Ray Charles with Sarah Vaughan - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 4-30-1976

I haven't posted any episodes of the "Midnight Special" TV show in a while, since I've been focused on Ebbets Field concerts and some other things. But don't worry, I always get back to unfinished projects sooner or later. Here's an episode hosted by Ray Charles, with Sarah Vaughan as his guest.

In case you're not aware, the people behind this TV show are posting one "new" episode a week, and have been doing that for a few years now. When I say "new," I mean most of these had been lost to history until they post high quality versions. Lately, as I write this in May 2026, they've made it from 1973 to early 1976. I've been disappointed with many of their recently posted episodes though. For some reason, in early 1976, the show was heavily dominated by Helen Reddy, who was that main host practically every week. But just yesterday as I write this, they posted an episode that really caught my interest. It was the first time Charles had been on the show since 1973. (I've posted an album of that show already, so check it out.) So that alone was interesting for me. But even better was that Sarah Vaughan was his main guest, resulting in them singing a couple of songs together. 

It's true that Charles and Vaughan had their peak years in the 1950s and 1960s (and in Vaughan's case also the 1940s). But they still had all their musical powers in the 1970s; it's just that popular musical tastes had changed. Both sound great here. Charles even was keeping up with the times in a good way with a cover of "Living for the City," a hit for Stevie Wonder in 1973.

Vaughan was not the only guest. The others were: the Bay City Rollers, Cate Brothers, Freddy Fender, and Aaron Williams, who did ventriloquist comedy. I strongly suspect Charles requested Vaughan to be on the show, but the likes of the Bay City Rollers had nothing to do with him.

As usual for this TV show, the music is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 37 minutes long. 

01 Every Saturday Night (Ray Charles)
02 talk (Wolfman Jack)
03 talk (Ray Charles)
04 Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles)
05 talk (Ray Charles)
06 The Man I Love (Sarah Vaughan)
07 Living for the City (Ray Charles)
08 I'm Gonna Keep On Singin' (Ray Charles & Sarah Vaughan)
09 What'd I Say (Ray Charles & Sarah Vaughan)
10 Blues for Big Scotia (Ray Charles)
11 America the Beautiful (Ray Charles)
12 What'd I Say [Reprise] (Ray Charles & Sarah Vaughan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nGUFdxSg

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xnID8H3LUUvVjkc/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. Actually, I took three: one of the whole scene, one of Charles' head and one of Vaughan's head. Then I brought them together in Photoshop. That allowed more detail in those areas. 

Billy Preston with Buddy Miles - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 8-31-1973

It's time for another episode from that fantastic TV show, "The Midnight Special." This one stars Billy Preston, with Buddy Miles as his guest.

Preston started his music career quite young. Having taught himself how to play piano, he began performing on stage by the time he was ten. In 1963, he released his first studio album, at the age of 16. But he didn't have a lot of success at first, and mostly worked as a backing musician for Ray Charles and others. He got a big break in early 1969 when he backed the Beatles in the studio for a couple of weeks during their Get Back / Let It Be sessions. And when the song "Get Back" was released as a single that year, it was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston." He had his first big hit later in 1969 with "That's the Way God Planned It." It didn't do much in the U.S., but it almost reached the Top Ten in Britain. More hits followed by the time of this show, especially "Outa-Space," "Will It Go Round in Circles," and "Space Race."

Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Billy Preston - Wikipedia 

This album is a combination of three episodes. Most of the songs come from the August 31, 1973 episode named in the album title. But "Blackbird" and "That's the Way God Planned It" come from a February 16, 1973 episode. Actually, "That's the Way God Planned It" was played twice, in the August and February episodes. But the August version faded out before the end of the song. So I used the complete February version. However, the talking right before it is from the August version. Also, tracks 11, 12 and 13 come from the December 14, 1973 episode.

Preston hosted the show again in 1975. I plan on posting that again. It seems he and Buddy Miles actually were friends (as they said on this episode), because Miles was a guest on that episode as well. It seems the host often had some say on who the guests for their episodes would be. 

I included Miles as the guest mostly because they performed "My Sweet Lord" together, as you can see from the cover image. Also, they had similar soul music styles. In case you're curious, the other guests on the August 1973 episode that Preston hosted were: Steely Dan, Bo Diddley, Maureen McGovern, Ned Doheny, and Gladstone. For the opening talk by Wolfman Jack, I edited it so that mentions of the those other guests weren't included. That's what that track has "[Edit]" in the title. I also included only part of the next track, which consisted of some comments by comedian Tommy Smothers.

By the way, "I'm So Tired" is not the Beatles song of the same name. However, "Blackbird" is a Beatles cover. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 talk (Tommy Smothers)
03 Will It Go Round in Circles (Billy Preston)
04 talk (Billy Preston)
05 Them Changes (Buddy Miles)
06 talk (Wolfman Jack)
07 My Sweet Lord (Billy Preston & Buddy Miles)
08 talk (Billy Preston)
09 All Spaced Out (Billy Preston)
10 Music's My Life (Billy Preston)
11 Space Race [Instrumental] (Billy Preston)
12 How Long Has the Train Been Gone (Billy Preston)
13 I'm So Tired (Billy Preston)
14 Blackbird (Billy Preston)
15 Thinking of You (Buddy Miles)
16 talk (Billy Preston)
17 That's the Way God Planned It (Billy Preston)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2vHo8jnd

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/PCrntjhghM3NAH8/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. That's Buddy Miles playing drums, and Billy Preston looking over at him while playing keyboards. I used Photoshop to remove some mostly empty space between them.

Neil Sedaka with Captain and Tennille - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 11-14-1975

Neil Sedaka died on February 27, 2026, just a few days ago as I write this. It just so happened I had some music to post from him. In fact, this is the second of two albums I'm posting based on his appearances on the "Midnight Special" TV show.

The other album of his I recently posted was based on when he hosted the Midnight Special on February 14, 1975. He was back to host the show again on this date, November 14, 1975. It was unusual for anyone to host the show twice in one year, but his career had an extraordinary revival in the mid-1970s. He had been very successful in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but had a long stretch of no hits in between.

The peaks of his 1970s revival was when three songs he wrote all reached Number One in the U.S. singles chart. First, "Laughter in the Rain" in late 1974. Then Captain and Tennille had a massive hit with his "Love Will Keep Us Together" in 1975. Not only was did it hit Number One, but it was the best selling song of the year. Later in 1975, he had another Number One with "Bad Blood." All three of those songs were performed here. Captain and Tennille were one of his guests for the episode, so he performed a rare version of "Love Will Keep Us Together" with them. 

At the same time Sedaka was having his big comeback, Captain and Tennille were becoming big stars. The Captain, real name Daryl Dragon, became a member of the Beach Boys touring band in 1972 as a keyboard player. He met Toni Tennille and helped her also join the Beach Boys touring band as a second keyboardist. The two of them began playing clubs as a duo together. Their debut album (also called "Love Will Keep Up Together" was released in 1975, and it was a big hit. The two of them also got married on November 11, 1975, which was just three days before this episode was broadcast. However, it probably was taped maybe a month or two earlier.

Here's the Wikipedia entry about the duo:

Captain & Tennille - Wikipedia

Like the other Neil Sedaka Midnight Special album I've posted, this one draws from multiple episodes. The first eleven tracks are from the November 14, 1975 episode mentioned in the title. Tracks 12 and 13 are from the February 14, 1975 episode that was also hosted by Sedaka. Track 14, "Cuddle Up," is from the June 20, 1975 episode. The remaining tracks, 15 to 18, are from the November 29, 1974 episode.

Two of the songs here are Captain and Tennille performing without Sedaka. They did a cover of the famous Carole King song "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." It looks like that was a song they never officially released. "Cuddle Up" is a song the Captain wrote with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys when he was working with the Beach Boys. There is a Beach Boys version as well as a version on the debut Captain and Tennille album.

In case you're curious, the only other musical guests on the November 14, 1975 episode hosted by Sedaka were K.C. and the Sunshine Band and Helen Reddy. Freddie Prinze also did a comedy segment, and there was an interview with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin.

This album is 43 minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 talk (Neil Sedaka & Helen Reddy)
03 Bad Blood (Neil Sedaka)
04 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (Neil Sedaka)
05 talk (Neil Sedaka & Captain & Tennille)
06 Love Will Keep Us Together (Neil Sedaka & Captain & Tennille)
07 talk (Neil Sedaka & Captain & Tennille)
08 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman (Captain & Tennille)
09 talk (Neil Sedaka & Helen Reddy)
10 Lonely Night [Angel Face] (Neil Sedaka)
11 When You Were Lovin' Me (Neil Sedaka)
12 talk (Neil Sedaka)
13 Don't Let It Mess Your Mind (Neil Sedaka)
14 Cuddle Up (Captain & Tennille)
15 talk (Neil Sedaka)
16 Laughter in the Rain (Neil Sedaka)
17 talk (Neil Sedaka)
18 Standing on the Inside (Neil Sedaka)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Xoij3ph7

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/VxuFgI0FmZGU51N/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from the YouTube video of this episode. It shows Tennille singing with Sedaka on "Love Will Keep Us Together."

Neil Sedaka with Helen Reddy - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 2-14-1975

Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka died just two days ago as I write this. Specifically, he died on February 27, 2026, at the age of 86. Reports say he was in good health, eating at a restaurant just two days earlier, then had a sudden medical emergency. I wasn't going to post something to mark his death if I didn't have some album worthy of posting. But, as it turns out, I actually have two worthy albums. I've been posting episodes of the "Midnight Special" TV show for months now. I hadn't gotten around to making albums for him. But I quickly did that after I heard about his death. So here's the first one.

Sedaka was a big star in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Unlike most big stars at that time, he not only co-wrote most of his hits, along with songwriting partner Howard Greenfield, he and Greenfield wrote many hits for others. But then musical tastes changed in 1964 with the rise of the Beatles and Bob Dylan and others, and he fell off the charts for a long time. However, he'd never lost his performing talent, or his songwriting talent, and he had a major comeback in the mid-1970s. His song "That's When the Music Takes Me" made the Top Forty U.S. singles chart in 1972. But he really came all the way back in 1974 with the song "Laughter in the Rain," which went all the way to Number One in the U.S. More hits followed from 1975 to 1977, especially "Bad Blood," which was another Number One in 1975, and a slow ballad version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," which hit the Top Ten, also in 1975.

Because of this success, Sedaka was on the Midnight Special quite a lot from late 1974 onwards. In fact, he hosted the show a bunch of times: twice in 1975, once in 1976, and twice in 1977. As I write this in March 2026, high quality YouTube videos of this TV show have only reached the end of 1975, with more being slowly released chronologically. So all I can deal with are his appearances on the show in 1974 and 1975. It turns out there he played some songs twice. So I did a lot of moving around of songs for the two albums I've made to make sure no song appears twice on the same album.

Thus, this album is more Frankensteined together than any Midnight Special album I've posted up until now. It's taken from four different episodes. Tracks 1 through 6 come from the February 14, 1975 episode mentioned in the title. That was a unique episode, with three hosts, each getting exactly one third of the show time. The other two hosts were the Spinners and Todd Rundgren. I've already posted the Rundgren portion, and the Spinner portion will be posted eventually. 

Tracks 7 through 9 are from a July 25, 1975 episode. That included Sedaka singing "Love Will Keep Us Together." He wrote that song with Greenfield, and it was released on a 1973 Sedaka album. It was released as a single and failed to even make the charts. However, in 1975, Captain and Tennille released a version of it as a single in 1975, and it was a massive hit. Not only did it reach Number One in the U.S., it was the best selling song that year! In that same episode, he performed a duet with Helen Reddy, "Don't Let It Mess Your Mind."

Tracks 10 and 11 are from the November 14, 1975 episode. That actually is the date of the second Sedaka album I'll be posting. But I moved those songs here because one is another duet between Sedaka and Reddy, "Sad Eyes," and the other is a song just sung by Reddy, "Emotion." I wanted to put all the Reddy songs on the same album.

That leaves tracks 12 through 17. Those come from a November 29, 1974 episode. Together, they made up a big medley of his best early hits. I broke most of them into their own mp3 files though. 

By the way, note that I've created two "Covered" albums for Sedaka and his main songwriting partner, Howard Greenfield. So if you haven't listened to those yet, I suggest you do. Here are the links:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/04/covered-neil-sedaka-howard-greenfield.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/04/covered-neil-sedaka-howard-greenfield_24.html 

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 That's When the Music Takes Me [Edit] (Neil Sedaka)
02 talk (Neil Sedaka)
03 The Immigrant (Neil Sedaka)
04 Laughter in the Rain (Neil Sedaka)
05 talk (Neil Sedaka)
06 Standing on the Inside (Neil Sedaka)
07 talk (Neil Sedaka & Helen Reddy)
08 Don't Let It Mess Your Mind (Neil Sedaka & Helen Reddy)
09 Love Will Keep Us Together (Neil Sedaka)
10 Sad Eyes (Neil Sedaka & Helen Reddy)
11 Emotion (Helen Reddy)
12 talk (Neil Sedaka)
13 Oh Carol (Neil Sedaka)
14 Stairway to Heaven (Neil Sedaka)
15 Sweet Sixteen (Neil Sedaka)
16 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do - Next Door to an Angel (Neil Sedaka)
17 Calendar Girl (Neil Sedaka)

pixeldrain.com/u/6zAb4GYz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/t19NZPKdAZPuF0p/file

The cover image is from the July 25, 1975 episode, included here. It's a screenshot I took of Sedaka performing a duet with Helen Reddy.

The Guess Who with Bachman-Turner Overdrive - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 1-3-1975

A few days ago (writing this in February 2026), I posted a Midnight Special episode hosted by the Guess Who in 1974. They did another one that was broadcast in very early 1975 (though it was almost certainly recorded in late 1974). So here it is. The band broke up later in 1975, so this was their last appearance on the show.

As I mentioned in my write-up for the 1974 Guess Who album, the band had their first big hit in a few years that year with the song "Clap for the Wolfman." Wolfman Jack, host of the Midnight Special, loved the song, since it was about him, and he had some spoken lines in the recording. He performed the song with the band in their 1974 appearance, and did so again here. In fact, he was so keen on the song that the episode began straight away with the song before the usual introductions, then it ended with a short reprise of the song! 

Note the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive didn't appear on this episode of the show. They were only on the show once, in 1973, and played two songs. This album was rather short, and I didn't think any of the other musical acts from this episode were a good fit with the Guess Who. But the key member of Bachman-Turner Overdrive was Randy Bachman, former lead guitarist of the Guess Who, so I thought that made a very good fit. Thus, I included their songs from an earlier episode on this album, even though that took place over a year earlier. 

Between this album and the other Guess Who Midnight Special album I've posted, the band played most of their best known songs, with no overlap. For instance, in this performance they went back to some earlier songs, like "No Time" and "Bus Rider," as well as playing some that were new for the time. The band's last significant hit was "Dancin' Fool," which was performed here. That was released in October 1974, and made the Top Forty in the U.S. singles chart. 

In case you're curious, the other acts in this episode of the show were the Spencer Davis Group, Montrose, and the Charlie Daniels Band. 

This album is 39 minutes long. 

01 Clap for the Wolfman [Edit] (Guess Who with Wolfman Jack)
02 talk by Wolfman Jack [Edit] (Guess Who)
03 Dancin' Fool (Guess Who)
04 Bus Rider (Guess Who)
05 Sour Suite (Guess Who)
06 talk (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
07 Hold Back the Water (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
08 No Time (Guess Who)
09 Diggin' Yourself (Guess Who)
10 Gimme Your Money Please (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
11 Dirty (Guess Who)
12 talk (Guess Who)
13 Clap for the Wolfman [Reprise] (Guess Who with Wolfman Jack)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/DZi5uFTV

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/jdsQMVECCUsLdOl/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took of a video from this exact concert. Wolfman Jack is on the far left, wearing a blue shirt. Burton Cummings is on the far right, playing piano and apparently wearing the curtains from his living room for a suit. 

The Guess Who - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 3-29-1974

I have a lot of new things I keep finding that distracts me from posting more of projects I've previously announced, but all those projects are still in progress. One of them is posting more from the "Midnight Special" TV show. When I posted a poll about this show, the Guess Who were one of the top vote getters. They were on the show a handful of times. I've turned that into two albums. Here's the first one.

The Guess Who didn't have any big hits in 1972 or 1973, after having more success from 1969 to 1971. But in 1974, they had another Top Ten hit in the U.S. with "Clap for the Wolfman," which was a tribute song for DJ Wolfman Jack. At the time, the Midnight Special was hosted by none other than Wolfman Jack, who naturally loved the song. He spoke some lines on the record. He repeated those here in this live version. (According to the Wikipedia article about the song, he even performed the song with the band sometimes while they were on tour in 1974.) I find it interesting that this episode aired at the end of March 1974, and probably was recorded a little earlier than that, but "Clap for the Wolfman" wasn't released on album until April 1974, and wasn't released as a single until June 1974. So this may have been the public debut of the song.

The Guess Who hosted this show on the date mentioned in this album title, March 29, 1974. Most of the songs here are from that date. But tracks 7 through 10 are from an episode that aired on December 14, 1973. And track 11 is from an episode that aired on February 22, 1974. They hosted the show again in 1975, but that will be the subject of a different album.

The first track has "[Edit]" in the title because I removed the theme song playing in the background and replaced it with crowd noise. And "Clap for the Wolfman" also has that in its title because there was a glitch in the song. Luckily, it happened during a chorus, so I was able to repair it by patching in a bit from a different chorus.

In case you're curious, the other musical acts in the main episode here were Wishbone Ash, Sha Na Na, Slade, David Essex, Judi Pulver, and Leo Kottke.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 40 minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack [Edit] (Guess Who)
02 American Woman (Guess Who)
03 talk (Guess Who)
04 Star Baby (Guess Who)
05 These Eyes (Guess Who)
06 Clap for the Wolfman [Edit] (Guess Who with Wolfman Jack)
07 Albert Flasher (Guess Who)
08 Undun (Guess Who)
09 Straighten Out (Guess Who)
10 Glamour Boy (Guess Who)
11 Share the Land (Guess Who)
12 talk (Guess Who)
13 Hand Me Down World (Guess Who)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8Mf4TUco

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/xnDkn4NazWflbLF/file

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. I could have selected more of a close-up pic, but I liked this unusual perspective showing how the stage stuck out into the audience. That's lead singer Burton Cummings on the front edge of the stage.

Joan Baez with Hoyt Axton - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 5-30-1975

Here's another episode of that excellent TV show, "Midnight Special." I previously posted a 1973 episode hosted by Joan Baez. She was back to host it again in this 1975 episode. I also included Hoyt Axton as a guest, since they sang a song together.

One couldn't be a host of this show unless one had a certain amount of commercial success. Earlier in 1975, Baez released "Diamonds and Rust," a song she wrote herself, as a single. It was a Top Forty hit in the U.S., and helped the album it came from, also called "Diamonds and Rust," go Gold. (That means sales of half a million in the U.S.)

Hoyt Axton didn't have big success as a performer (although he did have a couple of hits on the country charts in the 1970s). However, he had a lot more success as a songwriter. In fact, I've created a "Covered" album for him, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/12/covered-hoyt-axton-1963-1977.html

Baez and Axton sang a duet on the song "Lion in the Winter." It was a song written by Axton. He did a duet version with Linda Ronstadt that came out in 1975 and was a minor country hit. Baez essentially sang Ronstadt's part. Axton also sang two songs on his own.

Baez had another musical collaboration in this episode. Hampton Hawes was a well known jazz pianist since the late 1940s. On Baez's "Diamonds and Rust" album, she wrote a jazzy song called "Children and All that Jazz," which featured a prominent piano part by Hawes. So the two of them performed it on this show, with Baez singing and Hawes playing the piano. Hawes died not long after that, in 1977. Hawes performed two other songs on his own in this episode, but I chose not to include them.

In case you're curious, the only other performer in this episode was Kool and the Gang. They played three songs.

Oftentimes, when I put these Midnight Special albums together, I bring in other songs from other episodes. But in this case, everything here is from this one episode. Baez would appear some more on the show in 1976 and 1977. She wasn't a host again, but she performed on enough songs that I'll probably be able to put together another album for her when those episodes are released on YouTube. 

This album is 40 minutes long. 

The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

01 talk (Wolfman Jack)
02 Fountain of Sorrow (Joan Baez)
03 talk (Joan Baez)
04 Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez)
05 talk (Joan Baez)
06 Jesse (Joan Baez)
07 talk (Joan Baez)
08 Children and All that Jazz (Joan Baez & Hampton Hawes)
09 talk (Joan Baez)
10 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Hoyt Axton)
11 When the Morning Comes (Hoyt Axton)
12 talk (Joan Baez)
13 Lion in the Winter (Joan Baez & Hoyt Axton)
14 talk (Joan Baez)
15 Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer (Joan Baez)
16 talk (Joan Baez)
17 Winds of the Old Days (Joan Baez)
18 talk (Joan Baez)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Ju6hshd4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pGv3nDcqZ5tmgjb/file 

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert. It shows Baez with Axton.

The Steve Miller Band with the James Cotton Band - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 1-25-1974

Here's another episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. This time, the Steve Miller Band was the host. The James Cotton Band is the guest I've chosen to include, helped by the fact that the two musical acts performed a song together.

At the time of this concert, Miller had just released his eighth studio album a few months earlier, "The Joker," in late 1973. He'd had a decent amount of commercial success so far, but his latest album contained the song "The Joker," which was his biggest success so far by a big amount. He'd never had a Top Forty hit before, but "The Joker" went all the way to Number One on the U.S. singles chart! 

Curiously, Miller had been playing the song "Fly like an Eagle" frequently in concert since mid-1973, and he performed it here too, but the studio version of it wouldn't be released until 1976. Once he did release it as a single, it would go to Number Two.

Miller's career is a curious one, because he had many massive hits with the pop songs he wrote, yet he had more passion for the blues, which is a much less commercially successful genre in comparison. One could see that here by his choice of the James Cotton Band as a guest, and then performing the song "Big Boss Man" with him. I'm sure Cotton would have never appeared on the show otherwise (and in fact he never appeared on any other episodes). So good for Miller for giving Cotton this prominent TV appearance.

In case you're curious, the other guests on the show were Brownsville Station, Tim Buckley, and Genesis. I hope I'll find a way to post some of those in the future, especially in the Buckley and Genesis, even though they don't make a good musical fit on this album.

The first track has "[Edit]" in the title because I removed the theme song in the background, and replaced that with the sound of audience applause. And the third track has the same because I stitched two different talking sections together. 

Unfortunately, even though Miller went on to much bigger commercial success later in the 1970s, he didn't appear on this show again.  

This album is 34 minutes long.

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 The Joker (Steve Miller Band)
03 talk [Edit] (Steve Miller Band)
04 Rocket 88 (James Cotton Band)
05 Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma (Steve Miller Band)
06 talk (Steve Miller Band)
07 Big Boss Man (Steve Miller Band & James Cotton Band)
08 Fly like an Eagle (Steve Miller Band)
09 talk (Steve Miller & Wolfman Jack)
10 Sugar Babe (Steve Miller Band)
11 talk (Steve Miller Band)
12 Living in the U.S.A. (Steve Miller Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5aSXnLMW

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/AVfXPZchMDZV2H1/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

Joan Baez with Mimi Farina and Steve Goodman - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 7-20-1973

Here we go again, with another episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. This one stars folk singer Joan Baez. It also has two guests, Mimi Farina and Steve Goodman.

Baez had been one of the most famous folk singers since the mid-1960s. But she didn't have a big hit until 1971. That year, her version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" went all the way to Number Three in the U.S. singles chart. So that's probably what gave her enough commercial appeal to be given the host slot for this show.

Baez had two sisters, and one of them was Mimi Farina. So it's not too surprising that their music careers have often intersected. That including Baez asking her to be part of this episode, and then singing a duet with her on the song "Best of Friends." Farina is probably best known as part of the mid-1960s duo of Richard and Mimi Farina, which sadly ended when Richard Farina died in 1966. Here's a Wikipedia entry if you want to know more about her:

Mimi Fariña - Wikipedia

Steve Goodman was an excellent singer-songwriter. He was near the start of his musical career at the time of this concert, as his first album was released in 1971. The best known song he wrote, by far, was "The City of New Orleans." Arlo Guthrie had a big hit with it in 1972, and it has gone on to become a classic, covered by many. So I'm a bit surprised Goodman didn't perform his own version in this episode.

Baez and Goodman didn't perform a duet here, like Baez and Farina did. But Baez mentioned in her banter between songs that she was the one that got Goodman on the show because she was such a big fan of his songs. So I included him here, especially because his musical style fits in well with the songs by Baez and/or Farina. Also, it turns out this was the only appearance Goodman ever made on the show, so I didn't have nearly enough songs to give him his own album. (This also was Farina's only appearance, but Baez would be a host again in 1975, and she would make other appearances too.)

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Steve Goodman - Wikipedia  

In case you're curious, the other musical acts on the show were Wilson Pickett, Black Oak Arkansas, Bloodstone, and the Pointer Sisters. I've already put the Pickett and Pointer Sisters songs on other albums I've made.

Two songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. For the first track, I got rid of the show's theme song playing in the background, and replaced that with audience applause. For the third track, I stitched together two chunks of banter that were separated by one or more songs.

This album is 33 minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez)
03 talk [Edit] (Joan Baez)
04 Someone Else's Troubles (Steve Goodman)
05 talk (Wolfman Jack)
06 talk (Joan Baez)
07 Joe Hill (Joan Baez)
08 talk (Joan Baez)
09 In the Quiet Morning (Mimi Farina)
10 talk (Joan Baez & Mimi Farina)
11 Best of Friends (Joan Baez & Mimi Farina)
12 Love Song to a Stranger (Joan Baez)
13 Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez)
14 Would You Like to Learn to Dance (Steve Goodman)
15 talk (Joan Baez)
16 Rider Pass By (Joan Baez)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/n1N9WdEs

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/kz1AXtVnbvi6IHH/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. Mimi Farina is the one closer and higher up in the image.

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. 

Wilson Pickett with the Chi-Lites - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 9-21-1973

Here's another episode of the excellent "Midnight Special" TV show. This one is hosted by soul music legend Wilson Pickett, with the soul band the Chi-Lites as a guest star.

I've already posted a couple of songs by Pickett from this show in 1973, when he was a guest star for an episode hosted by the Bee Gees. Those songs aren't included here, since they're that other album I've made. 

In my write-up, I pointed out that Pickett had a long series of hits from about 1963 to 1973, but 1973 was the start of a steep decline in his career. I'm mentioning it here, since it's just as relevant for this album. In retrospect, his big mistake was changing record companies around the start of 1973. He didn't write songs himself, so he had to rely on professional songwriters, and the songs his new record company gave him weren't nearly as good as before.

Be that as it may, it has very little relevance here, because he stuck entirely to hit songs from earlier in his career. The only "new" song was "Never My Love," but that was a cover of a massive pop hit from 1967, so he couldn't really go wrong with that one.

Additionally, and I think rather weirdly, Pickett talked with soul singer and keyboardist Billy Preston a little bit, but that's all they did, just talk. 

It's too bad he didn't sing with the Chi-Lites, because they would have made for a good match. The Chi-Lites had many hits, especially from 1969 to 1974. In 1972 they had their biggest hit, "Oh Girl," which made it to Number One on the U.S. singles chart (as well as the U.S. R&B singles chart). So it's not surprising they performed that one here. The other song they played, "Stoned Out of My Mind," was their most recent hit at the time of this concert. That only made it to Number 30 on the U.S. singles chart, but at least it made it to Number 2 on the R&B chart, and I think it's one of their best.

Not all the songs are from this one episode. Tracks 12 and 13 are from an episode that aired on July 20, 1973. (I only know the broadcast dates for this TV show, unfortunately). Tracks 14 and 15 are from the September 14, 1973 episode, which was just a week prior to this one.

In case you're curious, the main episode here also featured songs by Canned Heat, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, Curtis Mayfield, B.W. Stevenson, Brenda Patterson, and Spooky Tooth. I've already put the Mayfield on a different album.

All the music here is unreleased. As usual, I did a lot of editing to help the songs flow together, mostly by adding some extra crowd noise to hide commercial breaks and other breaks. 

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 talk (Wolfman Jack)
02 Land of 1000 Dances (Wilson Pickett)
03 talk (Wilson Pickett)
04 talk (Wilson Pickett & Billy Preston)
05 Stoned Out of My Mind (Chi-Lites)
06 Funky Broadway (Wilson Pickett)
07 Never My Love (Wilson Pickett)
08 talk (Wilson Pickett)
09 Oh Girl (Chi-Lites)
10 talk (Wilson Pickett)
11 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
12 Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You (Wilson Pickett)
13 International Playboy (Wilson Pickett)
14 Don't Knock My Love (Wilson Pickett)
15 Get Me Back on Time, Engine 9 (Wilson Pickett) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2BNcXqYG

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9S13XtmDnDmV2GG/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

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. 

Leon Russell with the Gap Band - The Midnight Special, The Church Studio, Tulsa, OK, 8-2-1974

Here's another episode of the excellent "Midnight Special" TV show. This one stars Leon Russell, with the Gap Band.

This is an unusual episode in a few different ways. The vast majority of the episodes were filmed in the same location, in the Los Angeles area, and featured one host plus a handful of guests. But this one was entirely filmed in Russell's personal recording studio, called the Church Studio (because it was inside a former church), in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It also had just one other musical act, the Gap Band. Furthermore, the Gap Band didn't just play a couple of their own songs, as usual. Instead, Russell and the Gap Band played together on every song. But Russell sang most of the songs, while the Gap Band only sang lead on two, while they also dominated one instrumental. Furthermore, there was no audience whatsoever, no doubt due to the unusual location.

I believe the reason for all of these unusual aspects is because the Midnight Special production crew went to this part of the country in order to film an episode that took place at a special Willie Nelson's Fourth of July concert that year. Russell was one of the stars of that, so the show people probably figured they could record another episode with Russell while they were in the area. The concert episode aired the week right after this one, and was also hosted by Russell. I'll get to posting that one eventually. I only know the broadcast date for this episode. But I'll bet the actual recording date was close to the date of the concert.

The Gap Band got to be pretty famous, due to a series of hits in the late 1970s and through most of the 1980s. But at the time of this concert in 1974, they were complete unknowns. They were formed in Tulsa in 1967, with lead singer Charlie Wilson and his two brothers as the core. However, they didn't have success until 1974, when they were the backing band for Russell's studio album that year, "Stop All That Jazz." He signed them to his record label, Shelter Records, and let them record their debut album in his studio, the same exact studio where this performance took place. However, the resulting album, "Magicians Holiday," didn't get any traction at all. It didn't make the U.S. album chart, and none of the singles from it made any singles chart either. It would be three more years before they released another album, and that one would come out on another label. So it seems their association with Russell only lasted around 1974.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

01 talk (Leon Russell)
02 Delta Lady (Leon Russell with the Gap Band)
03 talk (Wolfman Jack)
04 Alcatraz - Going Back (Leon Russell with the Gap Band)
05 talk (Leon Russell)
06 Smashed (Leon Russell with the Gap Band)
07 talk (Leon Russell)
08 Streakers Ball (Leon Russell with the Gap Band)
09 talk (Leon Russell)
10 Magicians Holiday (Gap Band with Leon Russell)
11 Queen of the Roller Derby - Roll Away the Stone (Leon Russell with the Gap Band)
12 Tommy's Groove [Instrumental] (Gap Band with Leon Russell)
13 Ain't That Peculiar (Leon Russell & the Gap Band)
14 Tight Rope (Leon Russell with the Gap Band)
15 You Can Always Count on Me (Gap Band with Leon Russell)
16 talk (Wolfman Jack)
17 Delta Lady [Reprise] (Leon Russell with the Gap Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zT3NjrXR

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/E6llSkNMUJhfmvK/file

This cover image is a screenshot I took of a YouTube video of this exact concert. I couldn't find an image with more members of the Gap Band, especially lead singer Charlie Wilson, since they were spread out all over the studio. But at least I got Russell (at the bottom with long light hair) with the bassist and some backing vocalists.

Curtis Mayfield with the Impressions - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 4-19-1974

Here's another episode of the excellent "Midnight Special" TV show. This one is hosted by soul music singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield.

Mayfield hosted the show twice, once in 1973 and once in 1974, as well as appearing on it a few other times. I compiled his 1973 appearances into an album I've posted here already. This one mainly consists of the 1974 episode he hosted, but it has bits from three other episodes as well, one from 1974 and two from 1973.

In addition to Mayfield, the main guest here is the soul band the Impressions. From about 1960 until 1970, Mayfield was the main lead vocalist and songwriter for the Impressions. But after he left the band for a solo career, he continued to stay closely involved, producing many of their new songs, and even writing some of them. That continued collaboration can be seen here, by the fact that he was on the same episode of the Midnight Special with them twice, and performed one song with them in a 1973 episode.

The first eight tracks come from the 1974 episode mentioned in the title, broadcast on April 19, 1974. "If I Were a Child Again" comes from a February 1, 1974 episode. "Back to the World" is from a September 14, 1973 episode. (I included it here because he did another version of that song in the 1973 album I've posted from him.) 

The last five tracks, 11 through 15, come from a February 2, 1973 episode. I put those songs here even though they're closer in time to the 1973 episode I've posted from him because those involved more collaboration with the Impressions, as well as a repeat of another song ("Superfly") I posted on the other episode from him. That episode was hosted by Helen Reddy, who would go on to host the show a surprising number of times. I didn't want to bring her into this too much, so I could keep the focus on Mayfield and/or the Impressions. But she did join in singing "Amen" with Mayfield and the Impressions, a traditional gospel song that the Impressions had a hit with in 1964, when Mayfield was the band's lead singer.

In case you're curious, the other guest stars on the 1974 episode that Mayfield hosted were Gladys Knight & the Pips, Status Quo, Phil Ochs, and Sugarloaf. I already have use the Gladys Knight songs on a different album I've posted from them. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. As I often do with these episodes, I did a lot of editing to smooth the transitions between songs, usually by adding in some extra audience cheering. A couple of tracks have "[Edit]" in their titles due to extra editing. For the first one, I used MVSEP to remove the theme song and replace it with more applause. For the second one, I merged some different talking bits together from different parts of the show. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack [Edit] (Curtis Mayfield)
02 If There's a Hell Below We're All Gonna Go (Curtis Mayfield)
03 talk [Edit] (Curtis Mayfield)
04 I'm a Changed Man (Impressions)
05 To Be Invisible (Curtis Mayfield)
06 People Get Ready (Impressions)
07 No Thing on Me (Curtis Mayfield)
08 talk (Curtis Mayfield)
09 If I Were a Child Again (Curtis Mayfield)
10 Back to the World (Curtis Mayfield)
11 talk (Helen Reddy & Curtis Mayfield)
12 Preacher Man (Impressions)
13 Amen (Curtis Mayfield, the Impressions & Helen Reddy)
14 Superfly (Curtis Mayfield)
15 talk (Curtis Mayfield & Wolfman Jack) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qCSgCjKs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/user/files/2Y6bw0WZFL1BUBz/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert. It shows Mayfield (left), with Helen Reddy (center) and the Impressions (right).

The Bee Gees with Chuck Berry - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 10-12-1973

Here's yet another album from the Bee Gees on the "Midnight Special" TV show. They hosted the show four times in 1973 and one time in 1975, and I've made albums of each of those episodes. This is the last one I'm posting from them. What makes this one stand out is they performed with one of the show's guests, Chuck Berry.

By the early 1970s, it seemed Berry's hit-making years were over, he had tons of hits from 1955 to 1964, but none since. But then, in 1972, he had a novelty hit called "My Ding-a-Ling" that didn't just do a little well - it went all the way to Number One on the U.S. and British singles charts. That made it the biggest hit of his career. As a result, his career was revived for a while, leading to TV appearances like this one, as well as a one-hour long concert on BBC TV. Luckily, he didn't actually play "My Ding-a-Ling" - it's a long song that gets old fast. Instead, he played some of his classics. And for two of those, he sang with the Bee Gees. 

However, more of the songs were performed by the Bee Gees on their own. They played some rather unexpected songs. For instance, "Lay It on Me" appeared on a 1970 album, but it wasn't a hit. And "Bye Bye Blackbird" is a cover of a song from 1926 that they never officially released in any form. 

In case you're curious, these are the other guests on the episode they hosted: Lee Michaels, King Crimson, Apple & Appleberry, and Barbara Mason.

The music here is unreleased, and the song quality is excellent. As usual with Midnight Special shows, I did a lot of extra editing, for instance adding applause to smooth over transitions between songs. I cut out some talking from the talking bits, for instance when performers for future episodes were discusssed, which is why some of those have "[Edit]" in their names. 

This album is 32 minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack [Edit] (Bee Gees)
02 Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
03 talk [Edit] (Bee Gees)
04 Maybellene (Chuck Berry)
05 Reelin' and Rockin' (Chuck Berry with the Bee Gees)
06 Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry with the Bee Gees)
07 talk (Bee Gees)
08 Lay It on Me (Bee Gees)
09 Alive (Bee Gees)
10 Sweet Little Sixteen (Chuck Berry)
11 Bye Bye Blackbird (Bee Gees)
12 talk [Edit] (Bee Gees)
13 Alone Again (Bee Gees) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FnNCArhA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/uzK6mlV3KT5U1Sh/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It's rather blurry, but at least it shows all the main figures from this concert. From left to right: Robin Gibb, Chuck Berry, Maurice Gibb, and Barry Gibb.

Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins with Various Artists - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-8-1973

Here's another "Midnight Special" TV show episode with a musical theme: country. I like these albums to be coherent in musical style. So, since that's the case here, I posted virtually the entire concert. (The only things I cut out were some brief mentions of who the guests on future episodes would be.) Two big country stars, Loretta Lynn and Marty Robbins, were co-hosts. On top of that, the show was practically a "who's who" of the biggest names in country music in 1973: George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Tanya Tucker, Earl Scruggs, Tom T. Hall, Charlie Rich, Don Gibson, Conway Twitty, Johnny Paycheck, and Johnny Rodriguez!

The pairing of Loretta Lynn with Marty Robbins as co-host was rather unexpected. I searched the Internet, and found very few instances of them doing any musical collaborations before this show, or after. But they collaborated well on nearly all the banter for all the songs, as well as singing "Singing the Blues" together, plus starting and ending the show by singing the theme song, "Midnight Special," instead of having the usual version by Johnny Rivers.

There's not much else to say, except if you're a fan of classic country, this should be a special treat for you. I edited the first and last tracks some with MVSEP. For instance, the last track had an announcer speak over the middle of the song, but I managed to get rid of that voice and keep the rest. 

This album is an hour and seven minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (Sammy Jackson)
02 Midnight Special (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
03 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
04 One's on the Way (Loretta Lynn)
05 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
06 Don't Worry 'bout Me (Marty Robbins)
07 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
08 We're Gonna Hold On (George Jones & Tammy Wynette)
09 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
10 Blood Red and Goin' Down (Tanya Tucker)
12 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
13 Caroline Boogie [Instrumental] (Earl Scruggs Revue)
14 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
15 Spokane Motel Blues (Tom T. Hall)
16 Singing the Blues (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
17 Stand by Your Man (Tammy Wynette)
18 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
19 Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich)
20 talk (Marty Robbins)
21 A White Sport Coat [And a Pink Carnation] (Marty Robbins)
22 Devil Woman (Marty Robbins)
23 El Paso (Marty Robbins)
24 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
25 Oh, Lonesome Me (Don Gibson)
26 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
27 The Race Is On (George Jones)
28 Love Is the Foundation (Loretta Lynn)
29 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
30 You've Never Been So Far (Conway Twitty)
31 talk (Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty)
32 Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man (Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty)
33 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
34 She's All I Got (Johnny Paycheck)
35 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
36 Bosier City Backyard Blues (Johnny Rodriguez)
37 Delta Dawn (Tanya Tucker)
38 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
39 Midnight Special [Reprise] [Edit] (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wFnVXQ1S

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/JwORT3ZtePHawLw/file

The cover photo of Marty Robbins and Loretta Lynn is a screenshot I took of a YouTube video of this exact concert.

The Bee Gees with Wilson Pickett - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-22-1973

Here's another album of the Bee Gees performing for the "Midnight Special" TV show. The Bee Gees hosted the show a remarkable four times in 1973, plus another time in 1975. Each time, they performed a song with a special guest. This time, the guest is soul singer Wilson Pickett.

Often when I put these Midnight Special albums together, I draw in material from other episodes. But for this one, everything comes from the episode that aired on June 22, 1973. The Bee Gees mostly performed their hits, but they also performed an unexpected cover of "Alexander's Ragtime Band," a song written by Irving Berlin all the way back in 1911. They never officially released a version of this, and it was one of the very few times they performed it, it seems. The only other instance I could find of them performing it dates back to 1963, when they were just starting out.

There's also an excellent version of the Beatles classic "Hey Jude," done in an interesting duet between Wilson Pickett and mostly Barry Gibb. This is another song the Bee Gees never officially released in any form. However, Pickett had a hit with it in 1968 that turned it into a soul song. This version closely followed that version.

As for Pickett, his career was on the decline in 1973. He'd had a long run of hits from 1963 to 1972. But then he made the mistake of changing record companies, and his new company, RCA, gave him poorer material. One of the two songs he did on his own here, "Mr. Magic Man," was the first single for this new record company. It was a decent hit on the R&B singles chart, but tanked on the regular singles chart. However, as can be seen and heard in this episode, Pickett was still a very talented and charismatic singer who deserved better songs to sing.

In case you're curious, here are the other musical acts on this episode: the Steve Miller Band, John Kay, Jimmie Spheeris, Maxine Weldon, and the Muledeer and Moondoog Medicine Show. (The last one being a comedy act.) 

This album is 32 minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack (Bee Gees)
02 I Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
05 Alexander's Ragtime Band (Bee Gees)
06 talk (Bee Gees & Wilson Pickett)
07 Hey Jude (Bee Gees & Wilson Pickett)
08 Run to Me (Bee Gees)
09 Mr. Magic Man (Wilson Pickett)
10 Morning of My Life (Bee Gees)
11 Holiday (Bee Gees)
12 Let There Be Love (Bee Gees)
13 My World (Bee Gees)
14 Wouldn't I Be Someone (Bee Gees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/on3DH93r

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/77olOJ36crKm7Ov/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Wilson Pickett, Maurice Gibb, and Barry Gibb.

Curtis Mayfield with Canned Heat - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-8-1973

Here's another episode of that great TV show, "Midnight Special." This one stars soul singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield, with Canned Heat as his guest star.

One of the things I like most about the Midnight Special show was how it often had different musical acts perform together. But I never would have expected Curtis Mayfield and Canned Heat to perform a song together. Yet they did here, with show host Wolfman Jack singing on it too. And it appears to have been a song made up just for the occasion, as you can tell by the title Mayfield gave to it when he introduced it: "A Little Midnight Special Boogie on You."

At the time, Mayfield was a very big star. He had led the band the Impressions for most of the 1960s. Then as a solo star, he had a massive success with the soundtrack to the movie "Super Fly." The album went to Number One in the U.S. album chart, and actually made more money than the movie it was supporting. Two songs from it, "Superfly" and "Freddie's Dead," made the Top Ten singles chart. Then, in May 1973, Mayfield released the album "Future Shock." 

Mayfield was on the show a good number of times in 1973 and 1974, though he usually didn't play many songs each time. He hosted the show for the June 8, 1973 episode, and that makes up the bulk of the music here. He hosted it again in 1974, and that will be the focus of another album I plan on posting. But I've also worked in songs from two other episodes. "Freddie's Dead" comes from the February 23, 1973 episode. And "Future Shock" and "Right On for the Darkness" come from the September 14, 1973 episode. Between those three episodes, we get four songs from the "Future Shock" album ("Future Shock," "Right On for the Darkness," "If I Were Only a Child Again," and "Back to the World"), plus the two big hits from "Superfly."

Also, there are the Canned Heat songs. At the time, that band was on the decline. Earlier in 1973, they released their seventh album, "The New Age." It was their first one to not even make the Top 100 album chart in the U.S. One problem was that musical tastes were changing, and the band's boogie and blues was going out of style for a while. Another problem was the band was in a mess. One original member had died and two more had just left, leaving only two, plus replacements. And some band members were deep into drug addictions. 

Despite all that, they put on a good performance here. "Harley Davidson Blues" was a song from their latest album. "Let's Work Together" was one of their earlier hits. Then there's the collaborative song with Mayfield and Wolfman Jack mentioned above.

As usual with these Midnight Special albums, I had to do a lot of editing to make it flow well. I patched in extra applause to the ends of most every song, for instance. I also left out a lot of music to keep a coherent focus. In case you're curious, the other musical acts on the main episode featured here were the Spinners, Jose Feliciano, Tufano-Giammarese, Ravi Shankar, and Leroy Hutson.

This album is 34 minutes long. 

01 Superfly (Curtis Mayfield)
02 talk (Curtis Mayfield)
03 Let's Work Together (Canned Heat)
04 Freddie's Dead (Curtis Mayfield)
05 Harley Davidson Blues (Canned Heat)
06 If I Were Only a Child Again (Curtis Mayfield)
07 Back to the World (Curtis Mayfield)
08 talk (Curtis Mayfield)
09 A Little Midnight Special Boogie on You (Canned Heat, Curtis Mayfield & Wolfman Jack)
10 Future Shock (Curtis Mayfield)
11 Right On for the Darkness (Curtis Mayfield)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xjMHAzJK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/oLmTgxOys7sLTt1/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a YouTube video of this exact concert. From left to right: Curtis Mayfield, Bob Hite of Canned Heat, and Wolfman Jack. 

The Bee Gees with Jerry Lee Lewis - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 4-6-1973

Here's another episode of the Bee Gees performing for the "Midnight Special" TV show. Each time they were on, they did a duet with another star. This time, that other star is 1950s rocker Jerry Lee Lewis.

The Bee Gees had a down year in 1973, compared to their usual hit-making ways in the late 1960s and all through the 1970s. They did have one song, "Saw a New Morning," just barely scrape the bottom of the Top 100 in the U.S. singles chart. It's a nice song though, and they performed it here.

I beefed up the Bee Gees performance by adding two songs they did for a different episode of the show. "Bad Bad Dreams" and "Don't Wanna Be the One" are from a November 23, 1973 episode.

Jerry Lee Lewis was one of a few artists who were big in the 1950s who kept having hits in the 1970s. His trick was switching from being a rock and roll star to being a country star. However, for this episode, he stuck solely to his 1950s rock and roll style, probably figuring, correctly, the show was more targeted towards rock music. 

A highlight of this album is Jerry Lee Lewis dueting with the Bee Gees on the Motown classic "Money (That's What I Want)." You can see them performing it together in the cover art.

A big thanks to GMan. He helped cut up the episode into mp3 files, and named them. Then I did some advanced work, adding applause at the ends of songs that got abruptly cut off for commercial breaks and such (which was most of them). I also edited some of the talk tracks. For instance, for the first track, I removed the theme song music and replace it with applause. And by the way, if anyone else wants to volunteer to help, I could get more of these episodes posted faster. There are dozens still to come.

In case you're curious, the other musical acts in this episode were Gladys Knight and the Pips, Frank Welker (doing comedy), Johnny Nash, Jim Weatherly, and Skeeter Davis. I've already posted the Gladys Knight songs elsewhere.

This album is 39 minutes long.

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (Jerry Lee Lewis)
05 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
06 talk [Edit] (Bee Gees)
07 Money [That's What I Want] (Jerry Lee Lewis & Bee Gees)
08 Good Golly, Miss Molly - Jenny Jenny - Tutti Frutti - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On (Jerry Lee Lewis)
09 Saw a New Morning (Bee Gees)
10 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
11 I Started a Joke - Massachusetts (Bee Gees)
12 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
13 Bad Bad Dreams (Bee Gees)
14 Don't Wanna Be the One (Bee Gees)
15 talk [Edit] (Bee Gees) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AmxKkWmC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xDqHC6coPq2edqc/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

B.B. King & Various Artists - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 8-30-1974

Here's another album from the "Midnight Special" TV show. It's a special one, because it's another musical themed episode. I believe this is the only show that exclusively focused on blues music, at least in the 1973 to 1975 time frame that I've investigated so far. The main host was blues legend B.B. King. However, there were a number of others blues figures too: Paul Butterfield, Jimmy Witherspoon, John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Joe Williams, and Papa John Creach.

Normally, I edit these episodes down to just the music performed by the host, plus maybe one more musical act. But because this episode had a coherent theme, I included all the music. I did cut out some things, as I usually do, such as the theme song at the beginning, and announcements of commercial breaks, as well as announcements of who would be on the show in the next episode. The first track has "[Edit]" in the title, because I removed the usual theme song and replaced it with cheering in the background instead, using the MVSEP program to do so.

The sound quality is excellent throughout. The only problem was that the last song faded out before it really got going. So I don't even know what that song is. I just called it "Outro," since it had B.B. King giving some final words before the fade out started. I considered adding in some extra crowd cheering, but I decided to just keep it as it was, fading out into silence.

The music is excellent as well. I doubt there were many instances of the blues getting this kind of exposure on a national TV show, though admittedly one that was broadcast late at night. One special highlight is "Gettin' It Together," in which blues legends B.B. King and John Lee Hooker joined forces, assisted by violinist Papa John Creach. King and Hooker were actually long-time friends, with both of them starting their musical careers not far from each other, in the late 1940s. 

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (B.B. King)
02 Why I Sing the Blues (B.B. King)
03 talk (B.B. King)
04 Meet in the Bottom (Paul Butterfield's Better Days)
05 talk (B.B. King)
06 Nothing's Changed (Jimmy Witherspoon)
07 talk (B.B. King)
08 Boogie with the Hook [Edit] (John Lee Hooker)
09 talk (B.B. King)
10 Ball and Chain (Big Mama Thornton)
11 talk (B.B. King)
12 Who She Do (Joe Williams)
13 I Like to Live the Love (B.B. King)
14 talk (B.B. King)
15 Goin' Down Slow (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
16 talk (B.B. King)
17 John's Other [Instrumental] (Papa John Creach)
18 talk (B.B. King)
19 Gettin' It Together (B.B. King, John Lee Hooker & Papa John Creach)
20 talk (Wolfman Jack & B.B. King)
21 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King)
22 Love Is a Five Letter Word (Jimmy Witherspoon)
23 Tell Me Where to Scratch (Joe Williams)
24 talk (Wolfman Jack & B.B. King)
25 I Got Some Help I Don't Need (B.B. King)
26 Outro (B.B. King)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gLzcWuLc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jkeglxL80nYZq0T/file

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, & Papa John Creach.