This is Leonard Nimoy's first documented singing appearance. According to a 1968 interview from America's top teen magazine, "IN", Nimoy appeared on an NBC episode of The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson, just one week after the release of the album "Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space". He sang a live version of Lost In The Stars. Leonard said of the performance, " I must have been out of my mind to sing live-coast to coast. But my fans were very, very kind."

Hosted by "Ozzie And Harriet" TV star, Ricky Nelson, the show ran from 7/21/67 to 9/1/67 on Friday nights on ABC. Ricky played the dean of a fictional college called "Malibu-U". The show featured Australian vocalist Robie Porter, along with The Bob Banas Dancers. The dancers were bikini clad girls also known as "The Malibuettes". Various celebrities appeared as "guest professors" delivering "lectures," which meant singing their numbers, usually on the beach. Nimoy debuted The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins video on this episode. According to the lyrics of the theme song, performed by Harper's Bizarre: "All the students report to the dean of the school, his office is cool. It's a telephone booth at Malibu-U. He will tell you to work just as hard as you can, gettin' a tan at Malibu-U." The location sequences were shot at Griffith Park in Los Angeles and Balboa Harbor, California.

Check out the Bilbo Baggins button at the top of this page to see more fab information about this episode!

Highlights:
Leonard Nimoy: The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins, Bobby Rydell: Volare and Dansero, The Buffalo Springfield: Bluebird, Mrs. Miller: Let's Hang On and Englebert Humperdinck: Release Me.

Happening '68
Year: January 6, 1968 - September 20, 1969

"Happening '68" (later called "Happening") was an ABC Saturday afternoon show hosted by Mark Lindsay and Paul Revere and produced by Dick Clark. The shows featured many performaces by the hottest new stars, such as the Monkees, Sajid, Sly and the Family Stone, Leonard Nimoy and many others. Paul Revere and the Raiders often jammed with many of the guest and performed a very cool theme song!

No information about the episode in which Nimoy appeared is available, but judging from the pictures below it would be fair to assume that he sang on the show. More groovy pictures and facts about "Happening '68" can be found by visiting The Official Mark Lindsay Website.

Gramophone To Groovy
Year: April 7, 1968
Broadcast: Television (color) /Channel KCOP - Los Angeles, California

A television documentary hosted by Andy Wilson that took a look at the evolution of popular music since the 1920s. Guests included Gary Moore, Leonard Nimoy singing Gentle On My Mind, Jimmy Van Huesen, Sammy Cahn, Kim Weston, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Sunshine Company. Nimoy performed the song Gentle On My Mind.Time schedules list it at both 7:30pm and 10pm. Visit the photos section for some great behind the scenes shots of Leonard and a Bilbo Baggins Hostess cake!

Nimoy performed on this short-lived Phyllis Diller NBC variety show, "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show". This program featured Leonard Nimoy, Dorothy Malone and The Doodletown Pipers. Each week saluted a great American patriot...such as P.T. Barnum! The regular cast included Rip Taylor and Norm Crosby with writing credits to Lorne Michaels. According to Steve Maurer, who saw the show when it aired, Nimoy sang the songs I'd Love Making Love to You and Dreams of the Everyday Housewife. The show lasted only three months.

The Hollywood Palace was an hour-long variety show that ran on the ABC-TV network from January 4, 1964 to February 7, 1970. The episode was hosted by Milton Berle and featured Nimoy singing two songs from his new album, "The Way I Feel". We have confirmed that he sang Here We Go Round Again, but the second song is yet to be determined. The show also featured Shani Wallis, The Checkmates Ltd., Johnny Puleo's Harmonica Gang, Irving Benson and The Bottoms Up Revue From Las Vegas.

The Captain And Tennille Show was a popular television variety show that ran for two seasons on ABC. Nimoy performed in several skits (one in which he portrayed the "Lone Arranger", a masked man who helped songwriters compose music), hosted the popular segment, "Masterjoke Theater" and recited his poetry live as the Captain and Tennille interwove it with Elton John's Your Song. The entire three minute forty second version of this performance plus three skits starring Nimoy is available on the three DVD set: "The Captain & Tennille - Ultimate Collection".

Nimoy gave several musical performances on the original Star Trek television series. Spock strummed the Vulcan Lyrette, a multi-stringed harp-like musical instrument and/or sang on Charlie X, Plato's Stepchildren, The Way To Eden and The Paradise Syndrome. The lyrette is also refered to as the Vulcan Lyre, Vulcan Harp or Vulcan Lute.

Lt. Uhura can be seen playing the Lyrette in the episode The Conscience Of The King. Here she serrenades Ensign O'Riley with a lyical version of Beyond Antares, a song written by Wilbur Hatch with lyrics by Gene L.Coon.

You can download blueprints to build your own Vulcan Lyrette here courtesy of Cygnus-X1.

Charlie X
Year: 1967
Broadcast: Television

This is the first appearance of the Vulcan Lyrette on Star Trek. Mr. Spock is contently strumming and plucking a musical ditty in the mess hall when Uhura decides to join him in song.

Motion picture, TV and recording stars performed at this giant Friendship Rally sponsored by The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Foundation and the Greater Los Angeles Urban League. Celebrities joined with civic leaders and clergymen to pay tribute to to the work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Performers included Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Shirley Bassey, Ross Martin, Oscar Brown, Jr., Walter Matthau, Ivan Dixon, The Mills Brothers, Jerry Fielding, Leonard Nimoy, Anthony Franciosa, Richard Pryor, Gogi Grant, Edward G. Robinson, Florence Henderson, The Clara Ward Gospel Singers, Calvin Jackson, Roger Williams, Dean Jones, Gerald Wilson and his Orchestra, Eartha Kitt and many more!

The show was also broadcast on KLAC Two Way Radio (dial 57) and KMET-FM (dial 94.7).

The Crenshaw Community Youth Study Association sponsored a non-profit concert to help raise funds to develop youth programs in the integrated Crenshaw area. Nimoy performed along with the Amity Singers a 25-voice choir begun in 1960 that performed a wide repertoire including both a cappella works and works with orchestral accompaniment.

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His stage credits include: Hansel and Gretel (1939), The Man Who Hated God (1948), Of Thee I Sing (1948), Awake and Sing (1948), Good News (1948), Illumination (1949), Christopher Blake (1949), Captain Applejack (1949), I Remember Mama (1949), Peer Gynt (1949), Dr. Faustus (1950), The Three Musketeers (1950), Orchard Gables (1950), Stalag 17 (1952), It's Hard to Be a Jew (1953), Ten Little Indians (1955), Gold in the Hills (1955), A Streetcar Named Desire (1955), A Lonely Ship (1958), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1959), Deathwatch (1960), Monserrat (1963), The Queen and the Rebels (1963), Irma La Douce (1965), Visit to a Small Planet (1968), The Man in the Glass Booth (1971), Oliver! (1972-1973), 6 Rms Riv Vu (1973), Camelot (1973), Full Circle (1973), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1974), Fiddler on the Roof (1974), The King and I (1974), Caligula (1975), The Fourposter (1975), The Twelfth Night (1975), Sherlock Holmes (1976), My Fair Lady (1976), Equus (1977), Vincent (1978-80), Love Letters (1991), Grandparent Connection (1994).