The Manhattan Transfer at The Old Grey Whistle Test (22 February 1977) 

Hello, guys! Thank you so much for all of your support and appreciation for this video! I never thought that this video would have so many views and likes! To the haters who are taking their precious time to comment that it's "awfully cheesy", "boring" and "crap", you should spend your precious time doing something else, thank you! 😉 And to the fans and people who appreciated this video, thank you so much for your kind comments!

I adored this band as a kid in the 70s and it led me directly into becoming a jazz singer myself. 🥰

I love Cheryl, but OMG! Laurel was incredible.❤👍👍👍

OMG! Tim was rapping before rap came out. These guys got overloaded when God was dishing out the talents. Incredible voices own their own, then together, OMG! an angelic choir. So heavenly.

The Transfer gave their final performance yesterday at the Disney Hall, wrapping up a 50 year career.

What a woman!! Laurel in "Heart's Desire"

Cannot believe how much I smiled all the way through this! 4 extremely talented solo artists without the egos. Fantastic!

Singing Four Brothers is so, so hard. First of all, to learn it. Then to get the right notes while moving so fast. Also, to stay in tune on all those notes. Tim Hauser had the hardest part, and I think even he went off a little bit. If you can sing this, you can sing anything!

TMT Fanpage, I cannot thank you enough for posting this RESPLENDENT performance! It is unbelievably gratifying to see this EXTRAORDINARY group so young and vibrant! Their smooth dance moves, vocal prowess and stage presence are other-worldly. The talent on that stage outshines the sun! I loved the entire concert. Highpoints were Cheryl's heart-melting rendition of "Scotch & Soda", Janis BLOWING the roof off during "Operator", Alan Paul's dead-on channeling of John Travolta/Vinny Barbarino, and his stirring delivery of "Gloria". What a LUCKY audience!

Janis would have been the most beautiful woman in the world if Laurel didn't exist.

I’m really happy to see/hear Laurel Masse live. That is some tone she had. It seemed pretty much effortless.

One of the true and pure pleasures in life is listening to Manhattan Transfer...just fabulous.

Incredible. The amount of hard work and dedication they have is over the top.

I'm tearing up. I just found this performance of the Manhattan transfer. First time hearing one of the original member live. I have my popcorn ready. Thank you for this wonderful masterpiece.

Ages: When this was performed Laurel Masse was 26, Tim Hauser was 36, Janis Segal was 25 and Alan Paul was 28.

Terrific time capsule that show cases the Transfer at their peak. This really is an incredible live performance. 4 superb vocalists and perfect 4 part harmonies. Amazing to think they were celebrating the music of the 1940s in 1977- it's now 2022 and almost 50 years since this performance- they were actually so much closer in time to the 40s than the present day. I just couldn't imagine the same nostalgia today for the music of 30 years ago!

Superb! back in the days when singers had real talent and paid their dues unlike today just making a noise and being pulled out of supermarkets stacking shelves

I cannot thank you enough for posting this video. It brought back so many memories of the days when I worked for and with the group. I was lucky to be their first road manager back in 1974. When I played Four Bothers for them it was a two sided record by the Dave Lambert Singers. At the end of side one we are told to turn the record over to hear the second part of the song. The Manhattan Transfer decided that's exactly how they would perform the song. Thank you once again.

They look and sound amazing. The band is tight. What a performance.

I had forgotten how much I loved listening to Manhattan Transfer!! Love this, I’ll have to find my CDs!

So glad you uploaded this concert! One of my favorite groups! So extremely talented! 🎶 Java Jive "I Love Coffee" "I Feel High" ...such great tunes. Such fantastic jazz singing. Thank you MT you are still loved and appreciated.

OMG -- what a PHENOMENON -- absolute perfection!!

The Four Brothers performance was incredible. Foreshadowed their great vocalese songs.

The Great Manhattan Transfer, talent talent talent. Young singers watch and learn. It takes incredible rehearsal to be as cool as they are and as polished. No autotune blah blah blah, just excellence.

What a group! Each member is first class, but Janis really was/is something! Fine band supporting them, too. Thanks for posting!

It was Tim Hauser who became the founder of the band we know as The Manhattan Transfer! We remember and love. These are diamonds!

This performance is fantastic. I was a kid in the 70s and not familiar with this version of the group. Four Brothers -wow! Laurel is dynamic. Her energy is off the charts.

I was fortunate to see them live in Denver Colorado in 1985 they're the best American has.

My husband and I saw them perform at the Waldorf Astoria back in the mid 70's and they were so great!

I saw this extremely talented group, The Manhattan Transfer, in concert in New Zealand in the 70's. Unbelievable! Each one a talented singer in their own right....fantastic! ❤ Sweet memories...

This has just dropped into my choices! Bought back memories of a job selling wine in 1977/78. Driving my Mazda estate car around Cornwall. I had a tape (one of very few!) of ManTran, and several of these songs were on it. Would sing along and knew most of the words! Where have those 45 years gone to? 👍👍👍👍

Absolutely amazing group. I remember watching this and going straight out to buy the first album. One of the very best live bands I ever saw, and this great show is evidence of that one ! Thank you for sharing this slice of magic.

The beautiful Laurel Masse.

What a treat to hear them in this early incarnation, particularly since they won't be touring any more after this year. Legendary comes to mind and it fits them to a tee. Thanks for sharing this.

As a British kid I was only aware of Chansons d’amore. Many years later I heard MT’s albums and was blown away. A thrill to watch this.

My goodness, they never looked more handsome. I'm just melting. Such a talented group.

Ohhhhh Scotch and Soda, I haven't heard that in so long. Time to rummage through my vinyls :)

I never realised at the time the Old Grey Whistle was so flexible in its content . This really does hark back to a time when what we saw on TV was real life.

29:32 That is just about the best rendition of "Gloria" I've every heard.

Múlt héten láttam a búcsúkoncertjüket Budapesten. Fenomenálisak!

This is AMAZING. It was this very show that got me into Manhattan Transfer. Haven't seen it since, and here it is in fantastic quality (probably better than I saw it in 77). Wow!

sad to see Tim gone. i saw them circa 1976

What a wonderful memories…..I saw them in NYC in the 80s……incredible voices….

I always new how amazing they were . I just found this my God wonderful! love them 🥳

Wow Saw them a month or so after this as a 17 year old at the London Palladium! What an absolutely fabulous evening this performance has been etched on my phyche ever since❤❤❤❤

me at age 20 in 2010, got my first LP player and was going to our local record store. found that lp with the beautiful black and white cover in the shelve. never heard of that band, but judging by the cover it must be good, i thought. the music in it was even better. damn, i love this group.

I first heard "don't let go" by Patti LaBelle, however now that I've heard this rendition on here, it is now my FAVORITE!!!!!

You guys Manhattan transfer my hats out to you. I would. Never. Get. Bored listening. And. Still Am

GD, you might be the best group that has ever lived! Thank you!

Superb, four people at the top of their game.

Rap you could understand

Those four people are like one of those combos like the Beatles or The Who. They were put together by the Cosmos!

What a fantastic performance that I've never seen before. We were not interested in TV and we never bought one in those days as we were out and about living but we would have seen them on TV in a Pub back then and bought their records. Soooo smooooth 🤩 Thanks so much for sharing this 🤩

did cheryl ever did that whistle on four brothers? wow, laurel... cheryl has a warmer and sonority, but, laurel, was really something..

I remember the jazz group Manhattan transfer i saw them on top of the pops in 1978 when I'm a little kid

every time they came to Japan, i went to their concert though, before that time Laurel Masse had changed her part to Cheryl Bentyne so i know Masse only with her voice in their 3 LPs. i'm so happy with watching Masse's live performance. thank you for uploading this precious vidio!

Unbelievable group!!!what a fantastic 👏 song

MASSE!!

You can see where John Travolta based his GREASE character on 100%

Laurel doing Scotch and Soda - interesting story behind that song. Dave Guard, one of the founders of the Kingston Trio, was dating a girl and took his buddy Bob Shane (also a founding member) to see her at her parents' house (the Seavers). Her parents knew Dave and Bob were singers and gave them this song, which they got from a lounge singer in Phoenix who failed to put his name on the sheet music, and the parents forgot who he was. We still don't know who wrote the song, but Dave put his name on it and sent all the money earned on it to his girlfriend's parents. This was back in the 50s when their son was just a kid and they sent him to college on it. Tom Seaver became a famous pitcher for the NY Mets (he died of Covid a couple years ago).

The best there ever was. Friggin beyond beyond!

This is what I have been looking for! The group when they were new and young and full of energy and singing the early hits that made them famous! I really enjoyed this and thank you for posting it. They are fantastic!

Glad I came across this video- Remember clearly me and the mrs first encounter with the Manhattan Transfer. It was an unusually boring saturday evening in danish televison at the time where there was just one danish channel and or those of us liviging in the eastern part of the country there was 2 swedish channels normally only slightly more boring than the danish channel. Zapping around we suddenly found on swedish channel two a programme from "Berns Sonlonner" in Stockholm featuring the Manhatten Transfer. And that was it - sold forever more. Glad to have experiencend them a number of times in Copenhagen - 2 or 3 times in Tivoli Gardens, once in the Tivoli Concert Hall (when Joe Zawinul was their musical director which later made us Weather Report fans -you know, the Birdland and Spies in the night era) and once in 3 Falke Concert Hall

I think I was there! I was helping out the monitor engineer. And I do remember one squeak of feedback. A long time ago now, thanks for this reminiscence.

I had the good fortune to see and hear them, live, in Melbourne in the late 1980s… the blissful sensation of being wrapped in the warmth of such joyful (and skilled) harmonies will stay with me till the Big Dirt Nap.

The Red Head, very sultry eyes.

TMT...you can be proud of yourself!Holy shit-I LOVE you,and I love your music!Ken Muller Noeway🤗🤗🤗😘🥰🤘🙏💪💪💪💪💪💪💪

Love the Manhattan Transfer! I saw this lineup with Laurel Masse at the Waldorf Astoria, NYC in 1975 and at the Ogden Theater in Colorado in the early 1980's, after Laurel Masse had been replaced by Cheryl Bentyne.

I just love Michigan girl Laurel Masse to pieces.

Second use of the name "Guido Panzini" for me. The other is Pat Harrington's golf pro from Jack Paar's Tonight Show.

Singing through four key changes per bar…in awe…can you imagine if the Mahavishnu Orchestra had vocals? I would die of gasping.

I'm not there, but I can't help but clap and move to Operator get me heaven!

0ne of the best vical groups to ever grace a stage or a recording studio. I still have my Manhattan Transfer CDs and spin them peridically.

Just like punk never happened

I watched their two concerts when they performed in Manila, 1981 and 1992. Classic, classy, sophisticated. Loved them! Those two concerts had Cheryl Bentyne. Thought Laurel in this video was Cheryl. Wow, she had a fantastic voice as well.

These guys were great. I saw them at the Kennedy Center in the ‘70s, and it was a really professional show.

To whomever had this in storage and uploaded it: T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U!!!

I saw what you did during 'Heart's Desire', Lauren... 😉

Seeing Laurel in her role as one of the originals was interesting. But, I have to say, I think the group was better overall and had a more varied vocal sound with Cheryl Bentyne. Cheryl's voice was the perfect, high-end compliment to the others.

thank you for this special treat

Too bad Laurel left the group 'cause she has a lovely voice.

If I can't do it. It can't be done!

Candy.., omg.. I listened to all of the albums for years so I sang with every song. They are a great example of bands that are best served live. Un paralled

Oh my so well done no audio tuning i saw them live together with Peter Herboldzheimer live in my hometown wowzer this wasa capella perfection when they sang A Nightingale sings on Berkelysquare

A few weeks later, they were number 1 in the UK with Chanson d’Amour.

Masterpiece

I finally got to watch TMT’s performance of “Candy” with Laurel Masse! And Four Brothers is amazing!

What a treat👏👏👏👏👏

Dear MT fans Concord, is holding onto a five CD Manhattan Transfer box set that includes some unreleased tracks from the vaults. Please consider letting Concord know how much we would love for this to be released. Surely before Chrsitams would have been and still could be the ultimate time for the release of this retrospective set. I fear if we do not let our collective voices be heard this set may not see the light of day and that would be criminal. Cheers and thanks from a fan but someone who has no connection with MT or any of their affiliates.

O my gosh! He beat Blondie for the first rap song by 4 years! I didn’t know that!

One of the very best OGWT performances.

Timeless class. Magnificent.

saw them live the following year (78), got most LP's, this howeverwas a rare find; AWESOME! (still)!

talented group always liked thier music

Tim Hauser, Alan Paul, Janis Siegel, and Laurel Massé.?

Omg.. this is amazing, live singing with such harmony, superb

They’re such babies!

Yayyyy! Once again! Heavenly!

This is a Grammy level performance.

They were so entertaining. I saw them live front row in Portland Oregon decades ago.