Stand by Me by Ben E. King on Videotape Question

[MR5229]

I'm watching a show on PBS called "Soul Story". On this show, they have complete performances from live TV in the 1960s and 1970s from various artists. They even have the full song "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King. That performance was recorded on color videotape (not kinescope). Does anyone know what exact year that was recorded? Also does anyone know what show that performance was from? I would think it would be from 1961 but I'm not sure. If it was 1961, it would be a rare color recording from that time that still exists today.

 

[wbhist]

The only thing I could gauge is, it would have been either on NBC or on a station that had color capacity that had the foresight to keep the recording. But it may've been later in the '60's; there've been cases of music acts years after their big hits, miming to them on TV music shows (such as Booker T. & The M.G.'s on a 1965 episode of Hollywood A Go-Go performing their 1962 hit "Green Onions" - "playing" to that original recording).

 

[oldschooler1]

Wish we could see the clip. Sometimes you can tell by the background set.

If it was 1961, you can tell by the color camera being used -- the old TK 41Cs had a very distinctive signal quality (you can tell right away).

If it was 1961, not many color shows exist from that era --American Bandstand wasn't done in color then; the Tonight Show was, but no color shows are known to exist from the Paar era.

I'm trying to think of variety shows done in color from '61 that would have had a "rock 'n' roller" like King on in primetime -- not Ed Sullivan (still not in color); Andy Williams' show wasn't on yet; maybe:

Tennessee Ernie Ford;
Perry Como;
Dinah Shore;

There was a show done in Cleveland called "Upbeat" distributed nationally, in color, where the artists lip-synced their songhs. Could it have been from that, and done later in the decade? "Hullabaloo" was done in color on NBC, but was mid-decade.
This is really intriguing!

 

[wbhist]

Wish we could see the clip. Sometimes you can tell by the background set.

Another factor is how Mr. King would have looked. He may have appeared somewhat different in 1965-66 (by a certain amount of degrees) than when the song was first released in 1961.

 

[MR5229]

Wish we could see the clip. Sometimes you can tell by the background set.

A clip of that performance can also be seen on a Time Life infomercial (can't remember which exact infomercial), but it involves them selling 60s music.

 

[pqgeorge]

That particular color videotape clip came from "The Lloyd Thaxton Show", circa 1966. Once in while, Lloyd would bring back "vintage" guests to do their "vintage" hits. Of course, virtually everything on that show was "lip synced". The show was produced in color at KCOP-TV (Channel 13) in Los Angeles and was syndicated nationwide to various markets. My local stations were WSBK-TV (Channel 38/Boston) and WTEV (Channel 6/New Bedford-Providence). If you have a chance to see the video, you'll notice the music notes on the background. That was a dead giveaway. I watched the show back in the day.

 

[azumanga]

There was a show done in Cleveland called "Upbeat" distributed nationally, in color, where the artists lip-synced their songhs. Could it have been from that, and done later in the decade?

In reference to 1961, "Upbeat" did not start until 1964, and then as a local program, "The Big 5 Show", on WEWS in Cleveland -- it became "Upbeat" when it started national syndication.

 

[Bob1370]

Small sidebar...that '66 performance is edited into a 1986 Ben E. King video to accompany the re-issue of the song "Stand By Me" when it was used as theme for the film of the same name.