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Clocking in at a mere 22 minutes, this long-lost concert video goes by much too quickly, but fans of the Beach Boys will be delighted with the quality of the digitally mastered picture and sound, making this a worthwhile addition to any Beach Boys collection. The boys were taped live on March 14, 1964 as part of a concert that also included the Beatles and Lesley Gore. After the performances were aired on closed-circuit TV to theaters packed with screaming fans, the Beach Boys segment remained virtually unseen until it was rediscovered in 1998. Cutaway shots provide a wonderful glimpse of what teen audiences were like during the heyday of the surfin' craze (plenty of Gidget hairdos, and a few parents in the crowd, marveling at the frenzy of it all), but it's the music that counts here, and clearly the boys were having a pretty good day. Most of the early hits are played here ("Fun, Fun, Fun," "Little Deuce Coupe," "In My Room"), and while lead vocalist Mike Love hams it up, it's fascinating to witness early indications that bandleader Brian Wilson was growing tired of live performance. He revs it up for a wacky cover of "Papa Oom Mow-Mow," though, and that makes this video a time-capsule treasure, showing the Beach Boys in their prime before Wilson retreated completely into the sanctuary of the studio. --Jeff Shannon
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