The Complete Beatles Songs: The Stories Behind Every Track Written by the Fab Four Book Review

Everyone and their mother is at least familiar with The Beatles, whether or not the band’s music appeals to them. John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s names will forever ring loud and clear (and probably to a great beat!) down the annals of musical history — more a fact than a question of opinion. That much was obvious even while the Fab Four still played, taking forms as overt as Beatlemania and as nuanced as academic analysis.

In 1994, music journalist Steve Turner showed his own love for the boys from Liverpool with his book A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song. Delving deep into the band’s lore with photographs and interviews, Turner did exactly what the title implied, revealing what drove the Beatles to jot down jams. In doing so, he created a fascinating biography not of any of the individual musicians, but of the soundtrack itself.

Since then, Turner has turned up rocks he previously missed, found new rocks entirely — the whole bit. This resulted in new editions of his original book getting published over the years. The latest of these updated editions, The Complete Beatles Songs: The Stories Behind Every Track Written by the Fab Four, was released in 2015. There’s no telling if there’ll be another version, but this is the one we have to…