The folk revival had fizzled in 1964 as the result of the British Invasion, which damaged the ratings for Hootenanny and prompted that show's cancellation.

focused on a broader variety of popular music than its predecessor and first aired for a half-hour every Wednesday evening, but was expanded to an hour in January 1965.

The series later featured other "British invasion" bands and performers including The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Cilla Black.

including Tina Turner, Lesley Gore, Bo Diddley,[5] Sonny and Cher, The Beach Boys, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, The Supremes, and The Ronettes.

's success prompted NBC to air the similar series Hullabaloo starting in January 1965 and other producers to launch syndicated rock music shows like Shivaree and Hollywood a Go-Go.

Additionally, the Saturday edition aired in a time period when many of its potential viewers were going out and, thus, not at home to watch television.

By October 1965, the show was having ratings problems (Time magazine said "early-season tide [was] running against the teen scene"),[6] and in January 1966, Shindig!

Others included Anita Mann, Maria Gahva, Lorene Yarnell (later of the mime team Shields and Yarnell), Diane Stuart, Pam Freeman, Gina Trikinis, Marianna Picora, Virginia Justus, Rini Jarmon and Carol Shelyne, who always wore glasses while she danced.

[7] The series house band was supposedly known as "The Shin-diggers", but that was actually the name host Jimmy O'Neill used to refer to fans of the show.

By early 1965, they'd been renamed Sir Rufus Marion Banks and his Band of Men, but the generic name had returned by the time "Shindig" went off the air.

Ray Pohlman was the musical director, and he was also one - as was Campbell, Knechtel, Wechter and Russell - of the collection of first-call pop studio musicians that would later be known as "The Wrecking Crew".

[7] Up until July 1965, when he quit the show, producer Jack Good was also a regular, wearing a bowler hat and improvising comedy routines with Jimmy O'Neill at the close of each episode.