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.

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.