My best friend in grade school had a hip older sister named Debbie. One Saturday afternoon, Debbie forked out 70 cents of her baby-sitting money so her brother and I could accompany her to the matinee premier of The T.A.M.I. (Teenage Awards Music International) Show in my hometown. What I saw on the screen at the tiny Fox Theater that afternoon would affect the rest of my life. Chuck Berry duckwalked his way through several of his big hits, including “Nadine,” which the local AM station was all over. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, and the Supremes underlined how cool the hit Motown sound and stage work was. Leslie Gore proved the wonders of hair spray. The Rolling Stones, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Billy J. Kramer defined the popularity of the then-exploding British Sound. The Beach Boys would have had us at “Surfin’ U.S.A.” had their management not demanded their segment be removed.

All this phenomenal talent but The T.A.M.I. Show was dominated by one artist: ”Mr. Dynamite,” “Mr. Please, Please, Please,” “the hardest working man in show business,” brother James Brown. Brown’s incendiary performance in this 1964 movie still makes one collapse in amazement. Surely no human being is capable of dancing like that, yet there it is on the screen. Brilliant doesn’t nearly come close to describing the “Please, Please, Please” routine. Is anyone not on board the “Night Train” after viewing this? The man proved no one was capable of following James Brown on stage, not even the Rolling Stones.

Often bootlegged and segment-sampled, this is the frst time The T.A.M.I. Show has officially been released on home video and it’s a must-have. Filmed at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in glorious black and white, other revelations include the go-go dancers, how handsome a young Marvin Gaye was, how the Barbarians’ drummer played with a hooked arm. Like health insurance reform, the country is a better place now that The T.A.M.I. Show is available again.