While the Astronauts had hit their U.S. peak in 1963, by 1966 their appeal was just getting beginning in Japan. 

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The album opens up with a creative cover of 'Surf Party,' 'Movin',' and 'Pipeline' - all strung together in a medley. A vocal version of Ray Charles' 1961 minor hit, 'Unchain My Heart' follows. 'Money' is a song that the band had previously performed on their American concert album; Everything's A-OK!, and recedes the more interesting instrumental, 'Hot Doggin''. The Beatles 'I'm Down' feels like an odd inclusion, while Roy Orbison's 'Down the Line' in a retread of their 1965 album of the same name. The band travels back to the fifties for Bill Hayley's 'Shake, Rattle, and Roll' and 'This Little Girl of Mine.' 'Memphis Tenessee' is a pretty standard cover, while the ever-popular 'What I'd Say' closes out the setlist.

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A very rare album indeed, The Astronauts in Japan won't be very interesting to anyone other than completists.