BB's 1964 version of In My Room on The Red Skelton Hour

[CenturyDeprived]

This is such a bizarre performance in so many ways...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-dWhYklqE

With Brian pushing in and adjusting his seat in mid-song, to the corny flags and ship painting in the background, it's just a ton of weirdness. They must have felt super awkward performing this.

What's the deal with the studio instrumental version they are singing along to? This version has strings, and I believe is unique to this show's airing. Did the BBs play on this studio recording? Did Brian arrange the strings? Or was this some house band who performed a muzak version, to which the BBs sung over? So, so strange.

[guitarfool2002]

That could be (probably is) 100% the "house band" or studio orchestra that was there for the show. It was pretty common practice to have the show's house band get the charts for the musical guests' songs and play them live behind those performers. In some cases there may also have been musicians' union rules in place for performing "live" if a house band was there versus having the group or artist either mime the performance to their own track, do a live vocal to a pre-recorded backing track, or do it totally live with the TV show's house band. Each and every clip is different, there seriously did not seem to be a standard practice for having bands perform on TV, they're all different and could be any of the above settings.

Look at any number of 1960's Doors TV appearances and you'll see all of the above scenarios on those clips.

This clip sounds like the BB's doing their vocals on top of the house band/orchestra.

[pixletwin]

I think those strings are pretty dreadful.

[CenturyDeprived]

That could be (probably is) 100% the "house band" or studio orchestra that was there for the show. It was pretty common practice to have the show's house band get the charts for the musical guests' songs and play them live behind those performers. In some cases there may also have been musicians' union rules in place for performing "live" if a house band was there versus having the group or artist either mime the performance to their own track, do a live vocal to a pre-recorded backing track, or do it totally live with the TV show's house band. Each and every clip is different, there seriously did not seem to be a standard practice for having bands perform on TV, they're all different and could be any of the above settings.

Look at any number of 1960's Doors TV appearances and you'll see all of the above scenarios on those clips.

This clip sounds like the BB's doing their vocals on top of the house band/orchestra.

Makes sense - I think you're right in thinking this was the house band's version.

[donald]

I'm never certain for sure what is lip synching or sung over some sort of backing track on these old shows, except for many of the bandstand performances.......which were obviously lip synched on at least, many occasions.     but I love to see em.   You have to have been a teen back then to appreciate how cool it was to have your own very cool special "room".  I haven't forgotten and this song still takes me there.  Yeah even with the "corny props".      the Beachboys are some very potent transport back for some of us

[Ron]

Red Skelton was so cool.  Haven't heard that name in a long time, very funny man.

[Douchepool]

That is quite a bizarre performance. But if you were gonna book a pop group, you had to make some kind of concessions for the predominantly adult audience who might not have been into rock music.

[filledeplage]

That is quite a bizarre performance. But if you were gonna book a pop group, you had to make some kind of concessions for the predominantly adult audience who might not have been into rock music.

Given that it was Red Skelton, it was very clever strategically.  My grandmother watched that show, as well as Perry Como (my favorite) and Ed Sullivan.  So that is the general variety show viewer demographic. And dressing them in suits, without the guitars and drums almost made them "crossover" vocalists.  It got them national exposure in a different (non-kid) market, strictly as vocalists, and made them look like anyone's "nice grandsons" looking church-ready, and In My Room was a perfect choice.

Thanks Century Deprived for linking the YouTube. 

[RONDEMON]

They sound great but you can almost see Brian wanting to crack up when those big strings come in on the bridge

[Cyncie]

I think in the early to mid 60's television was still trying to walk a thin line where "rock and roll" was concerned.  Especially shows like Red Skelton's that appealed more to the middle class adult audience. In the early days of American Bandstand, Dick Clark had a very strict dress code and conduct code for the kids on the show, in order to keep parents from complaining about that wild music. So, even though Rock and Roll was well established by the time the Beach Boys came along, some TV show sponsors still shied away from it and  preferred a more clean cut, wholesome image where their teen pop stars were concerned. That's why the Beach Boy's appearance on Jack Benny is so cool, in that it let them be Beach Boys. Of course, Benny and Hope were having a bit of fun with their own version of a generation gap, so the difference was pretty important to set up the joke.

But,  some shows, like Benny's, were fine with The Beach Boys in casual clothes,  jamming surf music  with go-go dancers on a beach set. But, on a more conservative show, we get them dressed up in suits, doing a mostly vocal harmony song with orchestra, set in a college dorm room.

[guitarfool2002]

All good points, the demographic and the image being presented based on those demographics was very important to TV. An interesting point to note too is how the Beach Boys at this particular time managed to straddle several different "target" demos or images based on the songs they would perform on the various early TV appearances. They could be presented as surfers with the Pendelton shirts, Ed Sullivan's set designers had them surrounded by hot rods on the stage, they mimed "I Get Around" on another clip in front of a woody wagon and a beach scene, Sullivan also had silent film running of surfers and the beach...and on this one they were college preppy guys in either a dorm or a bedroom, dressed to the nines as clean-cut kids.

I think this appearance cast them not much different from some of the male vocal groups that came before them, like the "Four Preps", "Four Lads", "Four Freshmen", "Four Aces", "The Lettermen", etc. It was perhaps a frame of reference for the previous generation who was calling the shots on some of these network shows, where you get a group of guys with short haircuts singing a ballad in close harmony..."Hey, they're like the Four Preps! We'll run with that." And the set design showed them as collegiate clean-cut harmony singers. Add strings to the music for even more appeal to that kind of demographic.

The question is - Did the band or the show's producers make that call?

And again, here was a band that didn't have much of a precedent as far as how to present them. They could do surf, they could do cars, they could do ballads, they could do blues/R&B fueled rock, they could sound like the Four Freshmen and Chuck Berry...any number of those "looks" could be used on TV appearances to sell the band.


It could be a very long discussion to look at a variety of rock and pop acts as they appeared on 1960's television performing (or miming) their songs. Set design, costuming, look, etc. Everything from showing Dick Dale on Sullivan in front of surfing footage, to showing CCR dressed as a hillbilly jug band doing "Down On The Corner, to showing the (fantastic) Buckinghams hailing from *CHICAGO USA* trying for all the world to suggest they were a band from the UK to the point of having the Union Jack flying behind them...

Different era, different mindset...but image is still everything in some concerns.

[filledeplage]

I think in the early to mid 60's television was still trying to walk a thin line where "rock and roll" was concerned.  Especially shows like Red Skelton's that appealed more to the middle class adult audience. In the early days of American Bandstand, Dick Clark had a very strict dress code and conduct code for the kids on the show, in order to keep parents from complaining about that wild music. So, even though Rock and Roll was well established by the time the Beach Boys came along, some TV show sponsors still shied away from it and  preferred a more clean cut, wholesome image where their teen pop stars were concerned. That's why the Beach Boy's appearance on Jack Benny is so cool, in that it let them be Beach Boys. Of course, Benny and Hope were having a bit of fun with their own version of a generation gap, so the difference was pretty important to set up the joke.

But,  some shows, like Benny's, were fine with The Beach Boys in casual clothes,  jamming surf music  with go-go dancers on a beach set. But, on a more conservative show, we get them dressed up in suits, doing a mostly vocal harmony song with orchestra, set in a college dorm room.

Exactly.  But I'm thinking they might have had opposite goals.  With Skelton (with much older viewers, I think) they may have been trying to make rock look "tamer" and innocuous, and with Benny, trying to enlarge the audience to attract more younger viewers.  That Benny-Hope skit is still priceless (California Girls) and they seem more flexible with performers than Red Skelton.  I forgot about the dress code with Dick Clark and you are correct.  

[Emdeeh]

Back in the day, I thought the whole "preppy" setting for the Skelton performance was a turn-off and still do. I watched Skelton's show with my family, but also realize I wasn't the target audience for the show.

Interestingly, the BBs were cast in a much more "beachy" setting for their first Skelton appearance, although that one was odd too.

[guitarfool2002]

And that would make sense considering the points about demographics, target audiences, and often who was deciding these images and presentations and what perspective they had. Keep in mind these were "older" execs and business-suit types who signed the Smothers Brothers to a TV deal as late as 1967 expecting to get Bob Newhart "button-down" comedy, and they instead got one Smothers Brother and a head writer who used to get stoned and throw ideas for skits into a shoebox...and one of the most controversial and revolutionary TV shows of its day. The people handling the money and calling the shots - both TV and music for that matter, often didn't get what was going on based on their perspective, so the "Beach Boys" singing a song like In My Room was the same as having The Brothers Four or the Four Aces on the show singing "Moments To Remember". Different era, culture clash, whatever the case.

One presentation that I think did really nail it in many ways was the set design for the Beatles' first shot on Sullivan, the arrows-based stage setup was pretty much right on the money. The hot rods around the BB's later that year looked cool, it fit I Get Around very well, but not Wendy.

[Cyncie]

Back in the day, I thought the whole "preppy" setting for the Skelton performance was a turn-off and still do. I watched Skelton's show with my family, but also realize I wasn't the target audience for the show.

Interestingly, the BBs were cast in a much more "beachy" setting for their first Skelton appearance, although that one was odd too.

Yeah, I think the show was definitely going for an Ivy league collegiate setting for that show. Is the first appearance on Skelton the video clip I keep seeing with David, horizontal striped shirts, Surfin' USA and some girl wearing what appears to be an awning at stage right? I always wondered where that came from.

[CenturyDeprived]

Back in the day, I thought the whole "preppy" setting for the Skelton performance was a turn-off and still do. I watched Skelton's show with my family, but also realize I wasn't the target audience for the show.

Interestingly, the BBs were cast in a much more "beachy" setting for their first Skelton appearance, although that one was odd too.

Yeah, I think the show was definitely going for an Ivy league collegiate setting for that show. Is the first appearance on Skelton the video clip I keep seeing with David, horizontal striped shirts, Surfin' USA and some girl wearing what appears to be an awning at stage right? I always wondered where that came from.

It is as though the band's early TV performances were intentionally concocted so as to be as incredibly dated and embarrassing as humanly possible within a few short years.

[filledeplage]

Back in the day, I thought the whole "preppy" setting for the Skelton performance was a turn-off and still do. I watched Skelton's show with my family, but also realize I wasn't the target audience for the show.

Interestingly, the BBs were cast in a much more "beachy" setting for their first Skelton appearance, although that one was odd too.

Yeah, I think the show was definitely going for an Ivy league collegiate setting for that show. Is the first appearance on Skelton the video clip I keep seeing with David, horizontal striped shirts, Surfin' USA and some girl wearing what appears to be an awning at stage right? I always wondered where that came from.

It is as though the band's early TV performances were intentionally concocted so as to be as incredibly dated and embarrassing as humanly possible within a few short years.

Their dress and performance were not inconsistent with expectations for dress and conduct for 1964, on that type of program.  "When in Rome, do as..."

There does not appear to be a "conspiracy" to make them look bad.

[CenturyDeprived]

Back in the day, I thought the whole "preppy" setting for the Skelton performance was a turn-off and still do. I watched Skelton's show with my family, but also realize I wasn't the target audience for the show.

Interestingly, the BBs were cast in a much more "beachy" setting for their first Skelton appearance, although that one was odd too.

Yeah, I think the show was definitely going for an Ivy league collegiate setting for that show. Is the first appearance on Skelton the video clip I keep seeing with David, horizontal striped shirts, Surfin' USA and some girl wearing what appears to be an awning at stage right? I always wondered where that came from.

It is as though the band's early TV performances were intentionally concocted so as to be as incredibly dated and embarrassing as humanly possible within a few short years.

Their dress and performance were not inconsistent with expectations for dress and conduct for 1964, on that type of program.  "When in Rome, do as..."

There does not appear to be a "conspiracy" to make them look bad.

Not exactly a conspiracy, no. But they did tend to just be willing to go along with that extra mile of cheesiness, which lent itself to being unintentionally comical not long after. Maybe a touch more than some (not all, but some) of their peers might have been willing to do.

[filledeplage]

Back in the day, I thought the whole "preppy" setting for the Skelton performance was a turn-off and still do. I watched Skelton's show with my family, but also realize I wasn't the target audience for the show.

Interestingly, the BBs were cast in a much more "beachy" setting for their first Skelton appearance, although that one was odd too.

Yeah, I think the show was definitely going for an Ivy league collegiate setting for that show. Is the first appearance on Skelton the video clip I keep seeing with David, horizontal striped shirts, Surfin' USA and some girl wearing what appears to be an awning at stage right? I always wondered where that came from.

It is as though the band's early TV performances were intentionally concocted so as to be as incredibly dated and embarrassing as humanly possible within a few short years.

Their dress and performance were not inconsistent with expectations for dress and conduct for 1964, on that type of program.  "When in Rome, do as..."

There does not appear to be a "conspiracy" to make them look bad.

Not exactly a conspiracy, no. But they did tend to just be willing to go along with that extra mile of cheesiness, which lent itself to being unintentionally comical not long after. Maybe a touch more than some (not all, but some) of their peers might have been willing to do.

There is a danger in looking through a 2015 lens at 1964 video, using 2015 standards of "cheesiness." What appears to be conventional business dress for 1964 might not be now.  Performers regularly wore tuxes to perform in for decades.  It was the standard for dress for a performance on television. 

The BB's wore tuxes for Reagan's inaugural (second) to perform.  It is situation ethics.  They were singing for Red Skelton, for an older audience,  not with Annette for Disney on a Beach movie, targeted for young people, where casual clothing would be appropriate. 

[Ian]

Yeah I own paperwork for the bbs first appearance on Skelton in 1963. And the paperwork shows they came in early to record the music that they then mimed to. The crazy thing about that first appearance is that they taped it in April and it didn't air till September 1963.  So they undoubtedly pretaped this second 1964 appearance too but considering that I get around wasn't completed till April 1964 and the show aired in May there was much less delay between taping and airing

[CenturyDeprived]

Back in the day, I thought the whole "preppy" setting for the Skelton performance was a turn-off and still do. I watched Skelton's show with my family, but also realize I wasn't the target audience for the show.

Interestingly, the BBs were cast in a much more "beachy" setting for their first Skelton appearance, although that one was odd too.

Yeah, I think the show was definitely going for an Ivy league collegiate setting for that show. Is the first appearance on Skelton the video clip I keep seeing with David, horizontal striped shirts, Surfin' USA and some girl wearing what appears to be an awning at stage right? I always wondered where that came from.

It is as though the band's early TV performances were intentionally concocted so as to be as incredibly dated and embarrassing as humanly possible within a few short years.

Their dress and performance were not inconsistent with expectations for dress and conduct for 1964, on that type of program.  "When in Rome, do as..."

There does not appear to be a "conspiracy" to make them look bad.

Not exactly a conspiracy, no. But they did tend to just be willing to go along with that extra mile of cheesiness, which lent itself to being unintentionally comical not long after. Maybe a touch more than some (not all, but some) of their peers might have been willing to do.

There is a danger in looking through a 2015 lens at 1964 video, using 2015 standards of "cheesiness." What appears to be conventional business dress for 1964 might not be now.  Performers regularly wore tuxes to perform in for decades.  It was the standard for dress for a performance on television. 

The BB's wore tuxes for Reagan's inaugural (second) to perform.  It is situation ethics.  They were singing for Red Skelton, for an older audience,  not with Annette for Disney on a Beach movie, targeted for young people, where casual clothing would be appropriate. 

It's not just the clothing, but the cheesy set props (not their fault!) and awkward positioning also seal the deal. But it's cool - I still dig the performance for what it is - a product of its time with a rad band.

[donald]

dressing up in a sport coat or suit was still part of cool on occasion in those days.    One liked to look " sharp" for the special date, school dance,  and yes, even the occasional church activity.      Guess You Had To Be There.  There was something called dressing for the occasion that people used to do.     what should the group have worn in this video, pajamas?  swimwear?     I think the dress clothing gave them a collegiate look in the video, thus establishing the song as more young adult than about a little boy hiding in his room.      Remember, this is when Bob Denver was playing Maynard on Dobie Gillis and he was widely regarded as a weirdo.    this was years from the blue jean uniform era.  I wouldn't change a thing.

[joshferrell]

I always thought, when watching this footage, that they were simply doing a "Four Freshmen" type of thing..

[Cyncie]

dressing up in a sport coat or suit was still part of cool on occasion in those days.    One liked to look " sharp" for the special date, school dance,  and yes, even the occasional church activity.      Guess You Had To Be There.  There was something called dressing for the occasion that people used to do.     what should the group have worn in this video, pajamas?  swimwear?     I think the dress clothing gave them a collegiate look in the video, thus establishing the song as more young adult than about a little boy hiding in his room.      Remember, this is when Bob Denver was playing Maynard on Dobie Gillis and he was widely regarded as a weirdo.    this was years from the blue jean uniform era.  I wouldn't change a thing.

I agree. The clothing reflects the time period and expectation. The sets were standard practice for variety shows back in the day. At the time no one thought of them as cheesy, at all. In fact, I wouldn't call them "cheesy" now. Stagey, maybe. But, that's a reflection of the production standards on weekly TV shows of the time. The same with the clothes.

Regarding how "looking sharp" was cool, I think it's interesting how we've changed culturally. I was looking at Imdb comments on Bruce Brown's "The Endless Summer." People were asking why the surfers got dressed up in suits to go on the airplane. Someone had to explain that travel was a big occasion, and you dressed up for big occasions.

Still not sure about that awning dress in the one video, though.

[Mikie]

The first Skeleton show they were portaying the Surfer image. By the second Skelton show they were juuuust turning the corner on the Surfin' scene and appealing to the masses, including the Moms & Dads. Like The Beatles did on Sullivan with the suits and ties. Beach Boys had their hair and suits with collars, Beatles had Beatle hair with collarless suits.