Shirley Ellis • "The Name Game" • 1965 [Reelin' In The Years Archive] 

Biggest hit of the year. She must have been so proud. We loved her song in 1965 & we walked down the halls of Clarenceville Junior High School between classes singing it. Could NOT do it while we were in class but as soon as that bell rang we were out the door & you could a bunch of kids singing it while going to the next class. Today they would laugh her off the stage but back in '65 it was so very, very fashionable. A # Hit for Shirley Ellis & that is just not that easy to do when you are competing with singers such as Elvis, Petula Clark, The Beatles etc. She did it. You go Shiirley!!! She is now singing it in heaven. Rest in Peace Shirley. Another big hit that year Was Petula's "Downtown." We sang that one in the halls as well.

Shirley was so adorable! At lunchtime in elementary school, we'd all have 77 WABC in NYC on our transistor radios. When "The Name Game" came on - the whole lunchroom would join in. It was a massive AM Radio hit.

real vocals and real musical instruments . great sound

The most fun song of all time. Thank you Shirley!

Shirley Ellis was such a class act and deserved more fame. In addition to her three big hits, "The Nitty Gritty", "The Name Game", and "the Clapping Song", she had a lot of underrated gems in her catalog. Check out the beautiful, "How Lonely Is Lonely" for an example.

What an MC! She’s wonderful, beautiful, classy and fit!

her charm is mesmerising

She is fantastic! Wish Sesame Street was available back then. That would have been so much fun. She is very talented and cleaver. What a good song and idea! Once saw a young lady doing kereoke... Looked and sounded just like Shirley and even engaged the audience. Couldn't believe it. She's wonderful

I vividly remember this song as I was in my mid teens, then, LOL!

I would have been the smart alec screaming for her to do "chuck"! 😂

FANTASTIC

Amazing

Great voice, no auto tune necessary!

love her still

She was so incredibly talented He was a great composer. I love her albums. Nitty gritty is One of my favorite songs and she has just one amazing unique song after another.

She was way ahead of her time classy smart wow🎉

Wow, it was fun to see the wonderful actress, Tallulah Bankhead at 2:24 - she was one of those larger than life characters, who could out-smoke and out-drink any tough Teamster member - any day of the week.

When you get a glimpse of the audience and a lot of them are static, feels ridiculous cuz this is such a bop !!

Nice tune

awesome man

LOVE THIS ❤️ CHANNEL

This is genius Ms Ellis and cute.

I loved Ms. Bankhead in Life Boat great performance.

Muito bom 👍🔔

I'm in love ❤

I love her voice? Impresses me as a very nice woman. It amazes me how she can continually do that and not mess up.

Shirley Ellis is hotter than the Sun...

Looooove this!!! 👀🎶💞 BJ/ATLGA/USA 💖💚

The public is boring.

the Merv house band (Roy Burns on drums I think) was right on top of that one!

LOVE YOU MERV

I feel so slow because this is like rocket surgery and I'll never get it

😁😁😁😁😁

cool stunt!

Tallulah Bankhead is there! Is there full footage avaliable ?

I sware Stephanie Mills could play this Lady and sang all her songs

How in the world can she sing all this and ad lib names on the spot?!?

Black song so nice and fan

I believe I watched this when I was a kid. Great to hear her sing live instead of lip-synching. Did Lincoln Chase write her songs?

Try 'Sebastian' or any name more than 3 syllables!

I like how all the old women in the audience just don't get it.

I think kids still sing The Name Game on elementary school playgrounds.

Let's give it up to the piano player!

2023?

Biden paid tribute to her in his SOTU address. Lincoln,Lincoln.......................

Biggest hit of the year? .... It peaked at no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 .... and yes, that's a Huge deal .... but there were a lot of no. 1 hits that year .... heck, the Beatles had 2 ..... 'Help' .... which spent 3 weeks at no. 1, and 'Yesterday', which spent 4 weeks at no. 1 ..... c'mon, Merv ....

Why didn’t she do CHUCK .

now try tucker

Mitch or Chuck!!

worst crow

Man what happened to us ,those were the days!

ok let's try Sussy! sussie sussie sussie puPussy banana pana puPussy...