The original studio version is over 10 minutes. Midnight Special only allows 5 minutes for performers so they sped the song up. Singer is Thils van Leer, band is Focus. Great reaction, you guys always find the best stuff!

Jan Akkerman was voted in 1973 in England as the best gitarist in the world, by a poll in the NME (famous New Musical Express...music magazine) Not Clapton, not Page.... but a Dutch guy....still unbelievable.

Jan Akkerman is one of the most overlooked guitarists of the hard rock era, man, what a player. I have some of his later solo records, incredible talent.

Still remember watching this performance live in 1973. i loved The Midnight Special, it was the only place to see all these act at the time, no internet, no MTV, none of that stuff. Oh yeah, there was the Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and, later Don Cornelius's Soul Train, but a lot less than today. People were talking about this particular performance for months after it happened. The song had been on the radio for a while, but this re-elevated it to new heights. Damn I miss the 70's.

Standing ovation from the audience says it all guys. Epic performance from very talented musicians

They do another beautiful instrumental, like a love song without words , called Sylvia ..no tricks , just such beautiful musicianship .

As others have said, the actual song is almost twice as long as the time slot Midnight Special gave them, so rather than cut anything they just went faster. 😆 The studio version is a lot smoother, but not much less chaotic. 🤘😎👍 Edit: I should clarify, they started just a bit faster than normal, and then accelerated throughout the entire performance. 🤯

Ya all,s faces were priceless

Love your reaction Guys :) Good and Bad News. On the positive side, I saw these Guys perform this in South East London in 1972 and they were fantastic and the 3,000-capacity all-standing crowd went wild. On the negative side.....Where have the last 50 years gone so quickly? Suddenly I am 68 and not 18 :)

When Released,, The First Time That Most Heard It,, They Were Like "What The Hell Did I Just Listen To?",, But By The 2nd Or 3rd Time You Heard It,, Most Loved It.

I remember hearing this full song on the radio as a child and it totally creeped me out. 🤣🤣 This performance tho..it gets me laughing so hard when I watch reactions I got tears going down my face. 😅😂😂

I never get tired of watching people reacting to this for the first time!

I learned something amazing about this performance a couple of weeks ago! This was on a show called The Midnight Special, and the band was told they had five minutes. Hocus Pocus was seven minutes long. The band talked it over and decided that they didn't want to leave anything out. So they invented speed metal and played their seven minute song in five minutes!

This is a fun song. I love to watch reactors listen to this song for the first. Love this song!!!

I loved Focus as a kid. Jan Ackerman the guitarist was my hero. I’m 67…. Man… we had fabulous music. ‘Sylvia’ is beautiful and has been used in films and media. You’ll know it. The singer Thijs Van Leer is still touring….. what a guy!

You-have-to-see-that-man-Thijs-Van-Leer the keyboardist...TODAY: the most beautiful crazy old man in the world.

If you've not seen it yet, another amazing display of multi-instrument virtuosity is the song "Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter. Be sure to get the live version so you can watch him play.

The frenzied, majestic madness of Focus.....made even more frenzied in this because they were only given a certain amount of time, so, rather than play a shorter version of the song, the played it at a faster tempo! Your reactions were hilarious, as I knew they would be, haha!

Another of Focus best hits was Sylvia a three minute instrumental

In the 70s, ANYTHING went. That’s why it’s the greatest decade overall in music.

Love watching first time reactions to this song! The looks from everyone are priceless...thanks for reacting to this. Love you guys!

This video can't help but put a smile on your face! There is a longer version but due to being on a rock concert on TV they had to cut it short! Keep playing that funky music.

Your expressions are hysterical 🤣. Great reaction.

It's been awhile but YES !!! Enjoy it every time. Excellent choice.

1st and only standing ovationn in 450 Midnight specials.

masterclass. it´s so good to see people appreciate and understand the level of this. music pantheon.

I LOVE to watch people's reactions to this performance! You did NOT disappoint! Your faces!!! YOUR FACES!!! LOVE IT!!!

This is a utterly amazing song!! Loved it 50 years ago, love it now!

I remember hearing this song a lot when I was a kid. My older brother really like it too. We didn't so much pay attention to the singer, we liked the amazing guitar and drum solos. I really wanted to be a drummer when I was growing up. But never had the chance. I drum on anything I can find. My husband got me a really nice electric drum set and I love it. I often put on my head phones and rock out to some of these great old classic songs. Boy it sure does make you feel young again. (only with a sore neck afterwards) :)

The looks on your faces was priceless LOL cool song I was 13 when that came out .🙂

Waiting for the jaws to drop lol.

Sing It Mel !! You Have A Beautiful Tone and Vibrato and Pitch to Your Voice !!

That song is 49 years old and it never fails to amaze ! Your faces were a picture lol

That look of confusion and being impressed at the same time! lol. Never gets old when people react to this track.

As crazy / amazing as this performance is, it is worth it to listen to the studio version to fully appreciate the song.

This is a great oldie...Was big unusual back in the day and we loved it...Thanx so much for reaction, Peace

I am 55 years old, and I have absolutely love this song since I was a child when I would hear it on the radio. I now love watching people react to it because it’s always the same. I love it.

Perhaps my favorite live performance of all-time.

It's not really yodeling, it's actually a technique called eefing. 😊

The look on your face is priceless

I loved yall's reactions, mouths open the whole time! Love it!

Oh my Gosh!!! You guys had me laughing so hard at your reactions.. I was crying with laughter! I’m glad I found your channel!

The singer, keyboard player, flute player is the famous Dutch Thijs van Leer. You can see him play the flute in The electric castle live and other tales concert by Ayreon. He’s in his seventies already. The guitar player is the world famous Jan Akkerman. He’s often named in combination with Eric Clapton because both where more then excellent guitar players.

We had to play an instrumental version of this for our rock performance class at Atlanta Institute of Music. As if the guitar part wasn't hard enough we had to play the vocal melody on guitar too.

The single greatest artistic performance of all time.

I couldn't stop laughing at the guys face.

Love watching people's faces while watching this video for the first time. This was a good one! Netherlands' finest...

Listening to this song is mind-boggingly fantastic. Watching people’s first time reaction, however, is so much the better: Shawn’s face is immeasurable, especially @06:01 during Thijs’s wolf whistle on the climb! Brilliant! 😂 I love that also, that @ 05:53, Shawn tilts his head as if he is saying, “Wait for it! I know that there is something coming!” 😂

Awesome song and reaction ☺️

This is actually legit talented by the singer. Hitting all those different notes meanwhile playing the piano and also going crazy at one point.

Flyin' Dutchmen ❤️ They're jazz-rock artists...I bought a number of their albums back in the day. The pop charts ruled back then, when cool stuff like this made it👍

Hi ! I saw Focus back in the 70s at the St-Denis Theater in Montreal ! they played that song but not quite as fast. That venue was just a movie Theater ! nothing like the Olympic Stadium ! LoL. it was special ! good rock after all ! how could i forget that !

I was fortunate enough to see Focus several times live in the 70's, and they were one of the most original, incredible, and needless to say, musical bands of that era.

they are fom Belgium,I used to hear them when I was 17!!!!!!

I think the story goes that it's a 6 min song and the tv show people told them they have 4 min and they killed it

Focus was a phenomenon. They're from Amsterdam. The audio version is slower, and probably better. Not sure how deep the rabbit hole is, as I saw them as kind of a one-hit wonder, but it was wildly popular! Thanks for your great reaction to this! Loved it!

"I'll take a guess there's no lyrics to this song" you are so right!! Im an old f er but that was so spot on :) loved it :)

Due to Time Constraints, they had to either Speed up the tempo or cut out part of the Song. They Apparently "Played Faster".

For a European band to make it over here, they have to be pretty good, generally speaking, and this Dutch band is more than pretty good. Their other works are equally impressive. Another Dutch band at the time that was also getting some deserved atttention were "Golden Earring" and their brilliant Moontan album. You probably know "Radar Love". Here they are doing that live-ish: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gZ93ltJ0u5mVl5c.html

the brilliant focus

I LOVE seeing folk's first reaction to this version of 'Hocus Pocus'. And yes, as Nick Collins points out, the Midnight Special only gave them five minutes for a ten minute song, so these guys doubled the tempo and crammed the whole performance into the five minutes they were given. Genius!

The only standing ovation in Midnight Special history.

Shawn & Mel, and I've never seen/heard anything like it since :). Their only top 10 hit in the US.

Your expressions say it all. 🤣

That reaction was priceless!

The song is pure Magic. . LOL this is what happens when you take it up Temple song and play it even faster for television.

Bahaha just love seeing these reactors reaction to this crazy song, love it, love it

That was awesome

Y'all's reaction? PRICELESS!

Saw Focus live….several times. Such a talent!!

Focus is still playing. I saw the band on 4 February 2023, so 50 !!! Years later. Singer, keyboard player Thijs van Leer is 74 now and still in shape. Great band. Greetings from the Netherlands

So happy you both enjoyed Hocus pocus. It does not matter what kind of music people listen to. It is for everyone to enjoy. Peace , love and happiness to you both ❤️ 👍

First and Only Complete Audience Standing Ovation in the 9 years of The Midnight Special. You have to know, there was no where else to see Bands then live or not, other then on TMS between 1230am-2am (on the East Coast) early Saturday Mornings, so University and Colleges Party's all had it on, as did almost every HS student, driving their Parents crazy. It was an institution.

There were no drugs involved in the making of this song 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Yall were so polite with your reaction. I appreciate your class and your reaction!❤❤

Hahaha, your faces were priceless! God, I loved growing up in the Netherlands (where these guys come from) in the 70's. It was a time when musicians were still musicians and not (forgive the pun) slaves to the algorythm.

I remember watching this episode of Midnight Special. I was a senior in high school. Hard to believe it was almost 50 years ago!

I find it so fun to see younger people seeing this for the first time. I was just starting high school when this first appeared...the studio version anyway. Nothing like it before.......or since.

Love this song; it’s nothing like the rest of their catalog and nothing like any song I know of.

This wasn't just amazing, it was actually a hit back in the 70s. How on earth was it a hit at any time let alone the 70s? The answer to the question is that we (and I'm referring to us baby boomers in the first person plural), we knew good music when we heard it.

So hilarious. I always laugh when i see this. Reminds me of jack black/ tenacious d.

Amazing Oprah Winfrey was presenting midnight special 1973 I was 14 years old thanks for your wonderful reaction young people congratulations adios amigos

Brilliantly rehearsed "first reaction", it was so believable.

Amazing guitarist as well.

The song was worth a laugh back in the day. Crazy!

Lol we'd never heard anything like it before either. I think his voice is imitating the instrument playing. Lol, I think.

Your faces!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣❤❤❤❤

You 2 are Awesome. I love Focus and all their music. Keep on Rockin. Best Wishes To You Always

When this song came out in 1973 I would play this record in my fraternity house and within seconds the room filled with people laughing their asses off! Let's hear it for Focus and their ingenuity.

Great reaction, guys. Your reaction to the performance was just as funny as the performance itself was. But, remember, this was the 1970's, when, for various reasons, nothing really seemed weird or out of place.If you guys like hearing a flute being played as part of a rock song, check out Jethro Tull. Their catalog is full of great songs, and Ian Anderson is amazing.

The midnight special: "Hey, guys, you have a song of over six minutes, but you have four minutes to play. Either you play another song or you stop this one after four minutes." Focus: "Well, we'll see about that."

Now it's really cool you had Gladys Knight introducing the band the thing I like this the flute part he actually sings Through the flu just like Ian Anderson does from Jethro Tull

Hang on!! Love it!

I remember seeing Focus about twenty years ago and he was still doing the verbal gymnastics...excellent ma dudes.

I saw this in 73 on tv. It is unforgettable. The whole band is awesome!!!

This is the only song I ever heard by them, they also have a top 10 list however starting with, "Tommy", "Bennie Helder", "Brother", "Focus 10", "Happy Night Mare", "Sylvia", "Hamburger Concerto", "Round Goes The Gossip", "House Of The King" and the one you just reacted to. I always get a kick out of watching people react to this song, which I totally understand, it's a crazy song.

Okay, so now you need to see "Frankenstein" live by The Edgar Winter Group. Another one of those jaw dropping performances. You previously did "Tobacco Road" but now you gotta see "Frankenstein".💙☮

Your faces, though! Hahahaha!

Always great to see people's reactions to this today . First saw these guys live 50 years ago ! and still love watching them today . You should watch ( or listen to ) " SYLVIA " or " HOUSE OF THE KING " which although they're not as frantic as this are both great ( as others have said this was only so ridiculously fast because of the time constraints on SNL and rather than cut the song to fit the time they were allocated they decided to play the whole thing SUPER fast )

Focus was one of my favorite bands in the '70, and Hocus Pocus my favorite song. The '70 was the era of the best and mote creative Rock ever

My 70’s school years!!! 🙃🤪😂