Here, There, and Everywhere: The 100 Best Beatles Songs

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous and Informative
Review: Being such an avid fan of the Beatles, I thought I knew everything there was to know about them and their music. Not true! The authors did an amazing job. First, to narrow it down, by polling REAL fans, then, to research each song so thoroughly. They tell us the origin of each song...and many details that I, and many others, were undoubtedly unaware of. This is a well written, unique book about the "Fab 4". The photo's are wonderful as well. Do not miss this book! It truely is the best one yet! A personal recommandation...listen to the song, then read about how it "came to be". Kaitlyn

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous and Informative
Review: Being such an avid fan of the Beatles, I thought I knew everything there was to know about them and their music. Not true! The authors did an amazing job. First, to narrow it down, by polling REAL fans, then, to research each song so thoroughly. They tell us the origin of each song...and many details that I, and many others, were undoubtedly unaware of. This is a well written, unique book about the "Fab 4". The photo's are wonderful as well. Do not miss this book! It truely is the best one yet! A personal recommandation...listen to the song, then read about how it "came to be". Kaitlyn

Rating:
Summary: I Like It...
Review: Picked this up as an impulse buy...a hardback Beatles' book at a very reasonable price? Why not. Once home, I got into it. Very neat, easy to read/use, & very entertaining. Each of the 100 songs receives 3-4 pages of commentary. Each tune gets both authors' "What We Really Like About This Song" + "What This Song Is About" + "Did You Know?" + some factual info regarding the recording session & who played what instrument.
Not as heavy as Mark Lewisohn's "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions"...Spignesi & Lewis' book is more about fun. IMO, a worthy addition to any collector of Beatles' books(I have about 20)...would definitely be a great first book for anyone wanting to read about the songs they've listened to & loved all these years.

Rating:
Summary: Great fun
Review: Sure it's subjective, but it's fun to see what two other Beatle fans consider to be the best songs and what their arguments are. Certainly gets your juices flowing when Don't let me down makes the cut but Tell me why and Yellow Submarine don't!
Reads easily and great fun for any Beatle fan.

Rating:
Summary: Great Insight but....
Review: The idea of this book is great. A detailed description, with a little commentary, gives you more insight into a song than you ever thought possible. And obviously everyone's best of list is going to be different. But I would like to see a little more diversity. I mean, Yesterday is a great song and all, but their hits have been talked about and written about for thirty years. I would like to know more about lesser known songs because some of them are a lot more interesting than Yesterday. But for what's it worth, a detailed description about the recording process gives loads more insight than any schmoe's supposed firsthand account about the Beatles fighting. Yeah, we know they fought. La de da.

Rating:
Summary: Good but...
Review: This is a pretty informative book if you're interested in learning about some of the Beatles' best-known recordings. But as this is really an objective work, it definitely loses a bit of appeal since over 100 Beatle songs are not included, including what are bound to be some of your personal favorites.

It would have been much better had the authors simply decided to write about every Beatles song. "Not a Second Time" is a great song, with a terrific background (one reviewer stumped John Lennon by calling the song "Aeolian"), and yet it is passed over in favor of the rambling "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."

As with the ranking itself, much of the text is opinion. For each song, the authors glorify themselves with a box explaining what they like about the song. That's nice, guys, but I bought the book to learn about the history of the songs, not what you two think about them. I can make up my own opinions of them, thank you very much.

I'd suggest purchasing the book Beatlesongs by William Dowdling first, and then if you're interested in learning more, buy this book. For most people, Dowlding's tome should be enough to satisfy.