Bruce Spizer, an internationally recognized authority on the Beatles, will discuss the 50th anniversary of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 24 at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 West Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public. Registration is not required.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the eighth studio album by the Beatles. Released on June 1, 1967, it spent 27 weeks at the top of the British pop album chart and 15 weeks at number one in the United States. It won four Grammy Awards in 1968, including Album of the Year, the first rock album to receive the honor. It was the best-selling album worldwide of the 1960s.

The album included the title song as well as Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, When I’m 64, Penny Lane, Lovely Rita, A Day in the Life, Within You Without You, and others.

Spizer will discuss the significance of the album: it is one of the first concept albums, for example, with longer songs, helping to promote the idea of progressive rock. It featured elements of vaudeville, circus and the music hall, and it incorporated elements of Indian music.

Bruce Spizer is a native New Orleanian, where he attended Isidore Newman School. He received an undergraduate degree, master’s degree in business administration, and law degree from Tulane University. As a young lawyer, he managed a local new wave band called The Cold.

In 1997, Spizer earned a large legal fee from the settlement of a class action lawsuit, and decided to use some of the money to replace his childhood collection of Beatles records that had been damaged by cockroaches. Drawn into the world of Beatlemania, he began to research and write books. To date, he has written eight books on the Beatles.

• Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles Records on Vee-Jay (1998)
• The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records, Part One : Beatlemania & The Singles (2000)
• The Beatles Story on Capitol Records, Part Two: The Albums (2000)
• The Beatles on Apple Records (2003)
• The Beatles Swan Song: “She Loves You” & Other Records (2007)
• The Beatles Solo on Apple Records (2010)
• The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America (2010)
• Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records (2011)

Spizer has served as a consultant to EMI and Apple Records for their CD re-releases of the American configurations of the Beatles catalog. He was also chosen to write 2,592 questions for a special Beatles edition of the Trivial Pursuit board game.

Spizer served as an official consultant to Capitol Records on The Capitol Albums Volumes 1 and 2 and wrote the essay contained in the 56-page booklet included with The Capitol Albums Volume 2. Bruce’s articles on the Beatles are featured regularly in magazines such as Beatlefan and Goldmine.

Spizer has appeared on CBS's The Early Show, Fox News, and Good Morning America, and on the National Public Radio news program All Things Considered. He has been cited as a Beatles authority in print publications such as Rolling Stone, The Guardian, the New York Times, and Time.

For more information regarding this presentation, contact Chris Smith, manager of Adult Programming for the library, at (504) 889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.