Bruce Spizer

David "Bruce" Spizer (born July 2, 1955)[2] is a tax attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana, who is also recognized as an expert on The Beatles.[3][4] He has published twelve books, and is frequently quoted as an authority on the history of the band and its recordings.

Bruce Spizer
BornDavid Spizer
(1955-07-02) July 2, 1955
New Orleans, Louisiana
OccupationTax attorney, music historian
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.A., M.B.A., J.D.
Alma materTulane University
Period1998–present
GenreDiscography
SubjectThe Beatles
Notable awardsYoung Family Award for Professional Excellence[1]
Website
beatle.net

Biography

Spizer was born and raised in New Orleans. He attended Isidore Newman School and then received B.A., M.B.A., and J.D. degrees from Tulane University,[5] where he was a member of honorary societies Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif.[2] While pursuing his legal career, he also managed The Cold, a popular new wave band in New Orleans.[6]

In 1997, Spizer earned a large legal fee from the settlement of a class action lawsuit, and decided to use some of the money to replace his childhood collection of Beatles LPs (which had been damaged by cockroaches) with a new set of first edition albums. Drawn into the world of Beatles collectors, he ended up writing and self-publishing The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay, about the relationship between EMI, the Beatles' U.K. record label, and Vee-Jay Records, the U.S. label that released the band's first records in the U.S.[6] As of 2020, Spizer has written and published twelve books about The Beatles.[3][5][6] A reviewer for The New York Times described his books as containing "a wealth of detail about the Beatles' American recordings and their first visit to the United States, touching on everything from contracts and lawsuits to promotional materials, all richly illustrated."[3] A New York Daily News article called his The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records "a Beatle collector's fantasy by a fanatic Beatles collector and historian."[7]

The books about the Capitol releases were issued into two separate volumes: Part One, Beatlemania & The Singles and Part Two, The Albums, both issued in 2000. These were followed by The Beatles On Apple Records (2003), which told about the record releases on the group's own Apple label. The following book was The Beatles Are Coming!, released in January 2004 which was issued to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the group's arrival in America. Spizer's next book was the 2005 release, The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, which gave a complete documentation about the solo recordings of John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney that were released between 1968 and 1975. His sixth book in the series was The Beatles Swan Song: "She Loves You" & Other Records, a 2007 publication that told about the American-released Beatles records that were issued on the Swan, United Artists, Decca, MGM, Atco and Polydor labels. It also features information about the Beatles albums and singles released by Capitol in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2011, Spizer released Beatles For Sale On Parlophone, which documented Beatles discs released in the U.K. from 1962 through 1970, including the Parlophone EPs, which, according to Spizer, "up until now haven't been accurately documented in any book."[8] In 2017, he also published The Beatles and ‘Sgt. Pepper’: A Fans’ Perspective which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the release of this ground-breaking album.[9]

Spizer has served as a consultant to EMI and Apple Records for their CD re-releases of the American configurations of the Beatles catalog.[3] He wrote the text for the companion booklet for the 2006 box set The Capitol Albums, Volume 2,[10] and for the "catalography" that accompanies the 2009 "Box of Vision" release.[11] He was also chosen to write 2,592 questions for a special Beatles edition of the Trivial Pursuit board game.[6]

Spizer has appeared on television programs such as CBS's The Early Show,[12] Fox News, and Good Morning America,[6] and on the National Public Radio news program All Things Considered.[13][14][15] He has been cited as a Beatles authority in print publications such as Rolling Stone,[16] The Guardian,[17] The New York Times,[18] and Time.[19]

Books
  • The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay (1998), Foreword by Perry Cox. ISBN 0-9662649-0-8
  • The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records – Part One: The Singles (2000), ISBN 0-9662649-1-6
  • The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records – Part Two: The Albums (2000), ISBN 0-9662649-2-4
  • The Beatles on Apple Records (2003), Foreword by Ken Mansfield. ISBN 0-9662649-4-0
  • The Beatles Are Coming! (2003), ISBN 0-9662649-9-1
  • The Beatles Solo on Apple Records (2005), ISBN 0-9662649-5-9
  • The Beatles Swan Song: "She Loves You" & Other Records (2007), Foreword by Perry Cox ISBN 0-9662649-7-5
  • Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records (2011), ISBN 0-9832957-0-0
  • The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper: A Fans’ Perspective (2017), ISBN 0-9832957-4-3
  • The Beatles White Album and the Launch of Apple (2018), ISBN 978-0-9832957-5-4
  • The Beatles Get Back To Abbey Road (2019), ISBN 978-0-9832957-6-1
  • The Beatles Finally Let It Be (2020), ISBN 978-0-9832957-7-8

Other Works

(2007) Published The Beatles Price Guide For American Records 6th Edition (By Perry Cox and Frank Daniels. Foreword by Bruce Spizer) Pub. 498 Productions ISBN 978-0-9662649-6-8

References
  1. "JEF to hold 2010 Young Family Lecture and Award Presentation". jewishnola.com. Archived from the original on April 5, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
  2. Bruce Spizer, A Professional Law Corporation at Lawyers.com (retrieved September 23, 2009).
  3. Allan Kozinn, "A Book Publisher, Beatlemaniacs? Why Don't You Do It on Your Own?", The New York Times, December 26, 2006.
  4. Beatlemania – in 5 volumes, Deseret News, February 6, 2004 (pay site)("Spizer is what you'd call an expert in the subject").
  5. The Beatles in America (Spizer's official website).
  6. Doug McCash, "New Orleans lawyer creates the questions for a new Beatles Trivial Pursuit game" Archived June 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Times-Picayune, August 10, 2009, reprinted as Who's tops in Beatles trivia? Bruce Spizer, Associated Press at USA Today, August 17, 2009.
  7. "Officially on the Web – Yeah, Yeah, Yeah", New York Daily News, November 13, 2000.
  8. "Exclusive Details: New book documents Beatles on Parlophone". BeatlesNews.com. February 24, 2011. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
  9. Kit O'Toole (June 14, 2017). "The Beatles and 'Sgt. Pepper': A Fans' Perspective, by Bruce Spizer (2017): Books". SomethingElseReviews.com.
  10. Angus Lind, "He loves them, yeah, yeah, yeah: New compilation CD is another milestone for Beatlemaniac Bruce Spizer", Times-Picayune, April 12, 2006.
  11. Edna Gunderson, "Art in 'Beatles Box of Vision' is 'married to the music'", USA Today, September 8, 2009.
  12. Tatiana Morales, "'The Beatles Are Coming!': New Book With Over 450 Images Of The Fab Four And More", CBSNews.com, February 5, 2004.
  13. 'The White Album' 40 Years Later, audio interview with Spizer on All Things Considered (November 24, 2008).
  14. The Beatles in America audio interview with Spizer on All Things Considered (April 13, 2006).
  15. "The Lost Beatles Tapes, audio interview with Spizer on All Things Considered (March 14, 2003).
  16. "Apple: Beatles Tape "Bollocks", Rolling Stone, December 17, 2003.
  17. David Fickling, "Psst! Wanna buy Abbey Road?", The Guardian, February 21, 2003.
  18. Bruce Weber, "Alan Livingston, at 91; helped to reshape American pop culture with Beatles, Bozo", The New York Times reprinted at boston.com, March 22, 2009.
  19. "That Old Feeling: Meet the Beatles", TIME, February 7, 2004.
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