I've heard two live versions of Surf City on youtube . 1 the Steve Allen Show and 2 recently added to youtube at the Hollywood Bowl . Both not so good . But they do a pretty good job on Honolulu Lulu . Not enough singers perhaps .
Yeah, those are laughably terrible. But the fact remains that J&D never made an attempt to vocally re-create their studio versions in a live setting. They did, however, sometimes have the luxury of a full backing band, with brass and woodwinds. With parts arranged by Jan.
But this Hollywood Bowl date is a good example of having a bare-bones "house band" -- without the full backing treatment. Even so, the poor recording balance accounts for a lot of what's wrong with this Bowl performance. The vocal levels were too high, not mixed well with the band. And that's aside from truly crappy vocal performances, just going through the motions, and probably at a considerable distance from the band.
The well-known performances featured a full backing orchestra . . . such as Command Performance and TAMI in 1964, and the Hullabaloo Nightclub dates in 1965.
But beyond that, I have documentation that illustrates how Jan hired musicians in remote cities when J&D were on tour. He sometimes hired players from local AFM affiliates where they were performing. Including brass and woodwind players.
So it depended on specific performance dates, and on the budget for each, when it came to what kind of band they had for live appearances.
M.
