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List Price: $22.50 | | Publisher: Universe
Salesrank: 427451
Released: February 7, 2006 |
| Our Price: $6.52 |
| Used Price: $1.24 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
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!
The Beatles Complete Discography Reviews:
Concept: excellent...Results: flawed 
2009-09-05 - I like this book. It's a great little reference text that does a good job summarizing the Beatles recorded output with emphasis on the UK discography (of course) but good treatment of the US versions as well. The album cover photos are excellent and the writing is for the most part entertaining. While the book's small dimensions make it ideal as a traveling companion I would have preferred a slightly larger size, fewer pages, and larger print. So far, it rates a 4. But...the author's laziness knocks it down another notch. As already pointed out, there are obvious errors on who plays what instruments (McCartney's drumming on "Back In The USSR" and "Dear Prudence" is well established). I was also disappointed to see Russell regurgitate the debunked myth about the reason for the original "Yesterday...And Today" butcher cover. It was never a protest against Capitol Records' supposed "butchering" of their UK albums! I can only surmise that Russell thought it was time for an update but apparently not for an accurate one! Such errors are relatively few but still unforgivable.
The so-called "Table of Contents" is also lacking. For example, Russell refers to "Chapter 50 Alternative Versions", but there are no chapter divisions...none! You have to check the index at the back of the book to find page references! I doubt there will be another edition of this book (not counting the highly anticipated 9-9-09 remasters, the only official Beatles products not in the book are the Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 and the "Love" CD) but if there is, Russell has ample opportunity (with little effort) to improve this rating to a 4...and possibly even a 5. Summary: Good little book but far from definitive.
1982 errors still intact 
2007-11-24 - While this book has been updated from its 1982 incarnation in the sense that it includes all the releases since then, many of the inaccuracies contained in the original are preserved here, making it a very dubious purchase for anyone interested in more than album covers and track listings.
Some of the errors were forgivable 25 years ago, when the recording data was still largely unknown, but since then there have been Lewisohn and Winn and others who've unearthed the facts, and to ignore them now smacks of of laziness, and a desire to make a fast buck from an old book with minimal extra work. It doesn't even require any real scholarship, just cross-referencing of what others have done.
Two glaring examples: Ringo is still credited with drums on Back In The USSR and Dear Prudence, when it's been established beyond dispute that Paul drummed on both; Ringo having temporarily left the band at the time. And then the album version of Get Back, where the 1982 entry repeats the observation word-for-word that for a live version the quality is comparable to the studio single. Both are of course the same recording, with different codas edited on.
If these kinds of errors mean nothing to you, then the book is an OK buy. It's compact, compactly-written and the album covers look pretty.
But if you really care about the recording information, of which this claims to be an accurate resource, look elsewhere, staring with Lewisohn and Winn, with some Ian Macdonald for colour.
Good book to have. 
2006-08-19 - This is a small, CD-sized book, but it's very handy to have around for quick referencing. It's full of up-to-date info about all commercially released U.K. and U.S. records and CDs, including details about the recording of songs. Also included are the Hamburg, Decca, and Star-Club recordings. It's interesting to just thumb through this book.
Very disappointed.
2006-03-11 - I do not like the format! The book is about the size of a CD and for a reference book this makes the print way too small. There are lots of typos. Release dates pending for albums that have been out for years. For a book that they've had so much time to work on it looks as if it was rushed to print. Maybe they should have looked at the last edition. The only thing good I can say is that I like the color pictures and the new additions, ie. Anthologies and Capitol CD's.
