The Unreleased Beatles
by Richie Unterberger

It’s out there if you know where to look…

By now, virtually every aspect of The Beatles’ career has been covered to some degree, and studies of their unreleased recordings are no exception. One would think it impossible for The Unreleased Beatles to offer anything new, but Unterberger has two things going for him. Firstly, as new recordings keep surfacing among collectors, last year’s books are already out of date. Secondly, he’s decided to take a quantitative approach to the subject, presenting his book as a narrative, instead of bare bones, factual listing. You won’t find precise details about how long a particular unreleased take of I Saw Her Standing There is, but you will find enough description to get an idea of what the material sounds like. You wouldn’t pick up to verify a quick fact – this is a book you’ll actually want to read. Information on sound quality will be particularly useful to collectors, and additional sections cover The Beatles on film, songs written for others, songs written and not released, and a brief history of bootlegs. Proof there are new ways to cover familiar ground.

Backbeat Books

Reviewed by Gillian G Gaar
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