Tag Archives: Bruce Spizer

We have a Winner….

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In my previous post we had a small competition running to win a Bruce Spizer additional booklet for “The Beatles on Capitol Records Vol.1” CD set.

The easy question was:  “Meet The Beatles!”, one of the US Capitol records included in the box set, features the same striking black and white cover photo as the British LP “With The Beatles”.  Who took that photograph?

Of course the answer was Robert Freeman.

Curtis from Indiana in the USA was the first to contact us with the correct entry. Well done Curtis, and your booklet will be in the post very soon. It looks like this:

Incidently, that Robert Freeman photograph used for both “With the Beatles” and “Meet The Beatles!” has a connection to this post about a new book out recently called “Yeah Yeah Yeah – The Beatles and Bournemouth”.  The Freeman shot was actually taken on 22 August, 1963 in the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth, England.

Thank you to all those who submitted entries.

Competition – Win a Beatles “Capitol Albums – Vol. 1” Extra Booklet

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If you own the 2004 CD box-set release of “The Capitol Albums – Vol. 1” you might not be aware that respected Beatle historian and author Bruce Spizer has written and self-published an additional little booklet designed to accompany that set. “The Capitol Albums – Vol. 1” set containing the first four Beatles releases on that label looks like this:

The front cover of Bruce’s companion 12-page booklet for this set looks like this:

This booklet is in addition to the official booklet that comes in the four CD box set (which also contains a wealth of rare photos and has notes by well-known Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn). You can find out more about Bruce’s booklet here.  It is CD-sized and designed to simply slip into the box set alongside the CDs.

Bruce Spizer ended up writing the liner notes for the official booklet that comes with “The Capitol Albums – Vol. 2”, and he’s the author of a suite of impressive (and very large and heavy!) books on the history and discography of all the Beatles record releases.

His latest work is “The Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records” annotating in minute detail all the band’s British record releases. That book joins his previous works detailing in a similar comprehensive manner all the US releases on Capitol, Apple, VJ, Swan, and other labels. They’re all well worth seeking out but are becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to find due to them being self-published and therefore only released in limited numbers. Bruce’s website is at beatle.net

Anyway…..this is long way of getting around to saying I have a spare copy of the little companion 12-page booklet he wrote for the Beatles “The Capitol Years – Vol. 1” and I’d like to give it away to a lucky reader.

It is not an expensive item but one you might like to add to your collection if you own a copy of “The Capitol Albums – Vol. 1”.

Just so you know: what happened was I ordered this booklet through Bruce’s site just before Christmas  but due to a mix-up I received two copies, not one.  So, I’d very much like to give one away to someone who’d like it.

All you need to do to win is answer this easy question:  “Meet The Beatles!”, one of the US Capitol records included in the box set, features the same striking black and white cover photo as the British LP “With The Beatles”.  Who took that photograph?

The first correct answer sent to me at beatlesblogger@gmail.com, complete with your name and postal address, will win. I will post the booklet to you. It’s as easy as that.

Good luck.

Bruce has written an interesting article on “The Capitol Albums – Vo.l 1” here.

Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records

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For a leading tax attorney Bruce Spizer sure knows a lot about the Beatles.

He is something of a legend amongst Beatles collectors. His books about the record labels the band’s output has been released on are much sought-after and comprehensive. Now, there’s a new one. The New Orleans-based Spizer has just released “Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records”:

In a cheeky collector-driven move the book is available in two different versions. You can order it with the Stereo version of “The Beatles For Sale” album on the cover, or you can get the Mono image. The contents of both books are the same inside though:

Here’s the rear cover:

When asked to compare this book to his previous titles, Spizer said, “This is by far the most comprehensive book I have ever done because it covers all of the songs released by the Beatles in the sixties. The U.K. singles, albums and EPs, all in one 444-page book. Like my other books, it is full of hundreds of images in either color or original black & white. It contains rarely seen British ads and promotional posters. Frank Daniels and I were able to track down tons of label variations that will please and frustrate the hard-core collectors.”

Surprisingly (according to Wikipedia), Bruce Spizer didn’t start collecting seriously until 1997 when he earned a large fee from the settlement of a lawsuit and decided to use some of the money to replace his childhood collection of Beatles LPs with a set of first edition albums. From that moment he was drawn into the world of collecting and has since written and self-published eight great books on the subject of the Beatles, their records and record labels.

In case you think you’ve never heard of him, you may already have some of his work in your collection if you own this CD box set:

Bruce wrote the essay contained in the booklet which came with “The Beatles Capitol Albums Volume 2”. The four-CD box set contains stereo and mono versions of the Beatles albums released by Capitol in 1965.  Spizer also served as a consultant to Capitol Records for both Volumes 1 and 2 in the series.

Bruce Spizer’s website is beatle.net and there is a lot more about all his books there.