who did the first ever music video? (pre-mtv)

at a recent concert in manchester neil sedaka claimed he was first, in 1961 with 'calendar girl'. is that right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WZRUIfHjo

Flm of musicians synced up to sound go back to the twenties as Scott suggests. The music vid as we know it today really came into being in the fourties with the 'Soundies' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundies Sedaka must have been well aware of these way before 1961.

that's really interesting, thanks. what about the first video after the charts began?

Related question: who did the first video that wasn't just a filmed performance? Cab Calloway starring in a Betty Boop cartoon in 1932?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po9MAIgBZ10

Yeah, there was definitely filmed stuff by the forties, though sometimes people talk about the Scopitone system (sort of a 16mm video jukebox) as having the first recognizably modern videos. But the first ones were French, and Gainsbourg was one of the first performers to be featured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone

As another kind of answer, "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen is generally seen as the first music video that was made to actively use commercially to market the track.

1439. The first "promo video" wasn't a video at all! In 1830 Felix Mendelssohn commisioned a series of Magic Lantern slides of his recent holiday in Scotland, to be shown at concert performances of The Hebrides overture when he was too wasted to attend in person.

"As another kind of answer, "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen is generally seen as the first music video that was made to actively use commercially to market the track."

TONS of bands did this in the 60's. the list is endless. ever hear of a group called the monkees?

here's a fave of mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ43oz_qVxc

Don't know why I never thought to search for "Scopitone" in YouTube.

These appealed right off the bat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRVRABS2y68

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdUX_C77mE8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjOpTXzxxSI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0felK0GdLQ

The Bobby Vee is exceptional. Feels more like an 80s vid than the others do. And riding a scooter has never been quite so blatant a stand-in for sex as here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsnJ9jh9hik

what was the first "video" actually shot on video?

if we're gonna go in this direction we might as well just say "Video Killed the Radio Star"

yeah the bobby vee video is ridiculously great.

so if we narrow it down to english-speaking chart-era pop, then does neil sedaka have a fair point? (calendar girl was actually 1960, according to wikipeda)

But when exactly does chart-era pop begin? There were record charts in Billboard well before rock and roll/the 1950s/Elvis/etc.

true, lets say from 1952 onwards, from the first proper UK charts
(but feel free to post any notable exceptions)

love the serge & bobby vee.
here's one of my favourite early ones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kKU1S0lWxo

TONS of bands did this in the 60's. the list is endless. ever hear of a group called the monkees?

Their performances were part of a TV series, just like Elvis' performances were part of his movies. etc.

I am speaking of specifically creating one video for one song, with no other purpose than to get it on TV to sell that one song.

um, the monkees were trying to sell singles. but like i said, lots of other bands made promo clips in the 60's in order to sell singles and albums. maybe you've heard of this little-known group:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7NoOhmVMac

Goddamn, I came on here specifically to post that Hut Sut video. Curse you, zappi! However, I cannot find that version of the Hut Sut Song anywhere on mp3 or record - there's a million other versions, but that's far and away my favourite.

Seems pretty clear: Neil Sedaka and Geir Hongro are both dipshits who don't know anything about the world outside their mirrors.

I don't know how you objectively determine who was "first," but I've seen the Big Booper cited in a few different places:

There have been many claims on who made the first music video, with groups such as the Beatles, Who and Kinks often cited as examples. Some have claimed that Ricky Nelson made the first music video in 1961. However, three years earlier in 1958, the Big Bopper actually recorded three music videos for his songs: "Chantilly Lace", "Big Bopper's Wedding" and "Little Red Riding Hood" (all 3 videos were recorded the same day). Plus, he also coined the term "rock video" in a printed interview in 1959. According to Bill Griggs, editor of the "Rockin' 50s" music magazine, the Big Bopper was convinced that video was the wave of the future and, at the time of his death, he was preparing to start production on music videos for TV and a specially designed jukebox which would play videos.

http://www.earcandymag.com/rrcase-bigbopper.htm

Another one from 1932:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVIb72b12OI

xpost If we're talking promo videos specifically intended to help sell a product, "Strawberry Fields" may have been the first, except I was pretty sure they also made videos for "Rain" and "Paperback Writer."

A lot of people consider "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as a video even though it was pulled from a full-length film.

i never said strawberry fields was the first anything! i was merely showing geir yet another example of an idea that had been around for years if not decades before bohemian rhapsody.

can't find these big bopper videos on youtube, only a live performance of 'chantilly lace'. did they get released? if so i think that's the closest we're gonna get to the first pop-era music video.