The Ed Sullivan Show was the longest running variety show in American television history, which hosted some of the greatest stars in music history today. Rock 'N' Roll Forever combines rare archival footage from some of the best rock 'n roll moments on the Sullivan Show including:
- The Doors controversial performance of the song "Light My Fire." Apparently, Ed Sullivan had invited Jim Morrison and the Doors to perform on one condition: they would omit the word "higher" and replace with a less offensive word. However, when the band came out to play, Jim Morrison sang as he always did, refusing to change the words. This caused such an outrage on the Ed Sullivan show that Ed refused to shake Morrison's hand and banned the band forever from future performances. A producer told the band, "You promised", and the Doors replied with, "We were so nervous, we're just boys, we've done it a thousand times, it just came out." The producer looked at Morrison and told him, "Mr. Sullivan liked you boys. He wanted you on six more times. ... You'll never do the Sullivan show again," to which Morrison replied, "We just did the Sullivan show."
- The noteworthy performance by Janis Joplin singing "Maybe" in 1969. The background to the performance is a little tacky looking at it today, but was very much the style of the times, complete with psychedelic colors. One of the top performances in my book, however.
- A very young and handsome Elvis Presley whose wild hip-swinging and wiggling caused problems for CBS censors who decided to only show the King of Rock 'n' Roll from the waist up while performing "Don't Be Cruel."
- The first ever Jackson Five performance on the Sullivan show with a ten-year-old sweet-faced Michael Jackson stealing the show, singing "I Want You Back."
Other performances include:
Bill Hayley & his Comets - "Rock Around the Clock"
Ray Charles - "What'd I Say"
Jackie Wilson - "Lonely Teardrops"
James Brown - "Please, Please, Please"
Roy Orbison - "Oh Pretty Woman"
The Beatles - "I Saw Her Standing There"
The Supremes and The Temptations - "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (including the first Diana Ross and David Ruffin duet)
Lovin' Spoonful - "Do You Believe in Magic"
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Fortunate Son" (one of the best performances on the show)
The Mamas and The Papas - "Monday, Monday"
The Young Rascals - "Good Lovin'" (an absolutely adorable performance)
The only complaint I have is length. At only fifty minutes, it could stand to be longer, however, every minute of this collection is worth it.
Article comments
1 - The Proprietor
Unfortunately, both The Mamas and The Papas and The Lovin' Spoonful lip synched these performances. Sullivan had a strong policy against lip synching, but relented for Gary Lewis and The Playboys and the precedent was set.
My only other quibble is the choice of "I Saw Her Standing There" for the Beatles song. While there were some technical problems with the first set (John Lennon's mic was way down in the mix on "She Loves You"), the performance of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is iconic (and not to mention it's a great demonstration of Ringo's technique - listen to the excellent drum sound on the crane shot during the "And when I touch you" bit).
2 - Jones Violet
Something else that should be noted that I completely forgot about, was the obvious, uh, faux-guitar playing in Jackson Five.
The Proprietor, I actually didn't notice that about the Mamas and The Papas, I think I was too amazed by their hippiness/cheese factor to notice the singing. Heh. Still a good performance all-around, though.
3 - Victor Lana
Used to spend Sunday nights with my grandparents, and that is how I got my dose of Ed. The funny thing is that for all his stiff old fogey way, good old Ed had the cutting edge acts of his day on each week.
You have to give the guy credit, even if he was a freak wanting Elvis not to be photographed below the waist, wanting the Doors to change their lyrics (and the Stones too for that matter).
Still, I recall seeing so much of what was to come in my life and world on Ed's dreary B/W show. Oh, and that weird mouse Topo Gigio. Man, I still hate that rodent.
4 - Jones Violet
Why weren't the Stones on this show? Hmm. I would have loved to see them.
5 - The Proprietor
I thought it odd that the Spoonful lip synched on the Sullivan show when they could indeed do a great live performance; although there's a false start on their performance on The Big T.N.T. show, they really were excellent performing "Do You Believe In Magic" and "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice" (it's criminal that that show sits unreleased in the archives somewhere, where every one of Mrs. Federline's DVDs are in print).
Unfortunately, the only really live video document of The Mamas and The Papas is from Monterey Pop DVD, and as the band themselves admitted, they hadn't sang and played together in months and sounded bad ("Monday Monday" on the Monterey CD box set is painful to listen to, and "California Dreaming" is marred by Papa John's out-of-tune electric 12-string)
6 - uao
I haven't seen this tape, but I have seen most of the performances.
Not sure why the Mamas and Papas lip-synched except that to reproduce their sound they would've needed a full band-- that would have required 9 or 10 total musicians, including the 4 singers.
Mama Cass made not secret of it. Before they begin she said something like "roll the tape!" before they lip synched.
I've always loved their Monterey Pop performance, despite it being fairly ragged. Especially Cass' entertaining stage patter, which takes up more time than the seven or eight songs they actually played.
7 - uao
I really wish the tape included the (live, with psychedelic light show) "Crown of Creation" by Jefferson Airplane, which didn't make it onto their own DVD video collection. I have to make do with a p2p download.
8 - uao
Jonas--
The Stones were on 5 times from 1965-1969, but probably are stingy with the song rights, preventing them from being included (just a guess).
If you ever see all of their performances in a row, it's pretty interesting to watch. Jagger is a bit stiff in the first appearence; he gradually becomes looser and more animated with each visit, culminating in the 1969 appearance where he's at his peak.