Noted Beatles historian Bruce Spizer re-meets the Beatles

[from The Washington Times]

Noted Beatles historian Bruce Spizer spent more than a few hard day's nights laboring to complete his exhaustive account of the Fab Four's first arrival on these shores, on Feb. 7, 1964.

Mr. Spizer, 48, drew on his day job as a New Orleans tax attorney to research and write "The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America" over nine months and publish it — complete with an avuncular foreword by Walter Cronkite — in time for next month's 40th anniversary.

He hopes the results will stand as "the first book to accurately depict how Beatlemania evolved in America," Mr. Spizer said during a swing through town to promote the richly illustrated and documented project.

Washington, of course, not only was the site of the Beatles' first U.S. concert — at the old Coliseum on Feb. 11, 1964 — but the city that introduced the group's first U.S. hit, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," after the late Carroll James, a disc jockey at WWDC-AM, was spurred to action by a letter from 15-year-old Marsha Albert of Silver Spring. She had heard the moptops Dec. 10, 1963, in a piece filed from England for Mr. Cronkite's "CBS Evening News."

Mr. Spizer details how, in his view, these three essentially "jump-started Beatlemania in America." The book, available through his Web site (www.beatle.net), follows his meticulous four-volume history of the band's U.S. releases.

"Looking back at it now," Mr. Spizer says, "it's really satisfying to know that music that we thought was great — and other people were telling us was a passing fad — has stood the test of time and is music that, I feel, 40 years from now will be looked at with the same awe."

— Ken McIntyre

Published January 23, 2004

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