OK, so here I am am, sitting in my house in April of 2023 and just stumbled upon this video. Am 73 years old, never cared much for Mr. Benny, but always liked The Kingston Trio thanks to one of my older sisters. Am not ashamed to say that I am the proud owner of The Best Of The Kingston Trio on (should I say it) DVD. Yes, The Beatles took over my life at that time, but every now and then, I throw on that DVD and enjoy what REAL music was.
They just don't make television like this anymore. I used to watch Jack Benny's show as a kid in the 60s, and I had the privilege of seeing John Stewart live once, and he was magnificent. This episode reminds me of how great comedy can be done and have adults and children roaring with laughter. We need to bring more of this back.
The banjo player is John Stewart. After the Kingston Trio disbanded, he went on with his own career as a kind of Dylan-esque singer songwriter with his own rock band. Used to go see him in the mid 70's when he would play the San Francisco Bay Area clubs. Fantastic live band; great original songs. He wrote "Daydream Believer" (Monkees hit in the late 60's; also a hit for Anne Murray in the early 80s). He also wrote " Gold" (There's people out there turnin' music into gold) and had his own hit with that song ( with Stevie Nicks singing harmony) in about 1979.
Huge John Stewart fan. When I first heard his Freeway Pleasure I picked up a guitar and still play that song on occasion. Mis-named here but a great song... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UQI4QC0xsrg.html
@@garthreynolds1437 One of the most misheard lyrics in music. "Drivin' over Kanan" is correct. Kanan Road (pronounced "CAIN-un") is a street in California that connects Agoura Hills with Malibu.
As an Hispanic American man who served in the Marines, like my father in Vietnam and both my grandfather's in ww2. I thought this was the funniest stuff I heard in a very long time. I specifically loved Mr. Mel Blanc. He was and still is the greatest vocal performer of all time..😄👍🍻
And for such a well-rounded, versatile, brilliant voice actor, how stellar was he with the deadpan perfect *visuals* there! He's hilarious just glumly leaning against the wall! I'd forgotten that. His facial expression...
A timeless classic!! The Kingston Trio performing one of their top folk-pop hits and Jack Benny's routine with Mel Blanc. R.I.P. guys. I'll see you again in the Spirit World.
Vito Scotti was such a great character actor! I loved his performance in the Dick Van Dyke show episode “give me your walls”. I sure wish we had shows like this these days. Just pure entertainment from start to stop. You’d never be able An episode with with jokes like this today.
I remember seeing this show when it first aired. Good old fashioned humour. Always like the Kingston Trio. The Si, Sy, Su, routines is still funny today. Mel Blanc is a genius. And Jack Benny know how to get the audience to laughs, even if he was the butt of all the jokes each episode.
All Jack needed to do was speak and he'd spark smiles. The Kingston Trio were a commercial success but they were still a good group to listen to as a fan of folk music.
“The way guitar should be played” … say I, a saxophone player. I listened to these guys on my friend’s brother’s record player with big 33-1/3 LP records. We weren’t supposed to touch it. My first experience with music that was not on the AM radio. Mid 50s Chicago. And Mel Blanc, the voice of Walter Lanz cartoons. ❤️
THE KINGSTON TRIO 8-time Nominees, 3-time Grammy winners, including 2011 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Billboard Awards: Best New Singing Group Vocal Group Hall of Fame, Hit Parade Hall of Fame, Library of Congress: Historical Recordings (Tom Dooley) Charted Hits: Tom Dooley, MTA (He’ll Never Return), Where Have All The Flowers Gone, Greenback Dollar, This Land Is Your Land, etc.
I never knew this existed!! I grew up loving the Kingston Trio and still have all their albums (on vinyl no less). How cool to see them singing in close-up! Thanks for putting this up!
@Painindeass1million The acting was very canned. But, the laughing does sound canned, like a laugh track, sound the same,…. some professional laughers in the audience probably,… not that they certainly got paid, but that they were possibly probably selected.
Awesome vintage video thank you I'm laughing. Hey Jack just put your foot in your mouth and let the boys play damn. I'm just kidding Jack Love you You're funny as hell
I met Nicholas Wells "Nick" Reynolds at a birthday party for Joey Harris (former Beat Farmer). We were at Kansas City Barbeque (known as the "Top Gun Bar") a restaurant and bar located in the harbor district of San Diego, California. I didn't know Nick was Joey's uncle. Nick wasn't in tip-top health at that time. Nick passed away a couple years later. Great guy!
Wow - Joey Harris ! I used to see him live in John Stewart's band in the 70s. He and John would face off and do incredible guitar riffs with each other - two fantastic axemen in one band ! You can find Joey on Stewart's album 'Fire In The Wind' which contains some of that fierce guitar work.
I'm 44 this is dad's favorite group and I've heard them so much dad gave me all of his records and they are around 20 kingston trio I've been listening to them and I'm really starting to love kingston trio and other folk groups I usually listen to Metal but folk is hard to beat
Banjo player, John Stewart. Lyndsey Buckingham’s guitar playing was influenced from John’s banjo playing. Find the old PBS reunion show. That’s what got Stevie on Gold. California Bloodlines is a masterwork of storytelling and song. I was lucky to be in Scottsdale when Bill Compton organized the Phoenix Concerts which is a great live compilation of his wonderful songs. Don’t forget Buffy Ford. Was thrilled to attend some of music camps before his passing. A lovely talented man.
This is the time of transition of music in the US from folk to rock. Ps. Jack Benny is really good. Please don't cancel him after the Mexican jail skit.
Oh this bring back such memories of good television it was analog and it was free and nobody was tying me down to it. If you didn't like what you're watching you could try the other two or three other channels. And if that didn't work you could go outdoors and go play. Unless was too dark then you could just go to your room and read a book. That's right no TV in your room. Time and place for everything. Top grade people, top grade comedy, one of the best musical groups ever, it wasn't bad programming at all whatsoever.
No kidding. This old white guy thinks this episode should be pulled from rotation. Blanc's routine may be classic but it ain't 1964 anymore. May as well let it run here but pull it from Antenna TV.
This would be so politically INCORRECT now----love it and yes Kingston Trio the best. The Si guy--Mel Blanc-voice of Bugs bunny and all the other Warner brothers cartoon characters--
I don't remember one episode of Jack Benny but I remember watching this show every week...one of Jack's sponsors was Jello, Jack would say "Jello again" instead of "Hello again".
Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds........Absolutely timeless............ So many great memories each time I hear their music. Thanks for posting this gem from this wonderful performance!
It's John Stewart on the right. Dave Guard, the true genius of the group, quit in 1961 after a bitter dispute about their direction. Shane and Reynolds wanted to do more of the same; Guard wanted a grittier more authentic folk sound. When Stewart talks here about how "we" organized the group in 1957, well, he wasn't involved at all.
@@OnePost909 Stewart was never part of the "Trio" - they paid him $500 a week as a musician. Of course John was a prolific song writer and wrote many songs for them, so royalties would have been significant . . .
The Kingston Trio (Nick Reynolds, Bob Shane, and John Stewart) were as skilled at telling stories and doing comedy as they were playing great folk music.
Steward wasn't one of the original three. He replaced Dave Guard. I have John Stewart's promotional album from, I think, 1969, "California Bloodlines". You can ask Alexa to play it for you. It's one of my all-time favorite albums of any genre.
@@EricRush What is "promotional album" ? "California Bloodlines" was once rated number 39 (I think) on Billboard's All Time Something or other. I had 3 copies . . .
@@imoldgreggboosh3467 Memory isn't clear. I was a disc jockey at a small station in Oregon at the time. As I recall, Capitol was sending albums of different artists to stations to see what cuts became popular. I thought Bloodlines was one of those. And it may be that my memory is completely off base.
A funny bit all these many years later! Mel Blanc was the man of a thousand voices! And the Kingston Trio was the number one group in the country! Bob Shane (in the middle) - the last surviving original member - died in 2020.
I remember seeing this when first televised. I was and still am a big fan of the Kingston Trio. Last minute scene is reminiscent of Marx Brothers movie, Night at the Opera when everyone crowds into their ship's stateroom.
