Various Artists - The Big TNT Show, Moulin Rouge, Los Angeles, CA, 11-30-1965

A few days ago (writing this in February 2026), I posted the audio to the "TAMI Show" concert. As I mentioned in my write-up, that's one of the all time great 1960s concerts, which was made into a movie in 1964. The people who made that movie basically repeated the formula in 1965 with this one, "The Big T.N.T. Show." Although this concert isn't as famous as the TAMI Show, I'd argue the star power and performances here are even better.

Just like the TAMI Show, what sets this apart from other musical shows on TV and the like is that there was no lip-syncing. Everything was done live in front of an audience. Actually, each act performed their set three times, and then the film footage from the best versions were used for the movie. 

By the way, technically "T.N.T." was an acronym for "Tune n' Talent," but clearly they just wanted to call it "T.N.T." for the "explosive" connotation, and then made up an acronym for it.

The idea was to use the most popular music acts popular with kids at the time. Musical trends had changed a lot in the year since the TAMI Show. One big change was that folk-rock was suddenly all the rage. So this concert had some folk music acts that had been lacking in the TAMI Show. In addition to folk rock like the Lovin' Spoonful and the Byrds, Joan Baez and Donovan performed in solo acoustic mode. One curiosity is that Baez sang "You Lost that Lovin' Feeling," which didn't seem like her type of song at all. But the music in the show was directed by legendary producer Phil Spector, and that's a song he actually co-wrote, so my guess is he got her to sing it.

Additional, some classic soul acts were included, like Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Ike and Tina Turner. Country was represented by Roger Miller, and pop by Petula Clark. It was a very diverse line-up, with no repeats from the TAMI Show. 

It seems like this movie was commercially successful, as was the TAMI Show. So it's a shame no similar film was made in 1966 or after. However, I read one mention that the movie wasn't as successful as the TAMI Show. This was blamed on the fact that it was edited and released so quickly that there wasn't time for proper production. Remarkably, the movie was in the theaters by the end of 1965, less than a month after the concert!

Also, perhaps, with musical trends changing so fast, it grew too difficult to bring these many big stars together for one concert. These sorts of variety concerts with lots of acts performing short sets were rapidly fading away at the time, replaced by having just a couple of acts performing much longer sets.

Just as I did with the TAMI Show, I converted the video to audio format, then chopped it into mp3s. The sound quality was a little bit better with this one, so I didn't have to make any adjustments. 

Here's the Wikipedia article:

The Big T.N.T. Show - Wikipedia 

Here's an interesting article that discusses both this movie and the TAMI Show:

https://cavehollywood.com/the-t-a-m-i-show-and-the-big-t-n-t-show-out-on-blu-ray-dvd/

This album is an hour and 30 minutes long. 

01 [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction [Instrumental Version] (David McCallum)
02 What'd I Say (Ray Charles)
03 Downtown (Petula Clark)
04 Do You Believe in Magic (Lovin' Spoonful)
05 You Didn't Have to Be So Nice (Lovin' Spoonful)
06 Hey Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley)
07 Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley)
08 500 Miles (Joan Baez)
09 There but for Fortune (Joan Baez)
10 Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles)
11 Let the Good Times Roll (Ray Charles)
12 talk (Donovan)
13 You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling (Joan Baez)
14 Be My Baby (Ronettes)
15 Shout (Ronettes)
16 Dang Me (Roger Miller)
17 talk (Roger Miller)
18 Engine Engine No. 9 (Roger Miller)
19 King of the Road (Roger Miller)
20 talk (Roger Miller)
21 England Swings (Roger Miller)
22 talk (David McCallum)
23 Turn, Turn, Turn [To Everything There Is a Season] (Byrds)
24 The Bells of Rhymney (Byrds)
25 Mr. Tambourine Man (Byrds)
26 You're the One (Petula Clark)
27 My Love (Petula Clark)
28 talk (David McCallum)
29 Universal Soldier (Donovan)
30 Summer Day Reflection Song (Donovan)
31 Bert's Blues (Donovan)
32 Sweet Joy (Donovan)
33 Shake (Ike & Tina Turner)
34 A Fool in Love (Ike & Tina Turner)
35 It's Gonna Work Out Fine (Ike & Tina Turner)
36 Please, Please, Please (Ike & Tina Turner)
37 Goodbye, So Long (Ike & Tina Turner)
38 Tell the Truth (Ike & Tina Turner)
39 1-2-3 [Instrumental Version] (David McCallum)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/dTkPhgcn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Kjs0z43hqpeffYb/file

The main picture in the cover art shows Tina Turner in this exact concert. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. The text and design at the top and sides are taken from a concert poster. I did some repositioning and cleaning up for those areas.

Ray Charles with Aretha Franklin - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 3-30-1973

Here's a particularly good episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. This one stars soul music legend Ray Charles, with another soul music legend, Aretha Franklin, as his guest.

I've been wanting to post some music from Ray Charles in his 1950s and 1960s prime for a long time now. But there's so much released already, including tons of live stuff, that I didn't think I had anything really noteworthy. But I think this is noteworthy. It's not exactly from his best years, but it's pretty close.

What really blows me away though is that the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, was only a guest on this one show in the show's early years. Later, they seemed to realize they'd missed her, and she hosted the show three times, from 1976 to 1979. But this was her only appearance prior to that. She did just one song on her own, "A Brand New Me," and a duet with Charles, "Two to Tango." I put that duet from this exact performance on one of the Franklin stray tracks album I made.

The portion of the show with just Charles is a bit strange, because it involved a lot of talking, instead of just him singing. Track 3 actually should be about three minutes longer. I loped off a bunch of it because it was a conversation between Charles and comedian Bill Cosby. I cut that out because screw Bill Cosby! (In case you're not aware, he's been convicted of rape, and it turns out he did lots of horrible things to many women.) Also, frankly, it wasn't very funny or interesting. Cosby also apparently performed on the song "Every Saturday Night," but I can't hear him. But on top of that, Charles talked for about three minutes while introducing the duet with Aretha Franklin. And there's even more talking, about seven minutes, between him and comedian Carol Burnett. Most of that involved Burnett telling a story. So yeah, lots of talking.

All the songs here are from the episode hosted by Charles, which was broadcast on March 30, 1973, except for one. That's the last one, "Early in the Morning." That comes from the April 14, 1973 episode. I haven't checked, but it's possible that was an outtake from this hosted episode that was broadcast a bit later.

Charles hosted the show one more time, in 1976. So I look forward to posting that once that episode eventually gets released on YouTube.  

In case you're curious, the only other acts in this episode were the comedy team of Freeman and Murray, plus music by the Earl Scruggs Revue. 

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 talk (Ray Charles)
02 Eleanor Rigby (Ray Charles)
03 talk (Ray Charles)
04 Every Saturday Night (Ray Charles)
05 talk (Ray Charles)
06 A Brand New Me (Aretha Franklin)
07 Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles)
08 talk (Ray Charles)
09 Takes Two to Tango (Ray Charles & Aretha Franklin)
10 talk (Ray Charles & Carol Burnett)
11 talk (Ray Charles)
12 Shake (Raelettes with Ray Charles)
13 I Can Make It through the Days (Ray Charles with the Raelettes)
14 What'd I Say (Ray Charles)
15 talk (Ray Charles)
16 What'd I Say [Reprise] (Ray Charles)
17 Early in the Morning (Ray Charles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZAN535h4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/5GrGgqIfNDz6H5U/file 

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact episode. 

Various Artists - Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 9-7-2001

Given I've posted well over 3,000 albums by now, it surprises me I haven't posted anything starring Michael Jackson until now. But I only came across something worthy a few days ago, when I found this concert. I think it's a really interesting concert even if you're not a big Michael Jackson fan. It's got a lot of big stars singing classic songs.

Jackson's solo music career began in 1971, even as he continued to perform as part of the Jackson 5 (later renamed to the Jacksons) for many years. So someone came up with the idea of a concert to celebrate the first 30 years of his solo career. This concert was his first major concert appearance in the mainland U.S. since 1993, and in any country since 1997. (I say "major" because he occasionally sang a song or two for awards shows and the like.) It also would prove to be his last major concert appearance. (When he died in 2009 of cardiac arrest related to drug use, he was a few weeks away from starting his next major world tour.)

Before I go further, I need to explain that the title has this taking place on September 7, 2001, but that's not entirely true. There actually were two very similar concerts, one on September 7th, and the other on September 10th. A second concert was added because of the great ticket demand. Highlights from the concert were shown on CBS in the U.S. a couple of months later. They picked the best performances from the two nights. I don't know which songs is from which in most cases, so I'm just saying this took place on September 7th, for simplicity's sake, and because it was reported that most of the footage came from the 7th. 

However, in a few cases I do know which song is from which date, because some of the acts only performed in one of the two concerts. For instance, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Gloria Gaynor, Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, and Aaron Carter all only performed on the 10th. Others, like Whitney Houston and Britney Spears, only performed on the 7th. But I'd say about 80 percent of the song list was the same both nights.

You can see the set list from both nights at the Wikipedia page about this concert event:

Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration - Wikipedia 

The vast majority of this album is from a DVD released from the concert, which is very similar to the TV broadcast. I guess there were some slight differences though, and maybe different songs in different broadcasts, because I was able to find a few more songs when I kept digging. For instance, the celebrated duet between Jackson and Britney Spears on the song "The Way You Make Me Feel" apparently wasn't shown on the original broadcast, but eventually did make it into a later rebroadcast.

After digging around, mostly on YouTube, I was able to find the vast majority of the songs, all in pretty good sound quality. However, a few remained elusive. For instance, Ray Charles and Cassandra Wilson performed a duet of the song "Crying Time" that I really would have liked to hear. But the only version I found was from some shaky audience video footage with pretty bad sound quality, so I skipped that one. A humanitarian speech by actor Marlon Brando also wasn't found, probably because it was reportedly booed by the crowd. A medley of "Never Never Land" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Liza Minnelli wasn't found. I did find "My Baby" by Lil' Romeo and Master P, but I disliked the song so much that I couldn't bear to include it. It was just "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5 with rapping on top. Ugh! The original, performed at the concert, is a million times better.

Surprisingly, the finale song "We Are the World," the 1985 famine relief charity single co-written by Michael Jackson, was not included in the DVD or any of the TV broadcasts. I found a version from an audience bootleg that sounded pretty rough, but I decided to include it due to its key role in the concert, with everyone from earlier in the concert on stage and many of the big names singing individual lines. I tried to clean it up as best I could, running it through the MVSEP program two times for various reasons, but there was only so much I could do. That was the case with the talking track right after it as well. That's why those two have "[Edit]" in their titles.

Probably the biggest news of this concert, other than the rarity of Michael Jackson performing for the first time in several years, was the reunion of the Jacksons (a.k.a. the Jackson 5). This was the first time in 17 years they performed together, and it would be the last with Michael's inclusion. Actually, it was one of the rare times all six performed together. (In the mid-1970s, Jermaine Jackson left the group and was replaced by Randy Jackson.)    

This album is two hours and two minutes long. I checked, and Michael Jackson was on stage for slightly less than half of that.

01 talk (Samuel L. Jackson)
02 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (Whitney Houston, Mya & Usher)
03 Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight)
04 I'll Never Love This Way Again (Dionne Warwick)
05 I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
06 Get Ur Freak On (Missy Elliott & Nelly Furtado)
07 I Want Candy (Aaron Carter)
08 Home (Monica)
09 You Can't Win (Jill Scott)
10 Ease On Down the Road (Deborah Cox, Al Jarreau, Monica & Jill Scott)
11 Ben (Billy Gilman)
12 Angel - It Wasn't Me (Shaggy, Rayvon & Rikrock)
13 Heal the World (Deborah Cox, Rah Digga, Monica, Mya & Tamia)
14 She's Out of My Life (Marc Anthony)
15 Bootylicious (Destiny's Child)
16 You Are Not Alone (Liza Minnelli)
17 I Just Can't Stop Loving You (Gloria Estefan & James Ingram)
18 Man in the Mirror (98 Degrees, Usher & Luther Vandross)
19 talk (Elizabeth Taylor)
20 Can You Feel It (Jacksons)
21 ABC - The Love You Save (Jacksons)
22 I'll Be There (Jacksons)
23 talk (Jacksons)
24 I Want You Back (Jacksons)
25 Dancing Machine (Jacksons & NSYNC)
26 Shake Your Body [Down to the Ground] (Jacksons)
27 The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson & Britney Spears)
28 talk (Chris Tucker)
29 Black or White (Michael Jackson, Jason Paige & Slash)
30 Beat It (Michael Jackson, Jason Paige & Slash)
31 Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)
32 You Rock My World (Michael Jackson)
33 We Are the World [Edit] (Michael Jackson, Ray Charles & Everybody)
34 talk [Edit] (Michael Jackson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iBBo6SCr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/zGamSEAhq7LPvJS/file

There are two parts to the cover art. The top part was taken from promotional material from the concert, with some extra text added by me at the bottom. The main photo shows Michael Jackson and Britney Spears singing a duet during this exact concert.

Various Artists - Fifty Years of Country Music, Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, TN, 1-22-1978

Every now and then, I randomly stumble across some really interesting concerts on YouTube. (If you do as well, please let me know.) It seems there are many "various artists" concerts like this, often tributes, that one can find on video sometimes but have never been converted to an audio bootleg. I've seen a bunch of country-themed ones, such as annual awards ceremonies, that are just okay. But this one from 1978 stands out as exceptional. It was a three-hour TV special celebrating the last 50 years of country music. Just look at the names of all the stars in the song list and hopefully you'll see why I thought this was worth my time to convert this and post it here.

I'm not quite sure why the producers considered 1978 the 50th anniversary of country music. It was never explained in the banter of the show. I looked it up, and the first country records were recorded in 1922 and 1923. But a pivotal moment was the "Bristol sessions" in 1927, when both future country music legends Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family were recorded for the first time. That's probably what they were referring to here, since the special contained mini-tributes to country legends Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Bob Wills, and Hank Williams, so obviously they were thinking of Rodgers and the Carter Family specifically.

As I mentioned above, this TV special was three hours long, but if you remove the time spent on commercials, that leaves you with two and a half hours. That was divided into third. Glen Campbell hosted the first third, Dolly Parton hosted the middle third, and Roy Clark hosted the last third. So the three of them prominently feature in this, not just talking but singing lots of songs. At the end, all three of them came together to sing a final Hank Williams medley.

There are a couple of frustrations to watch out for. One is that to cram in as many songs as possible in the limited time allotted on TV, frequently shortened versions of songs were performed, often just a minute or two. Another is that although Gene Autry was still alive (he lived until 1998), a recording of him in his prime was used instead of a live recording. Normally, I edit out that kind of thing, but I kept it in here since it was short and I wanted to keep the banter talking about him.

Generally speaking, the recording I found of this on YouTube was complete and had pretty good sound quality. However, there were some exceptions. One problem was that the song "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell got abruptly cut off after about a minute. I found another live recording of Campbell singing that song from the 1970s and I used that to patch in the missing portion. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title. Also, most of "One Piece at a Time" by Johnny Cash was missing. Luckily, I found another YouTube video of that song from this exact concert, so I was able to fill that in. I ended up splicing the two versions together because the other version was missing some of the intro. 

There were some other problems here and there. For instance, sometimes the overall volume would fluctuate. So I had to make fixes for that. Also, there usually were "coming up next" type teasers before commercial breaks. I got rid of all of those. And when there were commercial breaks, that often meant abrupt cuts. I carefully edited each of those, usually patching in some more applause to smooth over where there was a start and stop gap due to commercials.

On the plus side, in my opinion country music was a lot better back in the 1970s than it is today, with many legends still alive and even in their primes. Remarkably, this really is a pretty good history of fifty years of country music. Also, it's interesting for the duets and combinations, such as Glen Campbell singing a song with Ray Charles and Johnny Cash singing a song with Roy Clark. This special remains unreleased on video and audio, but it shouldn't be forgotten. 

This album is two hours and 28 minutes long.

01 Stars [Edit] (Glen Campbell)
02 Rhinestone Cowboy (Glen Campbell)
03 emcee (Introduction)
04 talk (Glen Campbell)
05 Wabash Cannonball (Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mountain Boys)
06 talk (Glen Campbell)
07 I'll Get Over You (Crystal Gayle)
08 talk (Glen Campbell)
09 That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine (Gene Autry)
10 talk (Glen Campbell)
11 Back in the Saddle Again (Glen Campbell)
12 Southern Nights (Glen Campbell)
13 talk (Glen Campbell)
14 Louisiana Man (Doug Kershaw)
15 talk (Glen Campbell)
16 I'll Go to My Grave Loving You (Statler Brothers)
17 You and Me (Tammy Wynette)
18 Love Put a Song in My Heart (Johnny Rodriguez)
19 talk (Glen Campbell)
20 Take These Chains from My Heart (Ray Charles)
21 talk (Ray Charles & Glen Campbell)
22 Bye Bye Love (Glen Campbell & Ray Charles)
23 talk (Glen Campbell)
24 Gentle on My Mind (Glen Campbell)
25 Honey Come Back (Glen Campbell)
26 By the Time I Get to Phoenix - Wichita Lineman [Edit] (Glen Campbell)
27 Galveston - Country Boy [You've Got Your Feet in L.A.] (Glen Campbell)
28 talk (emcee)
29 Here You Come Again (Dolly Parton)
30 talk (Dolly Parton)
31 Blue Moon of Kentucky (Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys)
32 talk (Dolly Parton)
33 Muleskinner Blues (Dolly Parton & Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys)
34 talk (Dolly Parton)
35 Our Love Is Home Grown (Earl Scruggs)
36 talk (Dolly Parton)
37 Walking After Midnight (Loretta Lynn)
38 Sweet Dreams (Loretta Lynn)
39 Back in Baby's Arms - Crazy (Loretta Lynn)
40 talk (Dolly Parton)
41 I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love (Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers)
42 The Cowgirl and the Dandy (Dolly Parton)
43 talk (Dolly Parton)
44 Keep on the Sunny Side - Wildwood Flower (Carter Family)
45 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Carter Family)
46 Hello Stranger (Carter Family)
47 talk (Dolly Parton)
48 If You're Ever in Nashville (Carlene Carter)
49 talk (Dolly Parton)
50 talk (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
51 Ida Red (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
52 talk (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
53 Faded Love (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
54 Roly Poly (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
55 San Antonio Rose (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
56 talk (Dolly Parton)
57 The Seeker - All I Can Do (Dolly Parton)
58 Jolene (Dolly Parton)
59 Two Doors Down (Dolly Parton)
60 I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton)
61 talk (emcee)
62 Rocky Top (Roy Clark)
63 talk (Roy Clark)
64 In the Jailhouse Now - Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel [Women Make a Fool Out of Me] (Ernest Tubb & the Texas Troubadours)
65 Waiting for a Train (Ernest Tubb & the Texas Troubadours)
66 talk (Roy Clark)
67 talk (Roy Clark & Minnie Pearl)
68 It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (Kitty Wells)
69 You're the One (Oak Ridge Boys)
70 talk (Roy Clark & Mel Tillis)
71 Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town (Mel Tillis)
72 talk (Roy Clark & Charlie Rich)
73 Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich)
74 talk (Roy Clark & Johnny Cash)
75 Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)
76 One Piece at a Time [Edit] (Johnny Cash)
77 Orange Blossom Special (Johnny Cash & Roy Clark)
78 Ghost Riders in the Sky [Instrumental Version] (Roy Clark)
79 talk (Roy Clark)
80 Instrumental (Chet Atkins)
81 talk (Roy Clark)
82 Instrumental (Stoney Mountain Cloggers)
83 Hey Good Lookin' (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
84 Your Cheating Heart (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
85 Cold, Cold Heart (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
86 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
87 I Can't Help It [If I'm Still in Love with You] - You Win Again (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
88 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - I Saw the Light (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
89 Jambalaya [On the Bayou] (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
90 talk (Roy Clark)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VhNfssNn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/LzjSJer5qXloFoA/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. I made it from screenshots taken from the last medley in the concert, when Roy Clark, Dolly Parton and Glen Campbell were singing together. However, the YouTube video I was using was very low-res. So I had to resort to taking close up screenshots of each of their heads, plus one of all three of them together, and then putting it together in Photoshop. I used the Krea AI program to help clean it up. That's a big portrait of Hank Williams on the wall in the background.

The Beach Boys and Friends - 25 Years Together, Waikiki Shell, Honolulu, HI, 12-12-1986

Here's a really interesting Beach Boys concert, featuring lots of special guest stars. It was a TV special filmed in Waikiki Beach in Hawaii to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the formation of the band, back in 1961. The Beach Boys stayed on stage the entire time. Often they performed their own songs, but sometimes they were the backing band for: Ray Charles, Gloria Loring, Glen Campbell, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, the Everly Brothers, Jeffrey Osborne, Belinda Carlisle, and Three Dog Night. That's a pretty impressive list.

I happened to stumble across a video of this concert on YouTube. I converted that to an audio file and cut it into mp3s. While doing so, I deliberately cut out some things. For instance, there were some long talking segments by actor Patrick Duffy in which he talked extensively about the history of the Beach Boys. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't have relistening value, so I axed it. I also cut out a few other little things, like some really bad jokes or cheesy comments made by the Beach Boys between songs. 

I gotta say, I put a lot of effort into making this a better listen. One big problem was there was a constant noise coming from the crowd all the time, through every song. Probably, microphones were stuck in the crowd to capture that audience noise in order to supposedly increase the excitement level. Or some of it could have been added in later. That has happened even to officially released live albums occasionally. Regardless, I used the MVSEP to get rid of most of the crowd noise, except for the bits you'd expect at the starts and ends of the songs. The sonic difference was dramatic, like suddenly being able to hear after taking ear muffs off. 

The last two songs have "[Edit]" in their titles due to extra editing on them. For "The Spirit of Rock and Roll," an announcer came on near the end of the song and talked over it. Luckily, that didn't last too long, and I was able to patch it by bringing in a section from elsewhere in the song. "Good Vibrations" was much more difficult. For some stupid reason, the song was repeatedly interrupted by brief comments made by random people, saying things like "Happy anniversary to the Beach Boys!" These comments clearly were filmed on the beach at a different time and spliced into the footage. This happened about ten times, through random points in the song. Worse, the volume of the song itself was briefly turned way down, ruining the rhythm. I found a different live version of the song from the 1980s and patched in bits of that, or patched in sections from elsewhere in the same version. It was a real pain in the ass to fix, but all those dumb comments are gone now.

I think this is a really interesting concert, a lot better than what I'd expected from the Beach Boys at this point in their career. The main negative is that the band tried to cram in too many songs for the limited time they had for their TV special. So many of the songs are short versions, sometimes in medleys. There's even a couple that are a minute or less. But there are a lot of plus sides. One nice thing is that Brian Wilson usually didn't tour with the band, but he was here and involved. In fact, he looked as healthy and fit as he ever did, after some rough years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

And while the Beach Boys mostly played their expected classics, there was a couple of really nice surprises. One was a version of "Heaven" near the end of the concert. This was released on a Carl Wilson solo album and never officially done by the Beach Boys. The other one that is even more interesting is the closing song, "The Spirit of Rock and Roll." At the time, Brian Wilson was working on his first solo album. But there were many false starts before the album, simply called "Brian Wilson," was released in 1988. At one point, there was nearly enough material for an album to be released, only for it to be scrapped and most of the songs discarded. Some of this later became a popular bootleg called "Sweet Insanity." "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" was one of those discarded songs. So it's interesting that it was not only chosen for inclusion in this special, but it was the finale. This appears to be the ONLY time the song was ever performed by the Beach Boys, as opposed to Brian Wilson solo.

But maybe the most interesting thing of all were the special guests, the vast majority of whom have stood the test of time. Gloria Loring is better known as an actress than a singer, but she had a good voice and had a big hit in 1986 with "Friends and Lovers," which she sang here. Other than that though, the guests mostly sang Beach Boys songs, while being backed by the actual Beach Boys on backing vocals and instruments. For instance, not only did the back up Ray Charles singing and playing keyboards on "Sail On, Sailor," but Charles was the one playing the prominent keyboard part in the "Good Vibrations" finale. I particularly liked hearing Belinda Carlisle singing a Beach Boys song as well as a soul classic.

Everything here is unreleased, I believe. The sound quality is very good, though not great. 

This album is an hour and ten minutes long. 

01 talk (Beach Boys)
02 Help Me, Rhonda (Beach Boys)
03 Fun, Fun, Fun (Beach Boys)
04 California Girls (Beach Boys)
05 California Dreamin' (Beach Boys)
06 talk (Beach Boys)
07 Sail On, Sailor (Beach Boys & Ray Charles)
08 Sloop John B (Beach Boys)
09 Do It Again (Beach Boys)
10 talk (Beach Boys)
11 Friends and Lovers (Beach Boys & Gloria Loring)
12 I Can Hear Music (Beach Boys & Gloria Loring)
13 talk (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
14 In Cars (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
15 talk (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
16 Little Deuce Coupe (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
17 The Little Old Lady from Pasadena (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
18 I Get Around (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
19 Barbara Ann (Beach Boys)
20 talk (Beach Boys & the Fabulous Thunderbirds)
21 Rock and Roll Music (Beach Boys & the Fabulous Thunderbirds)
22 Be True to Your School (Beach Boys)
23 Don't Worry Baby - Getcha Back (Beach Boys & the Everly Brothers)
24 Wake Up Little Susie (Beach Boys & the Everly Brothers)
25 Surfer Girl (Beach Boys)
26 Come Go with Me (Beach Boys)
27 talk (Beach Boys)
28 Disney Girls [1957] (Beach Boys)
29 God Only Knows (Beach Boys & Jeffrey Osborne)
30 talk (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
31 Surfer Girl [Reprise] (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
32 Surf City (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
33 Surfin' U.S.A. (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
34 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys & Belinda Carlisle)
35 Band of Gold (Beach Boys & Belinda Carlisle)
36 talk (Beach Boys & Three Dog Night)
37 Darlin' (Beach Boys & Three Dog Night)
38 talk (Beach Boys)
39 Heaven (Beach Boys)
40 Good Vibrations [Edit] (Beach Boys & Everyone)
41 talk (Beach Boys)
42 The Spirit of Rock and Roll [Edit] (Beach Boys & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eYAr29uv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/lny0w2Q0FB2gE8x/file

I had a hard time finding a good cover photo by taking a screenshot from a video. If I used a long distance shot showing many people, it was too low-res and blurry. I chose this one from the "Good Vibrations" finale. From right to left, that's Gloria Loring, unknown, Al Jardine, and Belinda Carlile. I used Krea AI to boost the image quality.

Ray Charles - State Theater, New York City, 5-12-1989

Ray Charles is one of the all time soul greats, in my opinion. I've posted a few albums that had him in it, including a concert he did with Gladys Knight, but I've never really posted an album with just him as the star until this one.

Admittedly, this isn't the greatest Ray Charles concert. The problem, in my opinion, is the year: 1989. By that time, Charles was in "oldies" mode. It would have been better to have something from the 1950s or 1960s, when he was still putting out classic after classic. But this certainly is a capable performance, with excellent sound quality (being a soundboard bootleg). The main reason I'm posting it though is because this recording is very obscure. I searched all over the Internet, and found barely any mentions of it. So I'm hoping that posting it here will make it better well known. Any soundboard boot of a Ray Charles concert demands attention, even from his later decades, because there aren't a ton of them.

The 1980s were a pretty bad decade for Ray Charles' music career. If you look up the albums he put out, they were a disappointing lot, filled with forgettable songs that tried to hard to sound contemporary. But that doesn't matter one bit for this album, because he didn't play a single song from any of his then-recent albums. Instead, it was one classic after another. I think every single song here originally came out in the 1950s or 1960s, except for his acclaimed version of "America, the Beautiful," which is from the early 1970s. His vocals and piano playing were still in top form. This could easily have been mistaken for a concert from many years previous, based on the audio alone.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 talk (Ray Charles)
02 Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles)
03 Ain't That Love (Ray Charles)
04 Don't You Know (Ray Charles)
05 It Should've Been Me (Ray Charles)
06 talk (Ray Charles)
07 Hit the Road Jack (Ray Charles)
08 Rockhouse [Instrumental] (Ray Charles)
09 Mess Around (Ray Charles)
10 A Fool for You (Ray Charles)
11 I Got a Woman (Ray Charles)
12 Drown in My Own Tears (Ray Charles)
13 What'd I Say (Ray Charles)
14 Ol' Man River (Ray Charles)
15 talk (Ray Charles)
16 America, the Beautiful (Ray Charles)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16235889/RAYCHRLS1989_StteThtrNwYrkCty__5-12-1989_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from 1989. I don't know the details.

Various Artists - Newport Jazz Festival, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY, 7-8-1973

Here's something interesting and a little different that what I usually post. Also, this is unreleased and barely even mentioned on the Internet. In one concert in 1973, there were sets by Ttto Puente, Duke Ellington, Donny Hathaway, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin. What a collection of talent! Each of them played about 30 to 35 minutes. And while the recordings aren't perfect, they're all soundboards.

I've had a hard time finding out much about this concert, because this great event has mostly disappeared down the memory hole. But I did find one New York Times article from the day after the concert, which you can read here:

Roaring Newport Finish A Fervent Gospel Shout - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

It doesn't reveal that much. But from various sources, I gather that, by 1973, the Newport Jazz Festival had grown increasingly ambitious. Although mainly based in Newport, Rhode Island, it began putting on concerts in New York City in order to draw bigger crowds. It also began booking musical acts that weren't really jazz, which helped bring in those bigger crowds. This would continue after 1973, with "Newport Jazz Festival" concerts being held all over, even as far away as Japan. This concert was on the last day out of about a week of music. Others who played in festival included Stevie Wonder, the Staple Singers, War, and Roberta Flack. But I don't have any music except what's here.

Probably the most surprising thing about this concert is the involvement of jazz pianist and band leader Duke Ellington, because his heyday was in a much earlier era. In fact, he was born in the 1800s! (1899, to be precise.) That meant he was 74 years old at the time of this concert. Despite his age, he was still going strong musically, putting out new albums and regularly playing concerts. But he didn't last much longer, dying less than a year later. Much of Ellington's set is instrumental, with an orchestra. There is a female vocalist, Anita Moore, on some of the songs near the end.

Tito Puente might be the most famous Latin jazz musician. I don't know that much about him or his music. However, I already posted an album here where he collaborated with Steve Winwood in the 1990s. Much of his set also is instrumental.

The rest of the concert was much more about soul than jazz. Donny Hathaway was a great singer and musician, but he suffered mental health issues and committed suicide in the late 1970s. There are very few live recordings by him, so I'm glad to see this one get more exposure.

Ray Charles, of course, is a musical legend. I've been wanting to post more of his music, but there isn't a lot of great worth that hasn't already been officially released. So it's also good to give his set here more exposure. The same goes for another musical legend, Aretha Franklin. I'd guess there are less than 10 concert recordings from her late 1960s and early 1970s peak years, so it's also nice to have this reach more listeners.

I'm not sure of the exact order of the sets. I do know Tito Puente went first, since that's mentioned in the first track. And the New York Times article mentioned that Aretha Franklin went last. I'm guessing with the other three. If anyone knows the correct order for sure, please let me know and I'll fix it. It's too bad none of these musical greats played with each other on this day, but you can't have everything.

This album is two hours and 43 minutes long.

01 talk (Tito Puente)
02 Ritual Fire Dance [Instrumental] (Tito Puente)
03 Oye Como Va (Tito Puente)
04 talk (Tito Puente)
05 110th Street and 5th Avenue [Instrumental] (Tito Puente)
06 talk (Tito Puente)
07 Nina y Se (Tito Puente)
08 El Rey del Timbal [Instrumental] (Tito Puente)
09 C Jam Blues [Instrumental] (Duke Ellington)
10 Sophisticated Lady [Instrumental] (Duke Ellington)
11 Up Jump [Instrumental] (Duke Ellington)
12 Things Ain't What They Used to Be [Instrumental] (Duke Ellington)
13 Take the 'A' Train [Instrumental] (Duke Ellington)
14 New York. New York (Duke Ellington)
15 I Got It Bad [And That Ain't Good] (Duke Ellington)
16 Scat Spectacular (Duke Ellington)
17 Satin Doll (Duke Ellington)
18 One More Time for the People (Duke Ellington)
19 What's Going On (Donny Hathaway)
20 You've Got a Friend (Donny Hathaway)
21 Little Ghetto Boy (Donny Hathaway)
22 Valdez in the Country (Donny Hathaway)
23 Love, Love, Love (Donny Hathaway)
24 The Ghetto [Instrumental] (Donny Hathaway)
25 talk (Ray Charles)
26 Let the Good Times Roll (Ray Charles)
27 Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles)
28 The Long and Winding Road (Ray Charles)
29 Look What They've Done to My Song Ma (Ray Charles)
30 Don't Change on Me (Ray Charles)
31 talk (Ray Charles)
32 I Can't Stop Loving You (Ray Charles)
33 Eleanor Rigby (Ray Charles)
34 I Can Make It Thru the Day [But Oh Those Lonely Nights] (Ray Charles)
35 Shake (Ray Charles)
36 Rock Steady (Aretha Franklin)
37 Oh Me Oh My [I'm a Fool for You Baby] (Aretha Franklin)
38 Angel (Aretha Franklin)
39 Day Dreaming (Aretha Franklin)
40 Spanish Harlem (Aretha Franklin)
41 Brand New Me (Aretha Franklin)
42 talk (Aretha Franklin)
43 Dr. Feelgood [Love Is a Serious Business] (Aretha Franklin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/prPnV26E

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/CLQX63ZkIKVuKC8/file

I didn't find much written about this concert, but I got luckier when it came to photos. I found some pictures of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin from this exact concert, so I picked the best of both. I couldn't find any photos of the other three, so that determined who I had on the cover. 

However, I also found a promotional advert for the concert. I cut that up and rearranged it a bit, but what you see at the top is all from that. I didn't change any of the text for the portions that I did include.

Various Artists - Apollo Hall of Fame, Apollo Theatre, New York City, 7-15-1993

The Apollo Theatre is a concert venue in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem with a legendary history. With Harlem being a predominantly black neighborhood and a center of black cultural trends, it's best known for featuring black musicians, especially in the soul genre. In 1993, the people running the venue decided to start a yearly hall of fame ceremony. For their first one, they had a two hour show broadcast on national TV honoring the first few inductees. Apparently, this hall of fame tradition has continued, but I've only found good recordings from the 1993 one.

I haven't been able to find the full show, so I only know bits and pieces. But it seems that year's inductees included Ray Charles, James Brown, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald.

Here's an article about it, from Variety Magazine at the time:

Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame - Variety

Ray Charles showed up and played, but James Brown did not. Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald had passed away by that time. But many other famous musicians performed. Some were in tribute to the inductees. For instance, Diana Ross sang two of Billie Holiday's songs. But other performers just seemed to be celebrating the legacy of the Apollo Theatre in general. 

When it comes to bootleg recordings, this concert is best known for the last few songs, led by blues guitarist B. B. King. First, he did a duet with guitarist Eric Clapton on the song "Rock Me Baby." Then he brought on guitarists Jeff Beck, Albert Collins, and Buddy Guy as well. The five of them all played solos on the same song, "Sweet Little Angel." After that, they were joined by everyone else from earlier in the show for the finale "Let the Good Times Roll." That probably was the only time those five guitar legends all played on stage together.

But the rest of the show has a lot going for it. Many soul legends from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s played. Some of them were getting up there in age and this would be their last time on a national TV, a kind of last hurrah.

This album is 54 minutes long. The TV special was two hours long. Even if you figure in time for commercials, there are songs I've missed. I found about half of this from a high quality bootleg, and the other half from YouTube videos. But, in my opinion, the sound quality is about the same from the two sources.

By the way, note that the shows two hosts were the actors Danny Glover and Bill Cosby. Since then, Cosby has been hit by sex scandal and has been imprisoned. It's strange for me to hear him host this show in light of what's happened to him. I've tried to minimize his comments between songs, but I kept the bare minimum in for things to be understood.

01 talk (Smokey Robinson)
02 This Little Light of Mine (Smokey Robinson & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 Little Girl of Mine (Smokey Robinson & the Cleftones)
05 talk (Smokey Robinson)
06 Good Times (Bryan Adams & Smokey Robinson)
07 talk (Chuck Jackson)
08 Any Day Now (Chuck Jackson)
09 talk (Ben E. King)
10 Save the Last Dance (Ben E. King)
11 talk (Al Green)
12 Let's Stay Together (Al Green)
13 talk (Teddy Pendergrass)
14 Close the Door (Teddy Pendergrass)
15 Stand by Me (Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Al Green & Teddy Pendergrass)
16 Still Crazy After All These Years (Ray Charles)
17 talk (Diana Ross)
18 God Bless the Child (Diana Ross)
19 Fine and Mellow (Diana Ross)
20 talk (B. B. King)
21 Rock Me Baby (B. B. King & Eric Clapton)
22 talk (B. B. King)
23 Sweet Little Angel (B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Albert Collins & Buddy Guy)
24 talk (B. B. King)
25 Let the Good Times Roll (B. B. King & Everyone)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701193/VA-ApolloHallFmeAplloThetreNYC__7-15-1993_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I found a photo of all five guitarists that played together near the end of the show. From left to right, it's Jeff Beck, Albert Collins, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, and Buddy Guy. It looks like the photo was taken backstage before or after the show. It's rather blurry, so if you know of a better version, or a better one, please let me know.

Tom Jones - This Is Tom Jones, Volume 5 (1970)

I haven't posted much since getting back from vacation, been busy, but I hope to post a bunch in the next few days to make up for it. First up is some more Tom Jones. This is the fifth out of six volumes of his performances from his TV show, "This Is Tom Jones."

As with the other volumes, this has a lot of duets on it. In fact, ten out of the 14 songs are duets. And also like those others, he sings and plays with some of the biggest stars in music at this time. The duets here are with: Leslie Uggams, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Burt Bacharach, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Reed, and the Supremes. I must admit I'd never heard of Uggams before, but it's ridiculous that he had so many duets with those other big stars. And consider that this is only from one portion of one season of his show, and I was only able to find some of the duets done during that time.

The duets with Aretha Franklin are particularly significant, in my opinion. They did four songs together, for almost 10 minutes of music. I doubt Franklin ever dueted with anyone as much as she did with Jones on this TV appearance. And while the Ray Charles duet is technically only one track, it's a medley of three songs that lasts seven minutes.

As with the other albums in this series, this is sourced from DVDs and YouTube videos. The DVD tracks sound better, not surprisingly, but it all had to meet my usual sound quality standards.

Even if you're not much of a Tom Jones fan, there's a lot to like here. Yeah, there are a few cheesy show-biz tunes. But there also are plenty of duets with some all-time greats, generally doing classic songs.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Somewhere (Tom Jones & Leslie Uggams)
02 Venus (Tom Jones)
03 If I Ruled the World (Tom Jones)
04 That Thing Called Love - Understanding - Bright Lights (Tom Jones & Ray Charles)
05 I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Tom Jones & Smokey Robinson)
06 What the World Needs Now (Tom Jones with Burt Bacharach)
07 Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head (Tom Jones & Burt Bacharach)
08 It's Not Unusual - See Saw (Tom Jones & Aretha Franklin)
09 Spirit in the Dark (Tom Jones & Aretha Franklin)
10 The Party's Over (Tom Jones & Aretha Franklin)
11 Funky Chicken (Tom Jones)
12 Guitar Man (Tom Jones & Jerry Reed)
13 River Deep, Mountain High (Tom Jones & Supremes)
14 Try a Little Tenderness (Tom Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700848/TOMJNS1970_ThisIsTmJnsVolum5_atse.zip.html

As with the other albums in this series, I figured it would be more interesting to show a photo of Jones from one of his duets on the cover rather than him alone. So I chose him singing with Aretha Franklin from the performance featured here.

Gladys Knight & the Pips & Ray Charles - Together at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 9-22-1977

I really like soul music from the 1960s and 1970s, and I wish I could post more of that type of music here, but it's not often that I find that kind of album that's worthy of the "albums that should exist" label. However, this one definitely is: it's a one-of-a-kind concert featuring two soul music greats, Gladys Knight (and the Pips) and Ray Charles.

To be honest, this is more of a Gladys Knight and the Pips concert: it's an hour long, and 37 minutes pass before Ray Charles shows up. But it's quite good just as a Knight concert, because there's only one of those from her prime 1960s and 1970s years, and it's not that good and is long out of print. In my opinion, it's a lucky thing that this concert took place in 1977 and not more recently, because 1977 was the tail end of soul music's golden era. Already in that year, disco was taking over, and disco destroyed or compromised the music of nearly every major soul figure. (I'm not against all disco, but there was a time when basically everyone "went disco" when they shouldn't have, including the likes of Ethel Merman!) Luckily, there are no traces of disco here. Had this been recorded a year or two later, I'll bet a lot of the songs would have been "disco-fied."

Anyway, we have an album of a very solid Gladys Knight and the Pips concert, where she played most of her biggest hits. Then Ray Charles joined in and played two songs on his own. For the last three songs, Knight and Charles sang together. As far as I know, this is the only time the two of them collaborated like this on stage, although they did a couple of duets in the studio towards the end of Charles' life.

The reason we have a recording of this concert, and in very good sound quality, is because it was professionally filmed and then shown on HBO a year later. Many years after that, that film was released on video, and then on DVD in 2008. I was able to find a version of that on YouTube and convert it to mp3 format. The sound quality isn't awesome, like you'd expect of a music DVD from decades later, but it's akin to a soundboard bootleg, which is still really good.

Unfortunately, we only get what was included on the DVD. Newspaper reports from the time indicate that more songs were played. For instance, we know Charles also played "Mack the Knife," Knight played "Daddy Could Swear, I Declare" (with Charles on piano), and the concert ended with "What I'd Say" as a finale. So that's a bummer, but we do get the vast majority of the concert, and hopefully someday the rest will be released.

01 How Can You Say That Ain't Love (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
02 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
03 Every Beat of My Heart (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
04 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
05 So Sad the Song (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
06 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
07 On and On (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
08 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
09 Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
10 Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
11 Evergreen - The Way We Were (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
12 I've Got to Use My Imagination (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
13 I Heard It through the Grapevine (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
14 talk (Ray Charles & Gladys Knight & the Pips)
15 I Can See Clearly Now (Ray Charles)
16 America the Beautiful (Ray Charles)
17 talk (Ray Charles & Gladys Knight & the Pips)
18 Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles & Gladys Knight & the Pips)
19 talk (Ray Charles & Gladys Knight & the Pips)
20 Neither One of Us [Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye] (Ray Charles & Gladys Knight & the Pips)
21 talk (Ray Charles & Gladys Knight & the Pips)
22 Hit the Road, Jack (Ray Charles & Gladys Knight & the Pips)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cVuAbgKe

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/44SrXzW3r7vjdbe/file

For the cover art photo, I used a screenshot from the exact concert in question, thanks to the DVD of it (which has been posted on YouTube). Unfortunately, the picture quality wasn't good. But in February 2025, I used the Krea AI problem to significantly improve the image.