Saturday, April 18, 2026

The Day After The Sabbath 163: The Midnight Special (heavy performances 1973 - 1975)


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Welcome to volume 163! I had been considering some kind of collection of live recordings for a long time for TDATS, and quite recently a youtube subscriber to my channel (link) pointed me to a great performance of a short-lived, hard rock-orientated lineup of the Spencer Davis Group, on 'The Midnight Special' TV show, which set me off wondering what other heavy performances may be buried away in the show.

Wolfman Jack presenting The Midnight Special
The Midnight Special was an American late-night musical variety series that aired on NBC from 1972 to 1981, created and produced by Burt Sugarman. As a Brit, I was not aware of the show until the internet age and youtube videos etc, but i'm sure it's fondly remembered in the USA. It hosted one of Kiss's early TV appearances (1975 - link), being many metal head's first exposure to the band, donning full battle dress.

One of the upshots of the variety on display in The Midnight Special is the amusing introductions of the bands, made by the artists that were acting show-host for that particular episode. I have gone to lengths to preserve the introduction of each band in this comp, so we get such fascinating one-time-ever events as Barry White introducing The Eric Burdon Band, Curtis Mayfield introducing Status Quo and Gladys Knight (and one Pip) introducing the French/Moroccan hard rockers Les Variations, who have appeared here in TDATS before (v45 & v07).

Sugarman pitched the show to capitalize on the large post-Tonight Show audience (following Johnny Carson), targeting the 18-33 age group who attended concerts but watched little TV. NBC initially rejected it, so Sugarman bought the airtime himself for the August 19, 1972 pilot (hosted by John Denver) with sponsor, Chevrolet. Strong ratings led NBC to pick it up as a weekly series starting February 2, 1973. 

DJ JJ Jackson interviews Robert Plant
and Phil May on The Midnight Special
The title and theme song came from the traditional American folk/blues standard "Midnight Special," recorded by Johnny Rivers. Wolfman Jack served as announcer and frequent on-camera presence. At the beginning, it featured all-live performances (rare for the era, unlike lip-synced shows), spanning rock, pop, soul, R&B, folk, disco, country, and oldies/nostalgia acts. Occasional comedy (e.g. Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Andy Kaufman) and sketches appeared. Guest hosts rotated weekly (Helen Reddy was regular host 1975–1976). In later years, as disco peaked, the set shifted to a nightclub vibe, though it increasingly relied on lip-sync toward the end.

I noticed that during the life of the show, the emphasis on hard rock bands diminished (unfortunately for us), with a good proportion of heavy bands appearing in the early years, but not so many later on. This was partially due to the changing times of course, for example, Disco acts certainly became a significant part of the show in the later '70s.

Ratings declined after 1977. NBC canceled it in 1981 at the request of Dick Ebersol (to help revive Saturday Night Live), replacing it with the Canadian sketch series SCTV. The final episode aired May 1, 1981, after roughly 450 episodes. It remains a landmark in music television for bringing raw live acts into late-night homes. 


TRACKS

01. Gladys Knight & Bubba Knight introduce
                                Les Variations - 'I Don't Know Why' (1974)
02. Burton Cummings (The Guess Who) introduces
                                The Charlie Daniels Band - 'Way Down Yonder' (1975)
03. Charles Miller (War) introduces
                                Climax Blues Band - 'Shake Your Love' (1973)
04. Gordon Lightfoot introduces
                                James Gang - 'The Devil Is Singing Our Song' (1974)
05. Smokey Robinson introduces
                                Rare Earth - 'Hum Along And Dance' (1973)
06. Jim 'Dandy' Mangrum (Black Oak Arkansas) introduces
                                Ruby Starr & Grey Ghost - 'Old West Outlaws' (1975)
07. Curtis Mayfield introduces
                                Status Quo - 'Big Fat Mama' (1974)
08. Wolfman Jack introduces
                                Sugarloaf - 'Don't Call Us, We'll Call You' (1975)
09. Burton Cummings (The Guess Who) introduces
                                Spencer Davis Group - Don't Throw Your Change On Me (1975)
10. The Bee Gees introduce
                                Lee Michaels - Barefootin' (1973)
11. Barry White introduces
                                The Eric Burdon Band - 'The Real Me' (1974)
12. Wolfman Jack introduces
                                Todd Rundgren's Utopia - 'The Seven Rays' (1975)
13. John Kay (Steppenwolf) introduces
                                Steppenwolf - 'Gang War Blues' (1975)
14. Wolfman Jack introduces
                                Montrose - 'I Got The Fire' (1975)
15. Jose Feliciano introduces
                                Johnny Winter - 'Rock and Roll' (1973)
16. Cub Koda (Brownsville Station) introduces
                                Brownsville Station - 'Kings of the Party' (1974)


Of the acts here, a surprising number have already appeared in TDATS; Les Variations, Climax Blues Band, James Gang, Ruby Starr & Grey Ghost, Sugarloaf, Montrose, Johnny Winter and Brownsville Station, plus some others that I have not included in this volume, Cozy Powell's Bedlam and Italy's P.F.M. among them.

The Spencer Davis Group song is something of interest and particularly rare, the lineup seems to have been a one-off, assembled by Spencer especially for this show, in a time just after his group had already undergone major makeovers for recent albums. Maybe he intended this show lineup to last longer, but the 'Spencer Davis Group' as an entity went on hiatus for a decade after this performance.
The band:
Buddy Sklar - lead vocals, formerly of The Hook, featured in vol48 
Spencer Davis - rhythm guitar
Chris Pinnick (one-time Chicago member wiki) - lead guitar
Lee Dorman (from Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond) - bass
Drums: on one youtube video, the channel says it's Deane Hagen, but I have not been able to confirm this elsewhere.

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If you liked this please explore this site further, with 160+ similar collections, articles and interviews. My social links are below, I also have a youtube channel (link).

Thanks for reading, until next time, rock on!
Rich


Further listening:
The Day After The Sabbath 117: Boston Tea Party, 'Bosstown Sound' tribute
The Day After The Sabbath 128: Sweet Home Birmingham, Alabama
The Day After The Sabbath 112: UK Country Rock and Southern Rock Special


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