Bruce Spizer
Encyclopedia
David "Bruce" Spizer is a tax
attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana
, who is also recognized as an expert on The Beatles
. He has published eight books, and is frequently quoted as an authority on the history of the band and its recordings.
and then received B.A.
, M.B.A.
, and J.D.
degrees from Tulane University
, where he was a member of honorary societies Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif
. While pursuing his legal career, he also managed
The Cold
, a popular New Wave
band in New Orleans.
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 cockroach
es) 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. As of 2011, Spizer has written and published eight books about The Beatles. A New York Times reviewer 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." 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."
The books about the Capitol
releases were issued into 2 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 to 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 70s and 80s.
In an exclusive interview with Beatles News, Spizer said that he will be releasing a book on the Beatles U.K. records titled Beatles For Sale On Parlophone, and hopes to have the book available in August 2011. The book is being compiled by Spizer and Frank Daniels, with Spizer writing the text. It will be in the same style and format as Spizer's previous books, including high quality original black and white and full color images. According to Spizer, this new book will have over 350 pages and cover the Beatles singles, albums and extended play (EP) discs released in the U.K. from 1962 through 1970. Spizer said, "This new book covers the Beatles Parlophone
EPs, which up until now haven't been accurately documented in any book." Although the book will be titled Beatles For Sale on Parlophone, Spizer added that it will also cover the records appearing on the Apple label, which were manufactured and distributed by EMI, as well as the handful of releases on Polydor of the group's Hamburg recordings. The book was officially released on October 5, 2011.
Spizer has served as a consultant to EMI and Apple Records
for their CD re-releases of the American configurations of the Beatles catalog. He wrote the text for the companion booklet for the 2006 box set The Capitol Albums, Volume 2
, and for the "catalography" that accompanies the 2009 "Box of Vision" release. He was also chosen to write 2,592 questions for a special Beatles edition of the Trivial Pursuit
board game
.
Spizer has appeared on television programs such as CBS
's The Early Show
, Fox News, and Good Morning America
, and on the National Public Radio news program All Things Considered
. He has been cited as a Beatles authority in print publications such as Rolling Stone
, The Guardian
, the New York Times, and Time
.
Tax law
Tax law is the codified system of laws that describes government levies on economic transactions, commonly called taxes.-Major issues:Primary taxation issues facing the governments world over include;* taxes on income and wealth...
attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, who is also recognized as an expert on The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. He has published eight books, and is frequently quoted as an authority on the history of the band and its recordings.
Biography
Spizer was born and raised in New Orleans. He attended Isidore Newman SchoolIsidore Newman School
Isidore Newman School is a private, nondenominational, co-educational college preparatory school located on an campus in the Uptown section of New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:...
and then received B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
, M.B.A.
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
, and J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
degrees from Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
, where he was a member of honorary societies Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif
Order of the Coif
The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. A student at an American law school who earns a Juris Doctor degree and graduates in the top 10 percent of his or her class is eligible for membership if the student's law school has a chapter of the...
. While pursuing his legal career, he also managed
Talent manager
A talent manager, also known as an artist manager or band manager, is an individual or company who guides the professional career of artists in the entertainment industry...
The Cold
The Cold (rock band)
The Cold were a "New Wave" band that formed in New Orleans in 1979. The band were hugely popular in their home city and throughout the southeastern U.S. during their existence, but did not find national success. The members of The Cold were Barbara Menendez , Vance DeGeneres , Chris Luckette ,...
, a popular New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band in New Orleans.
In 1997, Spizer earned a large legal fee from the settlement of a class action
Class action
In law, a class action, a class suit, or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued...
lawsuit, and decided to use some of the money to replace his childhood collection of Beatles LPs
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
(which had been damaged by cockroach
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
es) with a new set of first edition albums. Drawn into the world of Beatles collectors
Record collecting
Record collecting is the hobby of collecting music. Although the main focus is on vinyl records, all formats of recorded music are collected.-History:Record collecting has been around probably nearly as long as recorded sound...
, he ended up writing and self-publishing
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...
The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay, about the relationship between EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, the Beatles' U.K. record label, and Vee-Jay Records
Vee-Jay Records
Vee-Jay Records is a record label founded in the 1950s, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.-History:...
, the U.S. label that released the band's first records in the U.S. As of 2011, Spizer has written and published eight books about The Beatles. A New York Times reviewer 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." A New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
article called his The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records "a Beatle collector's fantasy by a fanatic Beatles collector and historian."
The books about the Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
releases were issued into 2 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
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
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 to 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
Swan Records
Swan Records was a mid-20th century United States based record label, founded in 1957, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It had a subsidiary label called Lawn Records....
, United Artists
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 initially to distribute records of its movie soundtracks, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres.-History:...
, Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, MGM
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
, Atco
Atco Records
ATCO Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, currently operating through WMG's Rhino Entertainment.-Beginnings:Atco Records was founded in 1955 as a division of Atlantic Records. It was devised as an outlet for productions by one of Atlantic's founders, Herb Abramson, who...
and Polydor
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
labels. It also features information about the Beatles albums and singles released by Capitol in the 70s and 80s.
In an exclusive interview with Beatles News, Spizer said that he will be releasing a book on the Beatles U.K. records titled Beatles For Sale On Parlophone, and hopes to have the book available in August 2011. The book is being compiled by Spizer and Frank Daniels, with Spizer writing the text. It will be in the same style and format as Spizer's previous books, including high quality original black and white and full color images. According to Spizer, this new book will have over 350 pages and cover the Beatles singles, albums and extended play (EP) discs released in the U.K. from 1962 through 1970. Spizer said, "This new book covers the Beatles Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
EPs, which up until now haven't been accurately documented in any book." Although the book will be titled Beatles For Sale on Parlophone, Spizer added that it will also cover the records appearing on the Apple label, which were manufactured and distributed by EMI, as well as the handful of releases on Polydor of the group's Hamburg recordings. The book was officially released on October 5, 2011.
Spizer has served as a consultant to EMI and Apple Records
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
for their CD re-releases of the American configurations of the Beatles catalog. He wrote the text for the companion booklet for the 2006 box set The Capitol Albums, Volume 2
The Capitol Albums, Volume 2
The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 is a box set compilation composed of The Beatles' 1965 American Capitol Records releases. The set, which contains stereo and mono versions of all 92 tracks was announced on 22 March 2006...
, and for the "catalography" that accompanies the 2009 "Box of Vision" release. He was also chosen to write 2,592 questions for a special Beatles edition of the Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
.
Spizer has appeared on television programs such as CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's The Early Show
The Early Show
The Early Show is an American television morning news talk show broadcast by CBS from New York City. The program airs live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday; most affiliates in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones air the show on tape-delay from 7 to 9 a.m. local time. ...
, Fox News, and Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, and on the National Public Radio news program All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
. He has been cited as a Beatles authority in print publications such as Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, the New York Times, and Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
.
Books
- The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay (1998), ISBN 09662649-08
- The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records - Part One: The Singles (2000), ISBN 09662649-16
- The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records - Part Two: The Albums (2000), ISBN 09662649-24
- The Beatles on Apple Records (2003), ISBN 09662649-40
- The Beatles Are Coming! (2003), ISBN 09662649-91
- The Beatles Solo on Apple Records (2005), ISBN 09662649-59
- The Beatles Swan Song: "She Loves You" & Other Records (2007), ISBN 09662649-75
- Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records (2011), ISBN 09832957-00
External links
- The Beatles in America (Spizer's official website).
- Bruce Spizer is New Orleans' Beatles Expert (video interview), Times-Picayune, August 10, 2009.