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This performance of California girls is definitly my favorite only thing missing is Brian. It was also redone in the beach boys an american family. I wish we had the full thing in hd & also a complete blu ray collection of all their videos much like the beatles one collection. My question is does anyone know what year this perfromace was and what show was it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ1UqDnY7as

I think it's from the Jack Benny Hour in late 1965. 

I'm pretty sure this was featured on the American Band doc from 1985, but it would be nice to have all of the TV clips in one collection, kinda like the Beatles 1+.

I see a YouTube commenter suggests 1968. It's certainly later than 1965 (Mike had no beard in those days).

I've googled it quite intensively but found nothing conclusive. I'd agree on it being from a US show though.

See below for the JBH performance: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX1U0wtIl10

Ah, then I'm really not sure.

Yeah I don't think its from 65 judging by their clothes and mikes beard. does anyone have the full version ? apparently the only version available is sourced from endless harmony. 

I believe this is from the TV show Kraft Music Hall, aired on NBC Feb 19, 1969. The theme of the show was a take-off on California with Don Rickles and Don Adams as featured guests parodying California, movies, etc. Hence, "California Girls" in 1969. The BB's also did "I Can Hear Music".

This is definitely from 1968/69 given the "look" of the band. This old clip was shown back in 1981 on the "20th Anniversary Special" (the one that used a bunch of footage of the 1980 Knebworth show), and then used again in 1998 on "Endless Harmony."

As for an "HD" version, it appears this show was shot on videotape, so we're locked into SD on this one. They could certainly polish it up from the best available source. I'm not super fond of this particular clip; it's a weird anachronism. Many BB performances from this era were; they were for some reason often in the 1968/69 timeframe miming on US or European TV, miming to 4-5 year-old tracks, complete with the absent Brian's voice. Weird.

These lipsynched appearances are always so strange because in Brian's absence, his voice seems to be coming from a ghost.

If someone has info that this clip is anything but Kraft Music Hall, Feb 1969 aired on NBC, please add it. Otherwise I'm 99% sure that's exactly where this was taken from. In this case since it was a California themed episode of that variety show, it would make sense for them to do this song. Then they also did "I Can Hear Music" which would have been a contemporary song for them to feature, so it evened out. Why they would do California Girls on something like Dutch TV is more of a mystery, but consider maybe that's what the fans watching those shows would have expected them to do, or maybe that's what the show itself asked them to do? It's odd but it was a big hit so maybe there was still demand in Europe into 68-69 for them to do these hits from 65-66 on TV appearances.

Its truly amazing how long ago that era seemed even by 1969. Brian's missing spiritual music and input was haunting the BBs by then. ;)

This is definitely from '68/'69 without a doubt.

It has been years since I watched the "20th Anniversary" TV special, but my recollection is that that special specifically mentions that the clip is from Kraft Music Hall. I don't think there's any doubt that it's from that show.

As for European TV appearance, I don't think the *reason* for them miming to old tracks is odd or unclear. A lot of those shows were only set up for "American Bandstand" style lip-sync deals, and so they were just using the original tracks because that's all they had. The oddness is mainly in hearing but not seeing Brian, and the vintage of the songs. Can anybody imagine the "White Album" or "Get Back" era Beatles miming to "Please Please Me?" The Beach Boys mimed to "Surfin' USA" on the Beat Club in '68 or '69.

It got weirder, I should mention. In late 1981 (and early 1982), the Carl-less Beach Boys mimed to the "Beach Boys Medley" on at least two TV shows (Dick Clark's American Bandstand Anniversary show, and at least one other show, perhaps Merv Griffin?). To bring it full circle, 1981 Brian mimed Carl's 1966 lead on "Good Vibrations."  :lol

I think that is the BBs at their absolute nadir...

I agree completely , what were they thinking?

They were making a living and staying in the public eye..

Mike and Bruce use pieces of this on screen in the touring show. Definitely the early '69 appearance everyone is mentioning.

I think Al's miming Brian's part at a few points.  There is a brief shot of him and he seems to be doing it. Would be appropriate as he sung that part live.

The group looks quite similar to the way they looked on The Mike Douglas Show(especially Carl), so I'm guessing that the CG clip is taken from around that time period.

Yeah, THAT was the absolute nadir if there ever was one.  How embarrassing it must have been for them too that the medley was put together by Capitol without their involvement and they weren't even with the company anymore.  They had their own album the previous year they could have been promoting but it already flopped and went so instead they're miming to themselves when they were 20 years younger, Brian was being dragged around on tour like a prop.  Really hard to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbX3rKMHYy4

Speaking of The Beach Boys Medley, has it ever been revealed who Capitol enlisted to do that lousy sounding "ba ba ba Barbara Ann" segue between Surfin Safari and Barbara Ann? Never been much of a fan of The BB Medley, but that part has always stuck out like a sore thumb to me, sounding nothing like the original recording.

Edit - Getting back to the orig post - the look has mid-68/mid-69 written all over it, so I'd agree with GF's assessment of the Kraft Music Hall, aired on NBC Feb 19, 1969.

This is Kraft Music Hall, The complete clip begins with a shot of the girls, then the camera moves to Bruce Johnston, and then moves to Mike Love. The clip ends with a band shot, the sound changues to live and have an abrupt ending, the lights turn off and Crowd Applauses can hear.

California Girls was also mimed on Twien, the back cover photo of Live in london was taken while the Beach Boys were performing California Girls as Al Jardine used the acoustic guitar for mime this song

You mean this one, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzCy0VKMhUs


I think we can see Mike Douglas at the beginning

That is Mike Douglas show on April 1969, THey also performed Never Learn Not To Love

Yes - when it was used on the 20th Anniversary special, it was captioned as the Kraft Music Hall (or Kraft Music Hour, whichever...but definitely Kraft Music...that much I remember).
EDIT: it was definitely "Hall", not "Hour". :)

Yes this was from the Kraft Music Hall Show from February 19 1969-though it was taped at least two or three weeks earlier (Carl describes it to an interviewer on their Feb 7-12 Texas tour)  They also mimed to I Can Hear Music-the current single.  The variety show that week also featured Kaye Ballard, Joseph Cotton, Don Adams and the recently deceased Don Rickles.

I think Don was alive when he did the show though 😉

I am confused, because this was not mimed like the original CG post was.  It seems like 2 different shows to me.

I agree that maybe "Surfin' USA" may have seemed weird by that point just because it seemed so "out of fashion" at that point (as great of a song as it is), but the group doing a huge 1965 song isn't quite that bad in my opinion. The equivalent might have been like The Beatles doing "Drive My Car" in '68 or '69. Or maybe the Stones doing "Get Off of My Cloud" in '69. But of course the difference is, The Beatles by this point really weren't a live performing band, so it'd be hard to say. Though keep in mind, if they had ended up actually doing a big show like they were planning for the Get Back project, I seem to recall discussions between the band on playing may just a bit of old material along with all the new, with George at one point suggesting how much he liked "Every Little Thing." So, had the lads (besides Paul) been in better moods, who knows? Maybe we woulda seen "Love Me Do" performed in 1969.

First of all. The beach Boys mimed on Twien Cal Girls, Wouldn´t It Be Nice, Sloop John B, Good Vibes, God Only Knows and Barbara ann. The only songs mimed on that show still in fashion are Do It Again, Friends and Darlin.

Second on a Special with the Raiders they mimed Good Vibes

Third on Something Else they mimed Good Vibes also.

You were confused by two different clips.  The BBs appearance on Kraft Music Hall from Feb 69-with California Girls (which is the clip with all the girls) and I Can Hear Music (not posted online as far as I know but does exist) and the Mike Douglas app taped on Apr 2 1969 (but aired on Apr 9) which is the clip you posted of I Can Hear Music.  They also did Never Learn Not To Love on that app-also on YouTube

Wish The Boys had done a skit of some sort with Don Adams in character as Maxwell Smart.

The band was pretty good live in most periods, the miming is an abomination.

Well-the BBs did the skit with Jack Benny and Bob Hope for Benny's 1965 TV special

Not sure if you subscribe to ESQ but I once wrote two articles for it covering the BBs TV appearances from 1962 to 1996 as best I could

Here is the same 1969 Mike Douglas app-Never Learn Not To Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJrrQ2apjVg

And here is the July 1969 app-Breakaway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sobVMqnElOI

and also from July 1969 Celebrate the News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwE9aY5F4Jw

Thanks Ian ;D ;D ;D, A Guide of tv appearances of Beach Boys must be made in this styles:http://www.beatlesource.com/TV/index.html

I Can contribute, I am a coleccionist

It wasn't so much that 1963 tracks were "out of fashion" (I know Beatles fans never stopped listening to '63/'64 cuts), it's more that a band choosing to mime to that material is weird. The 1969 Beatles miming to "She Loves You" or "Drive My Car"? Super weird, and they *never* would have done it. Maybe that's a difference between both the ethos of the Beatles vs. the Beach Boys and also where they were at popularity-wise, where the Beatles had the luxury of not having to do stuff like that.

Let's also be clear that a band that lasted through most of the 60s choosing in 1969 to mime to one of their tracks from 1963 would have been quite different from most bands in 2017 miming to a track from 2011.

You can see and hear the Beatles run through some of their "oldies" during the January '69 "Get Back" sessions, and they laugh about and mock their "old" stuff, running through stuff like "Help" and "Please Please Me" while they were stoned and not taking it seriously.

That's not to say they didn't respect their back catalog. They just never would have slipped in "Drive My Car" in between taping clips for "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" for David Frost/Smothers Brothers, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMK0_kt3L7g