Review of Vincent P. Benitez,The Words and Music of Paul McCartney: The Solo Years(Praeger, 2010); Ian Inglis,The Words and Music of George Harrison(Praeger, 2010); and Ben Urish and Ken Bielen,The Words and Music of John Lennon(Praeger, 2007)

1] As a group, the Beatles initiated seismic musical and cultural shifts that solidified their position as the most influential and successful popular musicians of the twentieth century.The challenges of forging a solo career in the shadow of this foursome's tremendous legacy must have weighed heavily on the three songwriting Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison.What they did musically following the Beatles' demise is the subject of the three books discussed in this review.[2] The books are part of the Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection, which contains monographs about at least twenty musicians ranging from Paul Simon to Ice Cube.Each book is organized chronologically by album or song, and serves as a listener's guide.What makes the collection particularly attractive-yet also at times challenging to review-is that the authors come from diverse academic backgrounds including American studies, history, sociology, popular culture studies, literature, and rhetoric, as well as music.Out of the three authors discussed here, two work in American cultural studies (Urish and Bielen), one in popular music (Inglis) and one in music theory (Benitez).In addition to descriptions of individual albums and songs, each book contains a brief biographical sketch, a bibliography of pertinent writings and a discography/videography covering the musician's entire solo career.(1) [3] The most significant difference between the three volumes pertains to the intended audience.While the diverse scholarly background of each author is certainly an attractive aspect of the collection, it limits the usefulness of certain books for music theorists.Both the Lennon and Harrison books focus on the lyrics, stories, and very general musical characteristics of each song, and as a result, an average fan could read them without difficulty.The McCartney book, by contrast, contains a significant amount of technical musical language that would present a challenge to a reader without a musical background.To his credit, Benitez admits upfront that his book "presupposes a basic knowledge of melody, harmony, rhythm, texture,