Carol Ruth Weber

Jan 29, 2024

https://carolruthweber.medium.com/beatles-expert-bruce-spizer-talks-beatlemania-passion-a6168c2a9664

Renowned Beatles expert Bruce Spizer will be part of exciting celebrations to denote the 60th Anniversary of the Beatles’ first appearance in the United States. The lifelong fan spends his workdays as a board-certified tax attorney and certified public accountant. At the same time, his other waking moments are devoted to his passion for the Beatles as an author, consultant, and speaker.

photo by Zach Smith

Beatles Expert Spizer as Featured Fab Four Expert

The tax professional has 15 published books about the group and has been a Beatles consultant on multiple projects for Capitol Records; EMI; Universal Music Group; and Apple Corps, Ltd. With his expertise, Spizer has been sought out to be a featured speaker at multiple events to commemorate the group’s landing in America.

Beatles expert Spizer will be a featured guest at the 50th year of Mark Lapidos’ show, Fest for Beatles Fans, being held in 2024 at the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport from February 9 through February 11. He will not only serve on multiple panels with over 25 other Beatles authors but will also be presenting a stimulating seminar — Beatlemania exploded in America. Fans will also have the opportunity to purchase signed copies of the author’s books — including “The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America” and “The Beatles Please Please Me to With The Beatles.”

On February 3 Monmouth University in New Jersey will be holding a Beatles conference, Get Back to 1964…The Beatles Come to America. Spizer will be a featured speaker at the symposium commemorating the exciting moment in time. The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music is sponsoring the event.

Interview with Beatles expert Spizer

Carol Ruth Weber: What started your passion for the Beatles and what continues to drive it?

Bruce Spizer: Well, I first heard “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on the Newman School bus in New Orleans in early January 1964. I became an instant fan of the group and over the years continued interest in the Beatles.

I had won a class action lawsuit and with the proceeds I began replacing my early Beatles albums that had been attacked by roaches. They did leave “Meet the Beatles” alone but ate the spines of the others. I wanted to replace the albums with copies of them from the 1960s as opposed to later releases of the Albums. I asked record dealers about the early Beatles releases and the answers I received didn’t make any sense to me. When I questioned some of the facts regarding these early releases the record dealers would tell me that what they were saying was in all the books. So, being an attorney, I thought about what if all the books were wrong and began to do my own research. We knew the first Beatles records released in America were on the black-owned Gospel and R&B label Vee-Jay Records out of Chicago, but the story behind the actual releases had never been properly told.

CRW: What is the one thing you can tell Beatles fans that they may not already know or realize?

BS: Prior to my research, people believed that the first American album, “Introducing the Beatles,” came out in the summer of 1963. But I established it was not released until January 10, 1964. Vee-Jay planned on releasing it in the summer of 63 but did not do so because the company ran out of money when its president embezzled a few 100-thousand dollars. It released no records and failed to pay royalties that summer. Due to their failure to pay royalties, EMI canceled their licensing agreement with Vee-Jay for Beatles recordings in the U.S.

CRW: How did you feel when the group disbanded and were you happy to hear their solo efforts?

BS: I was very disappointed when the Beatles broke up. And while I enjoyed many of the solo releases, they didn’t seem to have that special magic of the Beatles recordings.

CRW: With the miracle of technology were you happy with the recent release of the brand-new Beatles song, “Now and Then”?

BS: I was very happy with the recording. My main concern was that people misunderstood how artificial intelligence was used for that recording. While some thought AI was used to create John’s voice that was not the case. AI was used to isolate his voice from a poorly recorded cassette.

We are now coming up to the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival in America. It is interesting how certain things happened for Beatlemania to explode the way it did in America. The key thing is that Capitol Records initially planned on releasing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in mid-January 1964, which was about three weeks ahead of the group’s scheduled Ed Sullivan appearance. But a series of events caused Capitol to push up the singles release date.

One of the first key factors was the decision of CBS News to expand its evening news program with Walter Cronkite from 15 to 30 minutes on September 1, 1963. This enabled CBS to run feature stories on the evening news. In mid-November, CBS’ London Bureau filmed the Beatles in concert and put together a story for broadcast in the U.S. The story first ran on the CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace but did not run that evening as scheduled due to the assassination of President Kennedy. On December 10 Walter Cronkite decided to run the story on the Beatles to lighten up the news which had been dominated by the Kennedy assassination, civil rights unrest, and the cold war.

After the broadcast Ed Sullivan immediately began promoting that the Beatles would be on his show on Feb 9 and 16, 1964. In addition, a 15-year-old girl from Silver Spring, MD named Marsha Albert wrote a letter to Radio Station WWDC saying she had seen the Beatles on the CBS Evening News and asked why we can’t have music like that in America. Disc Jockey Carroll James, who had seen the story, arranged for a friend who was a stewardess with British Overseas Airways Corporation to bring him a copy of the Beatles’ latest record, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” On Dec 17th James had Marsha come to the station to introduce the song on his radio show.

Based on favorable listener response WWDC added the song to its playlist. This demand for the record caused Capitol to rush the single out on the day after Christmas. With kids out of school and hearing the song on the radio, they were able to buy the record. Within a week or so “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was number one in New York and the nation soon followed. Thus, by the time the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show Beatlemania was already in full force. This resulted in 73 million people tuning in to see the group on the Sullivan show.

CRW: In addition to being a Beatles author you have also been hired as a consultant for prominent record labels — when did you first feel recognized as the Beatles expert that you are?

BS: Probably shortly after my second and third books came out on Capitol Records when people in the industry started taking notice of my work.

CRW: Have you ever been tempted to give up your day job as a tax professional to be a full-time superhero Beatle historian?

BS: One of the nice things about practicing law is that you can do it into an elderly age. My grandfather retired from practicing law at 92. I have always enjoyed doing multiple things at the same time. After I graduated from law school, I simultaneously managed a rock and roll band while clerking for a justice at the Louisiana Supreme Court.

CRW: Fifteen books are a lot on any subject. What continues your drive to develop each new book project, and will you be authoring a 16th book about the group?

BS: My next book will be another in my series of books on the Beatles albums. It will be titled “Beatles a Hard Day’s Night & More.” It will include the album and film — and more.

The Beatles made history with their arrival on American soil. Well-deserved recognition should go to Beatles expert Spizer for his passion for the band’s history and for keeping Fab Four memories alive.

Follow Carol Ruth Weber on Medium and visit her at weberlifedesign.com to learn more about this lifestyle influencer.