Rating: 
Summary: The BEST book for BEATLE fans!
Review: 5 Stars are not enough. I have gone to this book too many times to count. It has very well written and organized entries on every song the BEATLES recorded. I enjoy the little tid-bits of information the author has compiled, EXAMPLE: did you know Ringo Star is really a left handed drummer using a right handed kit? I didn't! It's information like this that makes BEATLESONGS a book for every fan of the Fab-Four.
Rating:
Summary: Great Companion To The Greatest Music Around
Review: A wonderful companion to the Beatles CDs (not including Anthology). Fabulous in providing background on who wrote what, who played on what songs, and how these songs came about. This is one of the best, well researched volumes on the Beatles' music around today.
Rating:
Summary: Beatlesongs is an invaluable guide.
Review: Almost every time I listen to a Beatles song, questions pop into my head. Who sang lead? Who wrote this song? What was that weird sound near the end? What in the world is the meaning behind that metaphor? Have any other artists recorded this song? How did it do on the charts? Beatlesongs is always nearby my stereo, because it can answer most of these questions about every single song released by the Beatles. It covers each song thoroughly, giving valuable information that can make a lot of difference in how you think about and listen to (for me the same thing) a song. It is a great choice for anyone who wants to learn more about individual songs of the Beatles.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent companion book
Review: An excellent companion book. I find myself constantly referring to when I listen to Beatle songs. The information on who played what, who wrote what is all there. The only disappointment is that I'd like to have had more beatle quotes. Some excellent songs have no quotes at all. Quotes from others are interesting also.
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Summary: Beatlesongs Satisfies Fab Four Curiosity-Seekers
Review: Author Dowdling coalesces Beatles anecdotes from the familiar to the arcane in a clever and involving reference work that individually summarizes, album by album, each and every song by the legendary group. Drawing from a wide-variety of well-documented sources, Beatlesongs is at its most fascinating when it unearths contradictory stories regarding the creation of any given single.
Rating:
Summary: VERY informative and objective; right on the money
Review: Beatlesongs is THE book for the stories behind the songs by one of the best musical groups of all time. It gives all the facts (who wrote the song, when it was recorded, etc.)as well as critical views of the songs (comments from Beatles and others). This book also shows discrepancies in the facts behind the music. Arranged in a well-organized format, it is the ideal Beatle reference book. It has settled many disputes about the music for me personally. All in all, this is a wonderful book. It is well researched, and anyone would be hard pressed to prove any of the information presented therein wrong. I consider it a must-have for any true Beatle fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Inconsistent
Review: For example: it says that no one played drums on Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, when anyone with ears can tell a nice drumset in the background.
It is also inconsistent in regards to authorship. For Piggies, it gives a relative of George partial credit for adding one line, but it earlier mentioned that Ringo added a line in Eleanor Rigby, but gives him no credit. Frankly, the authorship ratios seem to be pulled out of thin air. Not method is given for how they were concluded.
I know this review was harsher than the 3 stars I gave it, but I need to point out the flaws in this book since almost no reviewer did that.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine Book, but how reliable is it?
Review: Great book to read for it gives the instruments played during each track. It also gives the authorship of every Beatle song ever written. Some of the sources of the instrumentation isn't reliable. For example, on "Taxman" George is listed as playing lead guitar. True, but the solo belongs to Paul McCartney as is indicated from a Harrison quote.
Another problem with the book are quotes mainly from Lennon where Lennon makes a statement about a song then contradicts himself in later interviews. "Day Tripper" was a song he was mainly responsible for writing, however, he admitted Paul helped him on the verses. In a later interview he makes the remark that the song is his completely. McCartney also contradicts himself in his book "Many Years From Now" where the 1984 Playboy interview he states "Help" was John's song. In "Many Years From Now" he claims 30% authorship to himself.
Memories can be very unreliable and can change over time. From my own view, there were a few times Lennon and McCartney were exaggerating their contributions. Lennon claimed he was largely responsible for "Eleanor Rigby", which wasn't true according to Peter Shotten. The truth according to Pete Shotten was McCartney wrote it with minimal help from George, Ringo, and Lennon. He even remembered Ringo suggesting "darning his socks in the night" line to Paul. In "Many Years From Now", McCartney seems to be taking credit to a lot of John's more clever songs like "Girl", "Ticket To Ride", and "Norwegian Wood." Without John around to dispute these claims, it is quite difficult to see whether or not they are true.
The main reason to buy this book is for the instrumentation listing which is for the most part pretty accurate. Paul plugs in a piano to a guitar amplifier in "Birthday" to get the funky sound. Lennon plays lead guitar and Harrison bass guitar. Lennon writes the intro to "Penny Lane" on piano out of frustration, which they wound up using. McCartney gets the mellotron to play flutes in the intro of "Strawberry Fields." Pretty talented guys, huh?
Rating:
Summary: Very informative on individual songs.
Review: I enjoyed Beatlesongs very much due to it's contents and organization. The book was easy to follow and covered most of the Beatles material in order that it was produced. The comments were very informative. Mr. Dowlding did a lot of research and put a very good book together. Reading the book you kind of get a feel for what the beatles were going through and the events that eventually led to their breakup. It was also interesting to find out the different instruments that each Beatle played and the number of different studio tricks that they used. I would recommend this book to any true Beatles fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as reliable as folks might believe
Review: I hate to be the sole dissenter here, but while "Beatlesongs" is an entertaining book to read, far too many of the "facts" articulated are incorrect.The author has compiled information from numerous sources, but he has relied on far too many faulty ones. The most serious problems are found in the descriptions - lauded by many readers here - of which group member performed on the songs, and which parts they played. Mr. Dowlding seems to use as a source an older, similar and terribly flawed tome from the early 80's that was riddled with errors. The great number of references to John Lennon playing "lead guitar" are the most striking, since that rarely occurred ("Get Back", "Come Together" being definite times it did). It's a fun book, but it is far from a definitive reference source. For that, readers are urged to read "Chronicle" by Mark Lewisohn; that book is THE reference source for details on the recording and performing careers of the Beatles.
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