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If you happen to have the card-deck version of Beatle Significa, here are the latest and greatest rules. I also address the known errors in great detail below.

OBJECT: To score the most points by using your Beatle-knowledge to answer gear-fab questions.

BASIC PLAY: is a sort of "controlled free-for-all". There is one Director, probably the owner of the game. Each player, in turn, becomes the Reader.

1. The Director is the first Reader. He takes a card and reads the first unused question from it.

2. Any player who has an answer gives a single, decisive slap. Slap anything handy - table, knee, hands, etc.

3. The Reader determines who slapped first and asks for his answer. A slap means the player has an answer ready to go, so the Reader only allows him a second or two. If someone slaps in mid-question, the Reader stops right there and demands an answer.

If the player answers correctly, he gets a point.

4. If the player is wrong, he does NOT get another shot at answering the question. Slapping starts all over again for everyone who hasn't answered yet - jump back to Step 2. The Reader may reread the question as necessary. Continue until the correct answer is given or everyone (excluding the Reader) has had one shot at the answer.

5. The player to the left of the Reader becomes the next Reader. He reads the first unused question on the next card in the deck. Note that subject matter is more randomized if you go from card to card rather than down a card.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 until the game is finished.

FINISHING THE GAME: A game may be one spin through the deck or until an agreed-upon time limit is reached. In a close game, play enough extra questions so that everybody has been a Reader the same number of times.

DIRECTOR DUTIES: The Director controls the card deck by handing a card to the current Reader and taking it back after the question is played. He should mark the box in front of the used question.

READER DUTIES: The Reader indicates quotes and says "blank" for ____ and "dot dot dot" for ... If the Reader has ANY doubt the given answer is close enough for credit, he simply says "no" without revealing that the answer may be close. After the question is played out, the Reader decides which answer, if any, deserves credit. What's "close enough" can't be defined by rules.

SPECIAL 2-PERSON RULES: The 2 players alternate as Readers. The Reader reads a question; the other player answers. If the Reader himself doesn't have a better answer, he checks the given answer. If he thinks his opponent might be wrong, he gives his own answer and then checks the card to see who is right.

SUGGESTIONS: Guessing is fun - if you don't know the answer, slap first anyway to get a guess in. Remember that all questions were created before the release of Live At The BBC and Anthology. Ignore the word "penalty" at the end of certain questions. Avoid team play, which is sure to cause any game to drag. Play background music at your own risk!

Consider marking a used question with a check or "x", depending on whether it was answered correctly or not. This may be useful later. For instance, when the deck is completed, you might start over using just the questions that no one knew the first time around.

ERRATA: "Nowhere Man" is on Rubber Soul, of course. Hey, even John and Paul had trouble keeping Revolver and Rubber Soul straight - John in his Rolling Stone interview, and Paul on his "The McCartney Interview" album.

Paul, not Pete, sang "Pinwheel Twist". It was The Peppermint Twist that Pete sang (and danced to) while Paul drummed. Obviously, my memory fumbled the stories Pete told at the New England Beatles Convention in 1986. By the way, to the best of Pete's memory, Paul's lyrics to "Pinwheel Twist" were, in their entirety, "Pinwheel twist, pinwheel twist, pinwheel twist, do the pinwheel twist."

"In Spite Of All The Danger" was composed by Paul and has a guitar solo by George. In spite of all the credits given on Anthology 1 there's no reason to reject Paul's explanation on page 6 of The Beatles Recording Sessions (Mark Lewisohn): "It says on the label that it was me and George but I think it was actually written by me and George played the guitar solo! ... and because George did the solo we figured he 'wrote' the solo. That wouldn't be the case now: Springsteen writes the record and the guy who plays the solo doesn't 'write' it."

The first electric 12-string guitar work was on "You Can't Do That", not its flipside, "Can't Buy Me Love". Neville Stannard (The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road), for one, claimed that George overdubbed his twelve-string Rickenbacker on "Can't Buy Me Love" in London on February 25 1964. This isn't reported by Mark Lewisohn, nor can you hear a 12-string on the song.

"Run For Your Life" was the first, not the last, song recorded for the Rubber Soul sessions. Numerous pre-Lewisohn reference books put the song as the last one recorded for the album. For instance, Neville Stannard, (The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road) wrote, "This is one song John always said he disliked, as it was 'knocked off' to complete an album."

Paul called the stripper Janice, but Allan Williams calls her Shirley in his book, "The Man Who Gave Away The Beatles."

Paul says George got the black eye in a fight over a girlfriend, not from a fan irate over Pete's sacking.

The early title for "Tomorrow Never Knows" had always been known as "The Void" before Mark Lewisohn reproduced the session sheet calling it "Mark I". In "Beatles Book Monthly", September 1966, Neil Aspinall wrote, "I wonder if you have decided in your mind which was the very first Revolver track to be recorded when the Beatles started that marathon session just before Easter? The answer is 'The Void'. Don't start thinking you've been fiddled with because you can't find 'The Void' on your copy of the album. It was recorded on Wednesday April 6 under that title - but by general agreement it was given the new name 'Tomorrow Never Knows' a couple of months later."

Besides the Magical Mystery Tour booklet, Bob Gibson also illustrated "Beatles Book Monthly" and The True Story Of The Beatles, by Billy Shepherd.

According to Mark Lewisohn, John, George and Paul may have all played bass on "Back In The USSR".

John, not Ringo, yells "Hold it!" at the start of "I Dig A Pony" to do some sniffing. My goof. Reminds me of the confusion in some minds as to who yells, "I got blisters on me fingers!" (I never had any trouble with that one!)

George himself claimed he was on Bob Dylan's New Morning album. But he wasn't. George did play with Bob on an early version of "If Not For You", which is included on Dylan's Bootleg Series album.

Ringo drummed on "Why Don't We Do It In The Road". The many Beatle scholars who wrote that this song was a completely solo Paul McCartney performance can be forgiven - Beatle insider Mal Evans misled us all in "Beatles Book Monthly", November 1968. About "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" he wrote: "Presenting Beatle Paul's One-Man Band-show! Yes, folks, this is McCartney the Mad Musician singing and playing guitar, piano, bass and drums..."

Session musicians, not Paul, played flutes on "The Fool On The Hill". Again, an article in "Beatles Book Monthly", January 1968, written by Mal and Neil, gives a rundown of who plays what and ends with, "The only other instrument heard on 'The Fool On The Hill' is a flute played by Paul." Mal and Neil also claim that Paul plays recorders on the song, but even there, Mark Lewisohn does not concur. Lewisohn says that "three flautists... were recruited to add the final touches to 'The Fool On The Hill'."

OBSCURE JOKES: Drake's Drum came second (that is, "placed") in his first race. George sings "woos" with 4 syllables - woo-oo-oo-oos. Get it?

TYPOS: A Midsummer Night's Dream. All I've Got To Do.

APOLOGY: Sorry if BEATLE Significa seems a bit hard. Even though it's not, this has been a common complaint. One of the motives for creating it was to inspire interest in all aspects of the Beatles' creativity.

LEGAL MATTERS: The words "Lanham, Maryland" have been obliterated on the box due to U.S. customs regulation 134.46. (Don't you feel safer now?) Lawyers, don't even think of playing until you've read every word of the permissions. The permissions for the small song quotes ran to more than one-third the number of words in the game itself! Now you tell me, exactly who benefited from that?

BUSINESS TALK: In March 2003, I gave away the remainder of my Beatle Significa stock - about 9000 games. You can still find it at various tables in the flea market at Beatlefest conventions in New York. If anyone tries to charge significantly more than $3, register your outrage! Beatle Significa was designed to be cheap!

In the years when BEATLE Significa was offered for sale in the Beatlefest catalog, it was the Number One selling item. Is there a businessman who likes money and would like to reap the benefits of getting it into stores coast-to-coast? The Beatles ain't goin' nowhere.

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