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If anyone can document an earlier date than June 1963, I'd sure like to know. The first answer, that The Beatles were first in 1966 is GARBAGE.

The first Rock/Top 40 music video I can find anywhere, is available for free viewing on YouTube. It is "Surf City", the 1963 hit by Jan & Dean, a song co-written by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. Re-worked by Jan Berry, this song shot straight up the charts, remaining in the Number ONE position Nationally for two weeks.

The video, produced at the same time as the record, is much, much more than studio or concert footage, as were many of the earliest "videos". This production was shot entirely on location along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, and features the very young, and buff Jan Berry and Dean Torrence, singing (not lip-synching), while driving a 1930's jalopy to Surf City in search of "two girls for every boy".

Definitely a "stand-alone" video, and definitely fits perfectly the current-day definition of a rock video. My adamant assertion is that this is most likely the first true music video of the Rock and Roll generation. Incidentally, Jan and Dean released another on-location video, of their 1964 hit "Sidewalk Surfing", shot on the beach at Playa Del Rey, in 1964.

WHO CAN BEAT THAT?

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14y ago

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