The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth Of Beatlemania In America


By Bruce Spizer
(498 Productions)

Over the last several years, Bruce Spizer has made a name for himself among Beatles fans with a series of books about specialized areas of the band's American releases, with separate volumes about their Capitol albums, their Capitol singles, their Vee-Jay releases, and their Apple output.

The Beatles Are Coming! focuses on the group's historic February 1964 first trip to America, and the long road leading there. Spizer provides a thorough look at Brian Epstein's trials, tribulations and eventual triumphs in breaking his boys Stateside...a quest that began shortly after their first British hit and ended with the three successful Ed Sullivan Shows. It's a tale of disinterested record companies, leasing agreements, injunctions, court cases, and Brian milking every possible contact he can acquire. (You'll come away from this book with a whole new level of respect for Brian, as he clearly worked to the bone for his clients.)

As our guide on this journey, Spizer gives full background on each new notable figure who joins the story, like Capitol president Alan Livingston and A&R man Dave Dexter (oh you thought he was just "the guy who added reverb to the American albums?" This will sort you out). Through sidebars we learn the histories of Capitol Records and Vee-Jay and the general procedure of pressing an album) while full chapters are devoted to subjects like George Harrison's solo trip to America, the band's Canadian rise (Beatlemania struck north a few months earlier than The United States), how to spot counterfeit copies of Introducing The Beatles, and Epstein's 1963 New York visit which led to meeting key people, including Ed Sullivan. Spizer, a lawyer by profession, gives an incredibly detailed description of the court battles between Capitol and Vee-Jay, though his write-up sometimes is only for those well-versed in legal jargon (as he fairly warns readers in advance).

Along the way, Spizer conquers longstanding myths. Despite him being cited as such in countless Beatles books, Jack Paar was neither first nor second nor even third to present The Beatles on American television, having been beaten by two news features, both lasting several minutes and therefore affording the band a good deal of airtime. Interestingly, we learn of some prominent television time they had on November 22nd 1963 via a news feature presented by Walter Cronkite, but understandably, anyone who happened to see this late-morning feature, which aired while potential Beatle fans would have been in school anyway, completely forgot about it a few hours later when a much bigger news story broke. (Relative to that, Spizer takes a moment to shed his own doubt on the popular theory that a large reason for The Beatles' American success in early 1964 was because the band's positivessness proved a perfect anecdote for a country still greiving from the murder of their President...Spizer says he has put the question to many first-generation fans, of which he himself is one, and not one of them felt Kennedy's assassination had anything to do with why they personally took to the group. Spizer does, however, say the fateful Dallas day may have at least inspired the media to look for something more positive to cover, hence the extensive television and press coverage the band received just before and during The Beatles' visit.)

Spizer also proves their first American album, Vee-Jay's Introducing The Beatles, didn't actually see a July 1963 release as often claimed. Vee-Jay had indeed planned to release it that month, but during a period of financial trouble that summer, the label canceled several scheduled album releases, including Introducing The Beatles.

The book is illustrated with scores of rare photos and reproductions of memos (some from the actual copies, others via computer recreations), promotional material, telegrams, letters, logbooks, record labels and magazine and newspaper articles.

Topping it all off is a fictional "what if" chapter, with Spizer giving his own views of how the story of rock's greatest group may have taken a different turn had Capitol Records warmed up a few months earlier. It's an amusing tale, but not as much as the computer-generated alternate Meet The Beatles cover included to illustrate the tale...people flipping through the book in a store who don't catch that this is a work of fiction will be amazed (I know this because it happened to me!)

Spizer's love for his subject is evident from start to finish. Rather than being a dry account of facts, his book reads like someone fascinated by his discoveries, keen to share them. One senses a friendly narrator with a sense of humor (as evident not only by the "what if" chapter but also his photo of himself in the current location of Washington Coliseum, site of the first American Beatles' concert, but now a garbage depository.)

The Beatles Are Coming! provided entertaining reading and scores of little-known facts. Highly recommended for all Beatles fans.

____________________________________________________________

To reach any other page contained in this month's update on Fufkin.com, read the home page for the appropriate link and click on it. You can also search the site from any page using the search box located at the top of each page. Merely type in the word, phrase, name of the band, recording, name of the Fufkin writer that you are looking for or Whatever in the search box, and then click on "Search". If you would like to e-mail us, go to the About Us page for a list of e-mail addresses.

Go back to the home page by clicking here

________________________________________________________________