Louis Prima w/Keely Smith and Sam Butera and the Witnesses - I'm the Sheik of Araby

From 1959, killer color footage of the Wildest, Louis Prima w/Keely Smith and Sam Butera and the Witnesses! They play live "When your smilling/I'm the Sheik of Araby." Footage digitally restored by Heppest of the Hep!

[alexruiz]

Wow The groove of the drum is very fast and clear. Amazing

[johngraham]

I'm binge watching Louis and Keely

[DougMcDave]

Love this color footage. I feel transported into the performance!

[nicoslayer]

louis & keely are just perfect together on stage.
i absolutely love the fire & ice dynamic.

[hilltopviewer]

Cool footage, lovely back beat and piano. Hear Sam Butera playing Chicago in the solo. .Always great to hear his sax breaks, uplifting music.Louis sure is some dancer at the jiving.Very enjoyable! Thank You for the upload Heppest Of The Hep.

[markusr]

Man, what a picture quality! Amazing, how the drummer let it go when Sam starts blowing - yeah, they DO ROCK and a hot blowing dixieland flavour too! Simply THE WILDEST !!!

[surfcollector]

That band is bad ass. All starts with that drummer.

[trinab]

I love Keely she is such a great straight man to his shenanigans

[albertardiscohn]

Really special content rare and special

[DavidD]

Some of Keely's reactions were hillarious at times acting like she was really angry at Prima.

[roberthill]

They, like other bands in the 40s and 50s, had to bowdlerize the original lyrics due to the religious right's fear of sex and fear of other people just having fun. The Sheik Of Araby was written in the 20s and was quoted by Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby.
The line, "Into your tent I'll creep, with no trousers on" was changed to "with no turban on" and "naked as a jaybird" to "jumpin' like a jaybird".
Funny that people who are offended by this get highly aroused by the image of a guy slowly dying while nailed to a tree.

[JiveDadson]

They cleaned it up for this session. "With no turban on" should be "with no pants on". Old game. For example, at a Chinese restaurant, everyone says it after reading their fortune cookie.

[courtneyracich]

What is this show that Louis and keely performing

[d_fan]

Awesome! Do you have anymore Prima footage?

[adoreslaurel]

Would this have been a colored version of original black and white filming? No color tv then.

[carolynhyao]

Does anyone know what show this is from?

[davephillips]

Have you got the video of them doing flip flop & fly?

[MyNameIsChristBringsASword]

He was great and the act had to come to an end at some point.

[SenorZorrozzz]

The old, discarded color video system.

[NathanielAhart]

Why does Keely look like she doesn't want to be there? LOL!