Jerry Lee Lewis & Various Artists - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 4-27-1973

Here's another episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. I previously posted an episode hosted by Roy Orbison. In that show, they called it one of their "solid gold" oldies episodes. This is another one of those, looking back at the music of the 1950s and early 1960s. The host is Jerry Lee Lewis. But while he introduced most of the acts, he didn't perform much (five songs), since there were so many other musical acts on this show.

Usually when I'm converting these episodes into albums, I only include the music of the host, plus maybe one more guest. But since this is a theme show, I included absolutely everything, except for a couple of short promo spots talking about who would be on the next episode.

Jerry Lee Lewis, of course, was a big 1950s rock and roll star. But he successfully transitioned into a country star in the late 1960s and 1970s. However, due to the theme of this episode, he just stuck to his rock and roll style. Here's all the other guests that got to play two songs each: Chubby Checker, Lloyd Price, the Diamonds, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Shirelles, Freddie Cannon, and the Ronettes. And these are the guests that one played one song: the Penguins, the Del-Vikings, and Bobby Day. Linda Gail Lewis didn't get a song of her own, but sang a duet with Lewis.

I think it's pretty nice that this show brought all these musical acts to get another chance to appear on a national TV program, even though their hit-making heyday was long in the past. They were still young enough to look and sound just like they did when they made their hits. 

A 1950s rock and roll revival arguably began at the end of the 1960s. The retro band Sha Na Na performed at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, and one of their songs made it into the movie about that festival. That helped kick start the revival. The Broadway musical "Grease" also came out in 1971. But still, I think this show was generally ahead of the curve. The movie "American Grafitti" took the revival to another level. But I just checked, and that movie didn't come out until August 1973, months after this episode aired.

This album is an hour and five minutes long. 

01 Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis)
02 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
03 The Twist (Chubby Checker)
04 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
05 Stagger Lee (Lloyd Price)
06 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
07 Little Darlin' (Diamonds)
08 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
09 Tears on My Pillow (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
10 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
11 Soldier Boy (Shirelles)
12 High School Confidential (Jerry Lee Lewis)
13 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
14 Tallahassee Lassie (Freddie Cannon)
15 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
16 Roll Over Beethoven (Jerry Lee Lewis & Linda Gail Lewis)
17 talk (Wolfman Jack)
18 Earth Angel (Penguins)
19 Huckle Buck (Chubby Checker)
20 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
21 Be My Baby (Ronettes)
22 The Stroll (Diamonds)
23 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
24 Come Go with Me (Del-Vikings)
25 Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee (Jerry Lee Lewis)
26 I'm Alright (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
27 Where Were You (Lloyd Price)
28 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
29 Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (Freddie Cannon)
30 Tonight's the Night (Shirelles)
31 Cold, Cold Heart (Jerry Lee Lewis)
32 talk (Wolfman Jack)
33 Rockin' Robin (Bobby Day)
34 Walkin' in the Rain (Ronettes)
35 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1Js7c8EF

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/fT1h9rzReFG6tmh/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. That's Linda Gail Lewis standing and Jerry Lee Lewis sitting at a piano. 

Roy Orbison & Various Artists - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 2-15-1974

Here's a special theme edition of the "Midnight Special" TV show. The show's emcee Wolfman Jack called it the show's third "solid gold" show. What "solid gold" meant was what people were already starting to call "oldies," meaning musical acts that had hits in the 1950s and early 1960s, but generally stopped having them by the 1970s. Roy Orbison was the show's host. But in this case, that was a nominal position. He got to perform four songs, while the other guest stars got three or two.

The other performers on this show: Drifters, Del Shannon, Jackie Wilson, Bobby Vee, Lloyd Price, Duane Eddy, and Tommy Roe. That's a pretty impressive list, if you were looking for stars from that earlier era. 

Listening to this sounds a lot like listening to an oldies radio station playing one classic hit after another, except everything here was performed live. And while their hit-making days were generally over, they were all still relatively young and still in full capacity of their musical powers. 

This show started and edited a little different than most shows. Typically, the show started with about a minute of the song "Midnight Special," performed by Johnny Rivers. (I usually try to edit that out.) But this one began with just a few seconds of comments by Wolfman Jack, then bang, right into the first song. It also ended differently, with some final comments first by Wolfman Jack, and then Roy Orbison. As Orbison talked, the "Midnight Special" finally started to play, and then faded out. I got rid of that, and replaced it with audience applause. So that's why that track has "[Edit]" in its title. 

As usual with this show, the music is unreleased and the sound quality is excellent. Also as usual, I did a lot of editing to smooth over the gaps between songs by adding in extra audience applause. 

This album is an hour and five minutes long. I guess the usual format mentioned above allowed this episode to have slightly more music in it than usual. The show was an hour and a half long, but that included commercials, so this length is about as long as these albums from the show can get. 

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 Oh, Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison)
03 talk (Roy Orbison)
04 Up on the Roof (Drifters)
05 talk (Roy Orbison)
06 Runaway (Del Shannon)
07 talk (Roy Orbison & Del Shannon)
08 [Your Love Keeps Lifting Me] Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson)
09 talk (Roy Orbison)
10 Take Good Care of My Baby (Bobby Vee)
11 talk (Wolfman Jack)
12 Personality (Lloyd Price)
13 talk (Roy Orbison)
14 Rebel-'Rouser [Instrumental] (Duane Eddy)
15 talk (Jackie Wilson)
16 Dream Baby [How Long Must I Dream] (Roy Orbison)
17 Save the Last Dance for Me (Drifters)
18 Hats Off to Larry (Del Shannon)
19 talk (Roy Orbison)
20 Sheila (Tommy Roe)
21 The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (Bobby Vee)
22 Lonely Teardrops (Jackie Wilson)
23 Stagger Lee (Lloyd Price)
24 Running Scared (Roy Orbison)
25 talk (Roy Orbison & Wolfman Jack)
26 Everybody (Tommy Roe)
27 Ramrod [Instrumental] (Duane Eddy)
28 That's Why [I Love You So] (Jackie Wilson)
29 Keep Searching (Del Shannon)
30 Only the Lonely (Roy Orbison)
31 Jam Up Jelly Tight (Tommy Roe)
32 Devil or Angel (Bobby Vee)
33 talk (Wolfman Jack)
34 talk [Edit] (Roy Orbison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cSheycvb

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/pFyuyT0alyzHswm/file 

The cover image shows Wolfman Jack interviewing Roy Orbison (in the sunglasses). It's a screenshot I took from this exact concert.