I saw this in the theater in '64 or '65 when it was released and it pretty much changed my life. I already loved Jan & Dean, the Beach Boys, Lesley Gore (everyone PLEASE note the correct spelling of her first name: it's NOT "Leslie"!), Gerry & the Pacemakers, etc., but was completely unprepared for James Brown and the Famous Flames.
I kinda didn't know what to make of JB's dramatic finale with the cape, etc., at the time. It actually scared me a bit! (As it apparently did Mick Jagger and Keith Richards!) I thought he was having a seizure or something! It's since become sort of a cliché, down to Paul Shaffer's bit on "Late Night," but at that time no white kids I knew had ever seen anything remotely like THAT! Just blew me away completely!
It's also worth noting that the fantastic backing band for the show was led by noted producer/arranger/performer Jack Nitzsche, who worked with everybody from Bob B. Soxx and the Bluejeans to Captain Beefheart, with a few Lesley Gores, Tim Buckleys, Neil Youngs, Rolling Stones, etc., thrown in for good measure! A true unsung legend in his own right!
The Beach Boys' segment has been cut from most versions since then, if you could find the show at ALL. There was a "That Was Rock: the TAMI and TNT Music Shows" tape that was available years ago, but most of the TAMI Show was missing and the TNT Show I didn't care for much.
I recently found a pretty good copy (DVD-R)of the WHOLE THING ("TAMI Show 1964") on eBay, INCLUDING the Beach Boys' segment, and it brought back some incredible memories.
I hope that someday someone will release a "legitimate," uncut, first-generation quality version of this show, although with licensing deals, etc., I'm not too optimistic. In the meantime I've got the next best thing: a decent-quality uncut DVD-R, with much of it in widescreen format!
