Product Description

Contains updated information on new Beatles material associated with the Anthology, complete track listings from their albums, and appendices on the Beatles' songs, their release dates, and even a cross-reference of British and American versions of early albums.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2284196 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Library Journal
Musician and Beatles fan Westover has compiled a clever assortment of charts and graphs to show how Capitol Records in the United States routinely dismantled the Beatles's original U.K. albums in order to create more product. Westover has created "fan-in" and "fan-out" charts that visually identify the U.K. sources for the songs on each of the Beatles's U.S. albums and vice versa. Also included are graphs that track each U.S. album's chart performance in Billboard. Unfortunately, because of their large scale, these graphs are difficult to read, and Westover makes no attempt to analyze an album's drastic fluctuation in chart position. Additional charts and tables include a list of the Beatles's Grammy nominations and awards, an overview of the various U.S. record companies that released Beatles product, and even a chart that sorts all Beatles songs by playing times. Despite its drawbacks, this unique book compiles information not easily found elsewhere. Knight's "encyclopedia" is not so successful. While Knight (Don't Fence Me In) did not intend to create an exhaustive reference work like Bill Harry's Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia (Hyperion, 1993), his criteria for inclusion are purely subjective. He only included topics about which there was something "particularly fascinating to say." But readers don't even learn all the details about topics he does include. Instead, Knight tosses out one or two interesting tidbits and then moves on to the next event, emphasizing offbeat details. (He lists, for example, the five Beatles tracks on which George Harrison plays the sitar.) A fun read, but, unlike Westover, Knight adds nothing new to the ever-increasing list of books already available on the Beatles.ALloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Author
"In writing this book," the author explains, "I set out to test all the little rumors for myself. Is it true that `Strawberry Fields Forever' is about drugs? Did the Beatles once record as the Beat Brothers? Was Abbey Road really the Beatles' last album? (The answers, working backward in true Beatles style, are yes, no, and most likely not.)"

Noting that "*The Guinness Book of World Records* originated from the disputes over sports records which Irish bar patrons would often argue over pints of Guinness," the author goes on to say in the preface to *Abbey Road to Zapple Records,* "Likewise the origins of this book lie in all the intriguing little stories I used to hear from my elders concerning the Beatles--some of them true; some... shall we say, embellished." At its heart, *Abbey Road to Zapple Records* is about such "intriguing little stories." As the author has observed, "We all have our little stories, which is why I think we were all so deeply affected by the killing of John Lennon. It wasn't just him we were crying for: it was our youth, our childhood, all the unfulfilled longings which found expression in the Beatles' music. And that, ultimately, is the reason that justifies the existence of not only this, but the next hundred books about the Beatles."

About the Author
Judson Knight has been a fan of the Beatles since early childhood. At age three or four he charged other kids to hear him recite the lyrics to "Mr. Kite"--lyrics he had made up, since he couldn't understand the words and couldn't yet read the words on the back cover of *Sgt. Pepper*.

In addition to *Abbey Road to Zapple Records,* Knight is the author of the three-volume *Ancient Civilizations* series (UXL, 1999); *African American Biography,* Volume 5 (UXL, 1998); and contributor, with Dedra Grizzard, of several chapters in *Don't Fence Me In: An Anecdotal Biography of Lewis Grizzard by Those Who Knew Him Best* (Longstreet, 1995). He has worked as an editor and ghostwriter on a number of fiction and nonfiction books, and has contributed to several reference series for The Gale Group, including *Contemporary Authors,* *Contemporary Musicians,* and *Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns.* (The latter, published in 1999, contains his profiles of Capitol Records' 1964 "teaser" campaign for the Beatles' first visit to the U.S., and the 1995 "A-Beatles-C" promotion for the Beatles Anthology TV special.)

1: The Beatles' Songs Alphabetized 2: The Beatles' Songs In Order of Appearance 3: A British-American Cross-Reference of Pre-*Sgt.Pepper* Beatle Songs Bibliography