The Beatles Are Coming: The Birth of Beatlemania in America

by Bruce Spizer
Foreword by Walter Cronkite

The Beatles Are Coming! is the fifth book by Beatles author/historian Bruce Spizer. The book covers the Beatles first visit to the United States and the events leading up to the group’s arrival on February 7, 1964. The book is 246 pages and contains over 450 images, including over 50 previously unpublished photos of the Beatles and never-seen-before documents.

The Beatles Are Coming! is the most thorough and accurate book ever published on how Beatlemania evolved in America. It details why Capitol Records turned the group down four times before finally agreeing in late November, 1963, to release the Beatles records. It tells the stories of two small record labels, Vee-Jay and Swan, who issued the group’s records without success in 1963. It details the American media coverage of the Beatles in late 1963, when Beatlemania was viewed as a curious fad happening in England that could never catch on in the United States. It explains how the Beatles were booked for appearances on The Jack Paar Program and The Ed Sullivan Show, as well as two concerts at Carnegie Hall. The book concludes with stories and pictures of the Beatles historic first U.S. visit in February, 1964.

In researching the project, the author reviewed hundreds of documents, magazines, and pictures as well as television news stories from 1963 and 1964. His interview subjects included influential newsmen such as Walter Cronkite, who wrote the foreword ot the book, and Edwin Newman, staff members of The Ed Sullivan Show, former president of Capitol Records Alan Livingston, employees of Carnegie Hall and numerous others with first-hand memories.

Bruce Spizer is a first generation Beatles fan and well-known Beatles author/historian. He is considered the leading expert on the group’s North American record releases. He has an extensive Beatles collection, concentrating primarily on American and Canadian first issue records, record promotional items, press kits and posters.

A "taxman" by day, Spizer is a board certified tax attorney and certified public accountant. A "paperback writer" by night, he is the author of the critically acclaimed books: The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay; The Beatles’ Story on Capitol Records, Part One: Beatlemania & The Singles; The Beatles’ Story on Capitol Records, Part Two: The Albums; and The Beatles On Apple Records. Spizer is also a regular feature writer for Beatlology Magazine and Beatlefan. He has appeared on Fox National News, CNN, ABC-TV’s Good Morning America and morning shows in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Cleveland, New Orleans and other cities, and is a frequent guest on nationally-syndicated and local radio shows such as NPR’s All Things Considered, BeatleBrunch and The Beatle Years. Spizer has been a guest speaker and panel moderator at Beatlefest and other Beatles conventions in New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Nashville, Orlando and other markets, and was the featured speaker at the 2001 and 2002 National Record Show held at the Rock ’N’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum in Cleveland. Spizer is credited in the booklet to the phenomenally successful Beatles 1 CD.