Review of Bruce Spizer’s The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night & More by Tower Records
The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night & More by Bruce Spizer (498 Productions) Happening concurrently with the 60th anniversary of the release of the film A Hard Day’s Night, and related soundtrack and non-soundtrack albums, Bruce Spizer has come up with yet another indispensable book on The Beatles. Along with Mark Lewisohn, Ken Womack, and arguably a few others, Spizer is one of the most authoritative chroniclers of The Beatles.
This new book is Spizer’s eighth in his recent album series of books. The eight books prior to this series, which launched Spizer, focused on the various record labels the group recorded for during their short time together in the 1960s. This is the fourth book in the album series in which Spizer covers multiple Beatles albums.
The previous books in the series covered Please Please Me, With The Beatles, Introducing The Beatles, and Meet The Beatles; Yellow Submarine, and Magical Mystery Tour; and Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Yesterday and Today, respectively. This book is focused on the British and American versions of A Hard Days Night, The Beatles’ Second Album, and Something New.
The beautiful hardcover book begins with carefully researched writing on the four albums and singles from this period, along with album jacket art, singles sleeve art, and a healthy dose of rare memorabilia of all kinds. There is also coverage of other music that was released and, in some cases, popular at the same time, along with details on then current movies, and further context on the news and cultural makeup of the era.
As in his previous books, additional sections included are fan recollections and, as always, extensive and detailed track annotation. A perfect hardcover coffee table book, reference book and musical history lesson, it is another must-have Spizer book on The Beatles.
By Steve Matteo | July 24, 2024
Steve Matteo is the author of Act Naturally, The Beatles On Film (Rowman & Littlefield), Let It Be (33 1/3-Bloomsbury) and Dylan (Union Square & Company-Barnes & Noble). He recently contributed to The Beatles in Context, which was published by Cambridge University Press. He is Contributing Editor with The Vinyl District and has written for such publications as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, New York magazine, Time Out New York, Rolling Stone, Spin, Rock’s Backpages, Relix, Goldmine, Interview, Elle, Citizen Truth, Literary Hub and Salon. He has worked for Pete Townshend of the Who in various capacities for Left Field Services, Towser Tunes and Trinifold. His radio career includes working at WLIR-FM, WNYT and FM Odyssey and he often appears on radio, including on the Sirius XM Volume Channel, Q104, Joe Johnson’s Beatle Brunch, Talk More Talk: A Solo Beatles Videocast, 21st Century Radio, WAAM, WFUV, WUSB, WPPB and WHPC and television in his capacity as a music journalist and an author. For nearly twenty years he worked in book publishing and public relations as a Publicity Manager for Barron’s and Publicity Director for Finn Partners. He has lectured on Bob Dylan at the New School for Social Research in New York and journalism at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He holds a B.F.A. in Communication Arts from the New York Institute of Technology.