The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions

In the early 1980s, John Barrett, a balance engineer employed by EMI, found himself unoccupied while undergoing chemotherapy.{{sfn|Shea|Rodriguez|2007|p=146}}{{harvnb|Townsend|1988a|p=4}}. Ken Townsend, the General Manager of Abbey Road Studios, later recalled suggesting Barrett keep his mind engaged by listening to the Beatles' session tapes and write down information pertaining to them. Author Stephen Matteo alternatively suggests Barrett's work was intended to gather interesting unreleased material for The Beatles at Abbey Road, a 1983 multimedia presentation at Abbey Road Studios.{{sfn|Matteo|2004|pp=122–123}} Barrett produced a colour-coded catalogue, which Townsend later said displayed an "incredible" attention to detail. In 1982, while attending Liverpool's annual Beatles convention, Townsend, Barrett and author Brian Southall used Barrett's work during a Q&A session. Attendees were enthusiastic about the new information and suggested the catalogue be published, but Barrett's death in 1984 precluded it. The project was nearly abandoned until Abbey Road employee Kathryn Varley pushed for its completion.

Mark Lewisohn began formally researching the Beatles in the late 1970s, working as a research assistant for Philip Norman's book Shout! (1981).{{sfn|Weber|2016|p=157}} In 1986, Lewisohn published his first reference book, The Beatles Live!, a chronological guide of the group's live performances.{{sfn|Weber|2016|pp=157, 245}} The book took years to research and compiles over 1,000 primary sources to provide an exhaustive guide.{{sfn|Weber|2016|p=157}}

{{quote box|quote= Imagine what it was like for me, walking into Abbey Road Studios, opening tape boxes that had not been touched since they were shelved 20 years ago, and listening through professional equipment to the Beatles' recording-session tapes. I was able to sit in a control room at the studio where the Beatles worked, doing my own mixes and isolating tracks, and I can honestly say I was surprised by everything I heard.{{sfn|Kozinn|1988}} |source=– Mark Lewisohn, 1988 |width=30%|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}

Because of his work compiling The Beatles Live!,{{sfn|Kiley|1988|p=6}} EMI commissioned Lewisohn in 1987 to continue Barrett's work and write a book detailing the Beatles' recording sessions.{{sfn|Kimsey|2009|p=231}} Besides Abbey Road Studios staffers and the Beatles, Lewisohn was the first person granted access to listen to all of the Beatles' working tapes, a privilege not extended again until 1995 for writer Mark Hertsgaard.{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|p=324}} Working from 1987 through 1988, the book took two years to research and write.{{sfn|Kozinn|1988}} Lewisohn consulted the studio's recording paperwork, reproducing some of it in the book, and interviewed eighty people who were present at the sessions,{{sfn|Kozinn|1988}} including the Beatles' producer George Martin, publicist Derek Taylor and engineer Geoff Emerick.{{sfn|Weber|2016|p=158}} Besides Barrett's previous research, the collection of Beatles recordings stored at Abbey Road Studios had never been properly archived.{{sfn|Kimsey|2009|p=231}} Listening to over four hundred hours of tapes,{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|p=4}} Lewisohn's working process served the dual purpose of both researching the book as well as organising the collection, cataloguing its various mixes, submixes, mastertakes and outtakes.{{sfn|Kimsey|2009|p=231}}

File:Abbey Road Studios - geograph.org.uk - 3136152.jpg (formerly EMI Studios), where the Beatles recorded most of their music.]]

Hamlyn published The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions in the UK in September{{nbsp}}1988.{{harvnb|de Lisle|1988|p=XV}}: "And this month [September] there is Mark Lewisohn's tome on the Beatles in the studio, 'The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions' (Hamlyn/EMI, £12.95)." A book launch was held on 26{{nbsp}}September at Abbey Road Studios,{{sfn|Anon.|1988|p=13}} with wax figures of the Beatles temporarily moved to the studio from London's Madame Tussauds wax museum for the event.{{sfn|Jones|1988|p=67}} Harmony Books published it in the US the following month,{{sfn|MacCambridge|1988|p=D4}} re-titled as The Beatles Recording Sessions.{{sfn|Hunter|1993|p=35n43}}{{refn|group=nb|Harmony released a paperback edition on 23 March 1990.{{sfn|Badman|2001|p=445}}}}

Spanning 204 pages, most of The Complete Beatles Recording Session is written in the form of a diary detailing each day either the Beatles spent in a recording session or producers and engineers spent mixing and editing their music.{{sfn|Hunter|1990|p=641}} The diary begins with the band's first recording session at EMI Recording Studios on 6 June 1962, while drummer Pete Best was still in the band, and finishes on 8 May 1970 with the release of the album Let It Be.{{harvnb|Lewisohn|1988|pp=16–17, 199}}. The book includes a one-page preface by Ken Townsend and a ten-page interview between Lewisohn and Paul McCartney.{{harvnb|Townsend|1988a|p=4}}; {{harvnb|Lewisohn|1988|pp=6–15}}.

Each entry first notes the date; the studio location, usually EMI or Apple Studios; the session time; the songs recorded or mixed, including the number of takes; and the names of the producer and engineers involved. Lewisohn then writes about the details of the particular session, such as overdubbing, false starts and studio chatter, as well as information about session musicians, orchestration and any other related information.{{sfn|Hunter|1990|p=641}} He discusses the fate of various session tapes, the differences between mono and stereo mixes and the technical advancements first pioneered on the Beatles' recordings.{{sfn|Hunter|1990|pp=641–642}} UK release dates of singles, albums and EPs are also mentioned, discussing their chart success and sales numbers.{{sfn|Hunter|1990|p=641}}{{refn|group=nb|Most EPs released in the UK were made up of material that had already been released on earlier albums.{{harvnb|Lewisohn|1988|p=46}}. The book only discusses those EPs with previously unreleased material: Long Tall Sally and Magical Mystery Tour.{{harvnb|Lewisohn|1988|pp=46, 131}}.}}

Following the diary entries, the book includes a complete discography of all the Beatles' UK and US releases,{{sfn|Hunter|1990|p=641}} including singles, EPs and albums.{{harvnb|Lewisohn|1988|pp=200–201}}. It concludes with a glossary of recording industry terms and a note from Townsend on the recording technology used by the band.{{sfn|Hunter|1990|p=641}}{{harvnb|Lewisohn|1988|p=204}}; {{harvnb|Townsend|1988b|p=204}}.

{{clear}}

The book has been widely described as an "essential"{{harvnb|Beller-McKenna|2003|p=615}}; {{harvnb|Greenwald|1997|p=120}}; {{harvnb|Hertsgaard|1995|p=328}}; {{harvnb|Kramer|2009|p=68}}; {{harvnb|Shenk|2014|p=257}}. Beatles reference book and required reading for anyone attempting a serious study of the band.{{harvnb|Beller-McKenna|2003|p=615}}; {{harvnb|Hertsgaard|1995|p=328}}; {{harvnb|Ingham|2006|pp=280–281}}; {{harvnb|Matteo|2004|pp=x–xi}}; {{harvnb|Turner|2005|p=6}}. In Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis's guide to Beatles literature, The Beatles Bibliography, they describe it as "one of the cornerstones of Beatles scholarship",{{harvnb|Brocken|Davis|2012|p=289}}, quoted {{harvnb|Weber|2016|p=159}}. and the authors Stuart Shea and Robert Rodriguez characterise it as "[p]ossibly the most important Beatles book ever published", writing it was a "landmark" by providing the general public with so much previously unknown information.{{sfn|Shea|Rodriguez|2007|p=146}}

{{quote box|quote= The book contained a number of revelations that countered the accepted wisdom.{{nbsp}}... Like its predecessors Lennon Remembers and Shout!, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions impacted all subsequent scholarship on the group.{{sfn|Weber|2016|p=159}} |source=– Historiographer Erin Torkelson Weber, 2016 |width=25%|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}

Later writers have relied heavily on the book's research.{{sfn|Kimsey|2009|pp=231–232}} The critic Tim Riley writes the book is "indispensable for close listening",{{sfn|Riley|2002|p=395}} and the authors Ian MacDonald and Mark Hertsgaard each described it as being indispensable for the research of their own books, Revolution in the Head (1994) and A Day in the Life (1995), respectively.{{harvnb|MacDonald|2007|p=473}}, quoted in {{harvnb|Weber|2016|p=163}}.{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|p=328}} Hertsgaard writes it is "superb, but superb in the way an encyclopedia is superb", contending that it provides much more than the typical reader would expect, leaving a book that "focuses more on the trees than on the forest".{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|p=325}}

The authors Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Chris Ingham and Colin Fleming each praise the book as engrossing in its narrative of each particular recording session,{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |title=These Are the Best Beatles Books |work=Pitchfork |date=23 May 2018 |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/these-are-the-best-beatles-books/|archive-date=16 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516154833/https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/these-are-the-best-beatles-books/|url-status=live}}{{sfn|Ingham|2006|p=281}} though Fleming finds some of Lewisohn's descriptions of songs lacking.{{cite magazine |last=Fleming |first=Colin |title=10 Best Beatles Books |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=14 April 2020 |url=https://au.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/10-best-beatles-books-9468/|archive-date=21 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121044036/https://au.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/10-best-beatles-books-9468/|url-status=live}} Riley similarly criticises Lewisohn for writing more like a fan than a critic, with his descriptions reliant on adjectives like "brilliant" rather than evaluating a recording's "color, texture and mood".{{sfn|Riley|2002|p=393}} Writing in 2009 for The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles, John Kimsey wrote that the {{"'}}definitive{{'}} [account]" of the band's recording history and studio practices has since been "supplanted" by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew's 2006 book, Recording the Beatles.{{sfn|Kimsey|2009|p=280n8}}

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions was one of the first books to document a band or artist through their recording sessions. Similar works covering Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix were written following its release.{{sfn|Zak|2005|p=98}}{{refn|group=nb|See {{harvnb|Jorgensen|1998}}, {{harvnb|Heylin|1995}} and {{harvnb|McDermott|1995}}.}} In the introduction to his 1995 book on Dylan's recording sessions, Clinton Heylin acknowledges that Lewisohn's book remains "perhaps the best-known 'sessionography{{'"}}.{{sfn|Heylin|1995|p=xi}} David Hunter of the University of Texas at Austin describes the book as a "bio-discography" – a portmanteau of biography and discography – illustrating the Beatles' progression and story through study of their recorded music. He writes that it serves as "the standard by which all bio-discographies will be measured".{{sfn|Hunter|1990|p=641}} Lewisohn's 1992 book, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, combines the work of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions with The Beatles Live! to provide an exhaustive day-by-day account of the group.{{sfn|Weber|2016|pp=157, 160}}

{{reflist|group=nb|30em}}

Secondary sources

{{reflist|20em}}

Citations to The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions

{{reflist|group=S|20em}}

Books

{{refbegin|indent=yes|35em}}

• {{cite book |last1=Badman |first1=Keith |title=The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970–2001 |date=2001 |publisher=Omnibus Press |location=London |isbn=0-7119-8307-0 |url=https://archive.org/stream/TheBeatles1970-2001V1/TheBeatles1970-2001V1_djvu.txt}}
• {{cite book |last1=Brocken |first1=Michael |last2=Davis |first2=Melissa |title=The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide to the Literature |date=2012 |publisher=Beatle Works Ltd |location=Manitou Springs |isbn=978-0-615-67065-2}}
• {{cite book |last1=Greenwald |first1=Ted |title=The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles |date=1997 |publisher=MetroBooks |location=New York City |isbn=978-1-56799-623-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/longwindingroadi0000gree_w8e3/ |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hertsgaard |first1=Mark |author1-link=Mark Hertsgaard |title=A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles |date=1995 |publisher=Delacorte Press |location=New York City |isbn=0-385-31377-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/dayinlifemusicar0000hert |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Heylin |first1=Clinton |author1-link=Clinton Heylin |title=Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960–1994 |date=1995 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York City |isbn=0-312-13439-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/bobdylanrecordin00heyl/ |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ingham |first1=Chris |title=The Rough Guide to the Beatles |date=2006 |publisher=Rough Guides |location=London |isbn=978-1-84353-720-5 |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/roughguidetobeat0000ingh/ |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Jorgensen |first1=Ernst |title=Elvis Presley: A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions |date=1998 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York City |isbn=0-312-18572-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/elvispresleylife0000jorg |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kimsey|first1=John|editor1-last=Womack |editor1-first=Kenneth |editor1-link=Kenneth Womack |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-68976-2 |chapter="An abstraction, like Christmas": the Beatles for sale and for keeps |pages=230–254 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y4s8/page/230/ |chapter-url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kramer |first1=Howard |editor1-last=Womack |editor1-first=Kenneth |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-68976-2 |chapter=Rock and roll music |pages=65–74 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y4s8/page/65/ |chapter-url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lewisohn |first1=Mark |author1-link=Mark Lewisohn |title=The Complete Beatles Recording Session |date=1988 |publisher=Hamlyn |location=London |isbn=978-0-600-63561-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/the-beatles-recording-sessions}}
• {{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Ian |author1-link=Ian MacDonald |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |date=2007 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-1-55652-733-3 |edition=Third |url=https://archive.org/details/revolutioninhead0003macd |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Matteo |first1=Stephen |title=Let It Be |date=2004 |publisher=Continuum |location=New York City |series=33⅓ series |isbn=978-0-8264-1634-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/letitbe0000matt/ |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=McDermott |first1=John |title=Jimi Hendrix: The Complete Studio Recording Sessions 1963–1970 |date=1995 |publisher=Little, Brown |location=Chicago |isbn=0-316-87666-6}}
• {{cite book |last1=Riley |first1=Tim |author1-link=Tim Riley (music critic) |title=Tell Me Why: The Beatles: Album by Album, Song by Song, the Sixties and After |date=2002 |publisher=Da Capo Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-306-81120-3 |edition=Revised and Updated |url=https://archive.org/details/tellmewhybeatles00riley |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Shea |first1=Stuart |last2=Rodriguez |first2=Robert |title=Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Beatles{{nbsp}}... and More! |date=2007 |publisher=Hal Leonard Books |location=New York City |isbn=978-1-4234-2138-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/fabfourfaqeveryt0000shea|url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Shenk |first1=Joshua Wolf |title=Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs |date=2014 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |location=New York City |isbn=978-0-544-03159-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/powersoftwofindi0000shen_g9m0/ |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |contributor-last=Townsend |contributor-first=Ken |contributor-link=Ken Townsend |contribution=Preface |last1=Lewisohn |first1=Mark |title=The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions |date=1988a |publisher=Hamlyn |location=London |isbn=978-0-600-63561-1 |page=4 |contribution-url=https://archive.org/details/the-beatles-recording-sessions/page/4/}}
• {{cite book |contributor-last=Townsend |contributor-first=Ken |contribution=The Recording Technology |last1=Lewisohn |first1=Mark |title=The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions |date=1988b |publisher=Hamlyn |location=London |isbn=978-0-600-63561-1 |page=204 |contribution-url=https://archive.org/details/the-beatles-recording-sessions/page/204/}}
• {{cite book |last1=Turner |first1=Steve |author-link=Steve Turner (writer) |title=A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song |date=2005 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York City |isbn=978-0-06-084409-7 |edition=New and Updated|url=https://archive.org/details/harddayswritesto0000turn_a2y5/|url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last1=Weber |first1=Erin Torkelson |title=The Beatles and the Historians: An Analysis of Writings about the Fab Four |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland & Company |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-1-4766-2470-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHEBDAAAQBAJ}}

{{refend}}

Journal, magazine and newspaper articles

{{refbegin|indent=yes|35em}}

• {{cite magazine |author=Anon. |title=n.t. |date=27 September 1988 |magazine=Daily Mirror |page=13 |url=https://newspapers.com/article/daily-mirror-beatles/148300645/}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Beller-McKenna |first1=Daniel |title=Review of The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul |journal=Notes |date=2003 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=614–615 |doi=10.1353/not.2003.0002 |jstor=901044 |s2cid=192088720 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/901044 |issn=0027-4380}}
• {{cite news |last1=de Lisle |first1=Tim |title=All you need is facts |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-beatles-books-9248/121935714/ |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=24 September 1988 |page=XV |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hunter |first1=David |title=Review of The Beatles: Recording Sessions |journal=Notes |date=1990 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=641–642 |doi=10.2307/941438 |jstor=941438 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/941438 |issn=0027-4380}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hunter |first1=David |title=Two Half-Centuries of Music Bibliography |journal=Notes |date=1993 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=23–38 |doi=10.2307/898686 |jstor=898686 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/898686 |issn=0027-4380}}
• {{cite magazine |last=Jones |first=Peter |title=Wax 'Beatles' Move To Abbey Road |date=15 October 1988 |magazine=Billboard |page=67 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1988/BB-1988-10-15.pdf}}
• {{cite news |last1=Kiley |first1=Penny |title=Getting the Beatles Taped |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/105131256/ |work=Liverpool Echo |date=9 November 1988 |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |last1=Kozinn |first1=Allan |author1-link=Allan Kozinn |title=Details of Eight Years in the Life of the Beatles as They Worked |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/29/arts/details-of-eight-years-in-the-life-of-the-beatles-as-they-worked.html |work=The New York Times |date=29 November 1988 |page=C17 |url-access=limited}}
• {{cite news |last1=Lewis |first1=Michael |title=Fab Four's secrets on the record |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123441095/fab-fours-secrets-on-the-record-by-mich/ |work=Westminster & Pimlico News |date=20 October 1988 |page=22 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |last1=MacCambridge |first1=Michael |title=Lopsided Lennon |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123441195/lopsided-lennon-by-michael-maccambridge/ |work=Austin American-Statesman |date=2 October 1988 |page=D4 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Zak |first1=Albin J. |title='Edition-ing' Rock |journal=American Music |date=2005 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=95–107 |doi=10.2307/4153042 |jstor=4153042 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4153042 |issn=0734-4392}}

{{refend}}

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

UK edition

• {{WorldCat|oclc=870980390|name=The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions}}
• [{{Google Books URL|id=jZCZQgAACAAJ}} The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions] at Google Books

{{col-2}}

US edition

• {{Internet Archive|id=the-beatles-recording-sessions|name=The Beatles Recording Sessions}}
• [{{Google Books URL|id=_FbuPAAACAAJ}} The Beatles Recording Sessions] at Google Books

{{col-end}}

{{The Beatles literature}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, The}}

Category:1988 non-fiction books

Category:Books about the Beatles

Category:English non-fiction books

Category:Books by Mark Lewisohn