T.A.M.I. Show

T.A.M.I. Show
Movie poster
Directed by	Steve Binder
Produced by	Bill Sargent
Distributed by	AIP
Release date(s)	December 29, 1964
Running time	123 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

T.A.M.I. Show is a 1964 concert film, released by American International Pictures. It includes performances by numerous popular rock and roll and R&B musicians from the United States and England. It was shot by director Steve Binder and his crew from The Steve Allen Show using specially developed "Electronovision" TV cameras, the second of a handful of productions that used the system. By capturing more than 800 lines of resolution at 25 frame/s, it could be converted to film via kinescope recording with sufficient enhanced resolution to allow big-screen enlargement. It is considered one of the seminal events in the pioneering of music films, and more importantly, the later concept of music videos.

The concert was held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28 and 29, 1964. Free tickets were distributed to local high school students. Jan and Dean emceed the event and performed its theme song, "Here They Come (From All Over the World)". Jack Nitzsche was the show's music director. The acronym "T.A.M.I." was used inconsistently in the show's publicity to mean both Teenage Awards Music International and Teen Age Music International. The best footage from each of the two concert dates was edited into the film, which was released on December 29, 1964.

T.A.M.I. Show is particularly well known for James Brown's performance, which features his legendary dance moves and remarkable energy. In interviews, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones has claimed that choosing to follow Brown & The Famous Flames was the biggest mistake of their careers, because no matter how well they performed, they could not top him. In a web-published interview, Binder takes credit for persuading the Stones to follow James Brown, and serve as the centerpiece for the grand finale where all the performers dance together onstage. In addition, throughout the film, were numerous go-go dancers in the background or beside the performers. Among them were a very young Toni Basil and Teri Garr, who were under the direction of David Winters who played A-Rab in the film version of West Side Story (film) and went on to choreograph the Hullabaloo tv show (1965) and the film version of A Star Is Born (1976) . It also featured The Supremes performing two back-to-back No. 1 singles, signaling their reign as the most successful girl group of that era. Diana Ross would go on to work with the director Steve Binder on several of her television specials including her first solo television special and more importantly her iconic Central Park concert, Live from New York Worldwide: For One and for All.

The film was shown unedited and in its entirety on cable television in Canada in 1984 (20th anniversary of its release), on the First Choice Network. However, there had never been an authorized home video release of the film in any format until the authorized DVD release in March 2010, though bootlegs have abounded. (A DVD release of the complete film by First Look Studios was planned for 2007, but subsequently withdrawn.) Also, because of a rights dispute, the footage of The Beach Boys' performance was deleted from all prints made after the movie's brief initial theatrical run, and is therefore absent from most of the bootlegs. All of the four Beach Boys tunes eventually surfaced on DVD in Sights and Sounds of Summer, a special CD/DVD edition of Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys.

A sequel, 1966's The Big T.N.T. Show, was produced by the same executive producer, Henry G. Saperstein.

In 2006, T.A.M.I. Show was named to the National Film Registry by the U.S. Library of Congress. Dick Clark Productions acquired ownership of the concert film. On March 23, 2010, Shout! Factory released the full show on a restored, digitally remastered and fully authorized DVD.

List of performers

• The Barbarians
• The Beach Boys
• Chuck Berry
• James Brown and The Famous Flames
• Marvin Gaye (with backing vocals by The Blossoms)
• Gerry & the Pacemakers
• Lesley Gore
• Jan and Dean
• Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas
• Smokey Robinson and The Miracles
• The Rolling Stones
• The Supremes
• The house band, known collectively as The Wrecking Crew, was under the musical direction of Jack Nitzsche, and included drummer Hal Blaine, electric bass player Jimmy Bond, guitarists Tommy Tedesco, Bill Aken, and Glen Campbell, upright bassist Lyle Ritz, and pianist Leon Russell, saxophonist Plas Johnson and others.

T.A.M.I. Show's Executive Producer was Bill Sargent (H.W. Sargent, Jr). Sargent held numerous patents in cable television and is considered the father of modern pay-per-view. Sargent was also the developer of Electronovision and the associated video tape technologies.

Set list

Artist	Song Title
Jan and Dean (Over credits)	(Here They Come) from All Over the World
Chuck Berry	Johnny B. Goode
	Maybellene
Gerry & The Pacemakers	Maybellene
	Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying
	It's Gonna Be Alright
Chuck Berry	Sweet Little Sixteen
Gerry & The Pacemakers	How Do You Do It?
Chuck Berry	Nadine
Gerry & The Pacemakers	I Like It
(Smokey Robinson and) The Miracles	That's What Love Is Made Of
	You've Really Got a Hold on Me
	Mickey's Monkey
Marvin Gaye	Stubborn Kind of Fellow
	Pride and Joy
	Can I Get a Witness
	Hitch Hike
Lesley Gore	Maybe I Know
	You Don't Own Me
	You Didn't Look Around
	Hey Now
	It's My Party
	Judy's Turn to Cry
Jan and Dean	The Little Old Lady from Pasadena
	Sidewalk Surfin
The Beach Boys	Surfin' USA
	I Get Around
	Surfer Girl
	Dance, Dance, Dance
Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas	Little Children
	Bad to Me
	I'll Keep You Satisfied
	From a Window
The Supremes	When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes
	Run, Run, Run
	Baby Love
	Where Did Our Love Go
The Barbarians	Hey Little Bird
James Brown and The Famous Flames	Out of Sight
	Prisoner of Love
	Please, Please, Please
	Night Train
The Rolling Stones	Around and Around
	Off the Hook
	Time Is on My Side
	It's All Over Now
	I'm Alright
	Let's Get Together

Popular culture

The Police mention "James Brown on The T.A.M.I. Show" in their 1980 song "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around."

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has a song called "Lesley Gore On The TAMI Show," which appears on the albums Pocket Symphonies for Lonesome Subway Cars (2001) and Advance Base Battery Life (2009).

American producer Rick Rubin recalls in an anecdote that when he was visiting Prince's offices, he observed that a loop of James Brown & The Famous Flames' performance on the show was looped on a lobby television. He speculates "that may be the single greatest rock & roll performance ever captured on film."

The T.A.M.I. Show's influence on later music films was profound, and its influence on techniques used later in music videos was equally so. The technical developments used in the T.A.M.I. Show were truly revolutionary for their time, and the Show also launched many careers, including a number of musicians in the house band (The Wrecking Crew) who went on to brilliant and famous careers.

External links

• The T.A.M.I. Show Remembered on its 40th Anniversary
• The T.A.M.I. Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The T.A.M.I. Show at AllRovi
• The T.A.M.I. Show - Still A Groundbreaking Music Event