David "Bruce" Spizer (born July 2, 1955) is a

tax attorney A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, Louisiana, who is also recognized as an expert on

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. He has published thirteen 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 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. Jeré Longman of ''The New York Times'' described Isidore Newman as "one of ...

and then received

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...

, and J.D. degrees from

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

, where he was a member of honorary societies

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

and the

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...

. 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 A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

lawsuit, and decided to use some of the money to replace his childhood collection of Beatles LPs (which had been damaged by

cockroach Cockroaches (or roaches) are a paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known as ...

es) with a new set of first edition albums. Drawn into the world of Beatles

collectors Collector(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Collector (character), a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe * ''Collector'' (2011 film), a 2011 Indian Malayalam film * ''Collector'' (2016 film), a 2016 Russian film * ''Collec ...

, he ended up writing and

self-publishing Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...

''The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay'', about the relationship between

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, the Beatles' U.K. record label, and

Vee-Jay Records Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The label was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a h ...

, the U.S. label that released the band's first records in the U.S. As of 2020, Spizer has written and published twelve books about the Beatles. A reviewer for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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 The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' 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 A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

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 An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

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 Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

Atco Atco or ATCO may refer to: Businesses * ATCO, a Canadian diversified company involved in manufacturing, utilities, energy and technologies ** ATCO Electric, a subsidiary of the above company * Atco (British mower company), a mower manufacturing com ...

and

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

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 Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

EPs, which, according to Spizer, "up until now haven't been accurately documented in any book." 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. Spizer has served as a consultant to EMI and

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 Mar ...

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'' 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 (with all of the tracks on '' The Early Beatles'' and ...

'', 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'' is a board game in which winning is determined by a player's ability to answer trivia and popular culture questions. Players move their pieces around a board, the squares they land on determining the subject of a question t ...

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

. Spizer has appeared on television programs such as

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

's ''

The Early Show ''The Early Show'' is an American morning television show that aired on CBS from November 1, 1999 to January 7, 2012, and the ninth attempt at a morning news-talk program by the network since 1954. The program aired Monday through Friday from ...

'',

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

, and ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'', and on the

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

news program ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

''. He has been cited as a Beatles authority in print publications such as ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

'', and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''.

Books

*''The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay'' (1998), Foreword by

Perry Cox Percival Ulysses "Perry" Cox, M.D., is a fictional character played by John C. McGinley on the American television comedy-drama '' Scrubs''. Dr. Cox appeared in every episode except " My Last Words", " My Comedy Show", and "My Full Moon", all i ...

. *''The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records – Part One: The Singles'' (2000), *''The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records – Part Two: The Albums'' (2000), *''The Beatles on Apple Records'' (2003), Foreword by

Ken Mansfield Ken Mansfield (October 14, 1937 – November 17, 2022) was an American record producer who was the manager of Apple Records in the United States. He was also a high-ranking executive for several record labels, as well as a songwriter, author o ...

. *''The Beatles Are Coming!'' (2003), *''The Beatles Solo on Apple Records'' (2005), *''The Beatles Swan Song: "She Loves You" & Other Records'' (2007), Foreword by

*''Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records'' (2011), *''The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper: A Fans' Perspective'' (2017), *''The Beatles White Album and the Launch of Apple'' (2018), *''The Beatles Get Back To Abbey Road'' (2019), *''The Beatles Finally Let It Be'' (2020), *''The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine'' (2021),

Other Works

(2007) Published ''The Beatles Price Guide For American Records'' 6th Edition (By

and Frank Daniels. Foreword by Bruce Spizer) Pub. 498 Productions

References

External links

*
Bruce Spizer is New Orleans' Beatles Expert
(video interview), ''

Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

'', August 10, 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spizer, Bruce Writers from New Orleans Tulane University alumni 1955 births Living people Louisiana lawyers American music historians American male non-fiction writers Jewish American writers Tulane University Law School alumni Historians from Louisiana 21st-century American Jews