Up With People Holds a Super Bowl Record

As we approach our unofficial national holiday known as Super Bowl Sunday, it is interesting to note that Up With People holds a rather distinguished record as a part of this annual celebration.

Along with the game itself and the TV commercials, there is always a lot of interest and hype about who is performing the halftime show.

Since the Super Bowl began back in January of 1967 (44 games counting this Sunday), no group has been the featured performer at the Super Bowl more than Up With People. Four times it has been the headline act:

1976: Super Bowl X in Miami, FL: Theme: 200 Years and Just a Baby: A Tribute to America's Bicentennial (Steelers 21, Cowboys 17)

1980: Super Bowl XIV in Pasadena, CA: Theme: A Salute to the Big Band Era (Steelers 31, Rams 19)

1982: Super Bowl XVI in Pontiac, MI: Theme: A Salute to the 60s and Motown (49ers 26, Bengals 21)

1986: Super Bowl XX in New Orlean, LA: Theme: Beat of the Future (Bear 46, Patriots 10)

Courtesy of YouTube, here's how CBS presented Up With People's first halftime appearance along with a little first half game analysis...

Six years later in 1982, here's some of the Up With People halftime show from the Pontiac Superdome. Again this video is courtesy of YouTube....

There may be some folks who read this blog who had the opportunity to perform with UWP at one of its Super Bowl shows. If so, please share your memories below or e-mail them to me and I can share them for you here on the blog.

Like some of the Super Bowl games, there have been some who have panned the UWP Super Bowl halftime shows. But it is interesting in recent years (especially after the "wardrobe malfunction" involving Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake in 2004) how the themes for the halftimes have gone back to the 60s, featuring artists like The Rolling Stones, PaulMcCartney as well as this year's featured performers....

Now there may be many who watch this Sunday's halftime show who are too young to remember "The Who" and trying to tell them might start a new version of an Abbott and Costello comedy routine ("Who's On First"). So, here is one of the most famous performances by The Who, it occurred on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" on CBS back in the late 1960s with the band performing (appropriately) "My Generation" (to say the least it is a real BLAST courtesy of YouTube)....

And we hope all of you have a blast this Super Bowl Sunday!