot of fun for me to read, but I did have to dip in and out of it to try to keep my morale up, so I could make it to the end. This book isn’t necessarily for everyone, but if you do decide to go for it then it isn’t impossible to make it to the end – trust me, I’ve tried.

I also like the fact that Jeff Russell, the book’s author, is a Liverpudlian, and that he’s dedicated a large part of his life to The Beatles. You can really tell, because his enthusiasm comes across – it’s just that it’s a bit like the enthusiasm of a rabid train spotter who wants to tell you all about his hobby. It’s almost overenthusiastic, which you can’t necessarily complain about, but it can be almost overwhelming.

Still, if you’re a Beatles fan and you’re thinking about getting this, or if you know a Beatles fan and you’re thinking about getting it for them, there’s a lot worse that you could do. I’d recommend checking this out – why the hell not?

[Glen Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1982 publication was a favorite reference of mine for many years and in pre-internet days helped me sort out British and American albums and how they differed. It seemed well crafted and knowledgable at the time but flicking through it now I had to wonder about the accuracy of the information as it's over 30 years old. Author, Jeff Russell fails to cite any references so you have to accept his information on trust. I don't see it as a definitive resource but just another one of many worth consulting.
Very simply this book devotes it contents to all the UK and US albums, listing basic song information (length, composer, who played what) and a paragraph describing the track (technical, musical or historical.)
The strength of the book is it's ease of readability. The layout and typography is extremely well thought out and even without using the index, I found that I could always easily locate particular tracks or sections.
There is no solo work covered by the way, it's all Beatles group recordings. So nothing on Plastic Ono band recordings or post Beatle solo work. It does however, include pre-Please Please Me recordings and post-1970 compilation albums. So you get entries on Decca, the red and blue albums, rock and roll music, hollywood bowl, love songs, Beatles ballads, the Beatles Box, the two Rarities LPs and others. There are also chapters on "Recording Oddities" and "Unreleased tracks." Useful as these seemed at the time, I'd go to Mark Lewisohn for more authoratative information on this sort of thing. All up I'll give this 3 stars (just). It has merit and fans may find it useful as a ready reference but its not an essential read.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book to browse through from time to time.

[Edkallenn Lima · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alguns errinhos que os Beatlemaníacos (\o/) rapidamente identificam, mas no geral, um bom livro para quem gosta de detalhes de gravações.