Product Description

"The Unreleased Beatles" details the incredible wealth of music the Beatles recorded but did not release, as well as film footage of the group that hasn't been made commercially available. A staggering amount of material is examined, from unreleased studio outtakes, BBC radio recordings from 1962-1965, live concert performances, home demo recordings, fan club Christmas recordings, and other informal demos done outside of EMI studios. The book includes chronological entries for all of the Beatles' unreleased recordings of note from 1957-1970, as well as all of the unreleased video footage of note from 1961-1970 and outtakes from 1990s interviews filmed for Anthology. There's also a general overview of Beatles bootlegs, Beatles songs recorded by other artists in the 1960s, and never-recorded material.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86024 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Richie Unterberger is the author of Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll; Urban Spacemen; Turn! Turn! Turn!: The '60s Folk-Rock Revolution; and Eight Miles High (Backbeat Books). He has written numerous CD reissue liner notes, and he co-edited the All Music Guide to Rock.

Customer Reviews

Essential Reference for a Beatles Fan
Did we really need another Beatles book? Yes!

This tome makes an excellent companion to the Mark Lewisohn book about The Beatles's recordings, whose name escapes me but was something like 'Complete Recording Sessions'. The book takes a chronological approach to recordings, films and even has a section on bootlegs. It discusses every song, as well as songs they either gave away to other artists or didn't record.

The writing and layout are very good, the amount of information incredible, and the interest quotient high throughout. There are quite a few unreleased photos and new (to me, anyway) anecdotes to keep your interest as you make your way through the book. It's a great read.

I can't find any glaring errors or glitches, although that may not be saying much. One of the dozen or so essential books about the best band and songwriters of the past 50 years.

A must for the Beatles fanatic.

Successful Quest For a Beatle Treasure Chest
This book is a bonus deluxe treat; it is a cornucopia of Beatles' music information. The Beatles' unrealed songs are covered in this book; from studio outtakes; rehearsals; live shows; Christmas fun and banter among the boys themselves are included in this treasure. The Beatle Literati are delighted with this book. It rates a hearty "yeah, yeah, yeah!"

Luckily, this author does an excellent job of providing a time line for the Beatles' otherwise "unknown" the the main population works. Each work is listed chronologically; each work is described in full.

Readers get to travel down the Long & Winding Road that the Beatles paved by listening to obscure BBC recordings from 1962-1965 and unreleased work from the Anthology collection. Rare pictures from films that had yet to see the light of day are included in this book.

Inveterate Beatle fans will want this book. It appeals to the Beatle scholar as well as those who are interested in the World's Greatest Band and want to acquire more information about the Beatles. Regardless of where on the Beatle spectrum you are, this book is for you.

excellent read!
This is a very well researched book, which is a great joy to read; even if you're a long-term Beatles fan (like me) who's probably heard most of these recordings. The author writes in a very intelligent, well-informed and level-headed way. He is humerous without being flippant, exhaustive without being obsessive, a fan without being sycophantic, and critical without being arrogant. I can go on ...

This publication gives a complete chronological overview of everything outside the 'official' Beatles canon (in the narrowest sense of the word, if you like), and discusses its aesthetical values and historical significance. It also adds quite a few very informative chapters on the history of Beatles bootlegs (in general) and how the Beatles legacy has been dealt with by Apple.
On several occasions the author points out to those tending that legacy what material is definitely worth of release. It should be a reference work for their future release schedule.