It's About Time: Beach Boys Poll Results

and now I learn it's a rewrite of a track Brian wrote in 1964. Never mind.

Always thought it interesting that "Then I Kissed Her" not only flips the gender but also the perspective. He wants to be the kisser, not the kissee.

"Please Let Me Wonder" was in my top 5, and is one of the first songs I play for any nonbeliever friends.

it's pretty clear Brian knew he had something special with Darlin' given its multiple permutations that have been released over the years (a re-write of it also appears on American Spring's 1972 album) and the number of times it was covered

#52 (3-way tie)

Kiss Me Baby - Today!
92 points, 3 votes, 1 first place vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoJ-yulhF8o

war of the !:

today! vs summer days (and summer nights!!)

Bgd vox to this are incredible.

wikipedia sez:

"After Pet Sounds, the album is arguably the most acclaimed album of the Beach Boys' career. The album includes the original version of the classic hit, "Help Me, Rhonda" (titled on this album as "Help Me, Ronda")."

really? I don't think there is a clear critic's #2. maybe I'll go look at that acclaimed music site.

pet sounds -> surf's up -> today! -> sunflower -> all summer long -> smiley smile

by the acclaimed music aggregated critic measure

best album cover imo

yeah, i don't know if it gets discussed much, but i think they always had pretty great artwork, at least on their major studio efforts

recall an entertaining ilx thread in which ppl are trying to figure out the origin of painting on surf's up

#52 (3-way tie)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Beach_Boys_-_I_Can_Hear_Music.jpg/220px-Beach_Boys_-_I_Can_Hear_Music.jpg

I Can Hear Music - 20/20
92 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlH3bZt9ooU

lol, speaking of great artwork...

yeah I'd never seen that one! pretty trippy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTY9BRCg-Ec

hilarious stage setup! carl and dennis both sound fantastic on those songs imo

hoping at least I'm So Young places much higher than the two from side 2 of Today that already made the list. i reckon you didn't get my ballot but that album side was pretty much my top 5 along w/ darlin'

Please let She Knows Me Too Well be in this chart somewhere ...

nope I'm searching my gmail for your ilx name / votes and I didn't get it :( xp

if you want you + naive teen idol + can send me late ballots that we can add to the tally afterwards for an alt list

+ whoever

One way to look at the Today! tracks is as practice for the fuller arrangements on Summer Days, Pet Sounds, and Smile in which the background vocals are fully integrated with the instrumentals and help to drive the musical direction of the track, not just sound pretty at the right moments - e.g. the bass slide at the end of the chorus in Please Let Me Wonder, "kiss a little bit" in Kiss Me Baby, the number chanting in When I'm So Young. By contrast, a song like Don't Worry Baby compartmentalized the solo, backing vocals, and instrumentals in a much more traditional way. The upshot is that there's a certain clunkiness to side 2 that's charming and interesting for fans but you can see why those tracks were not hits and California Girls, Wouldn't It Be Nice, Good Vibrations etc were.

I voted for I Can Hear Music - love the Carl solo and the silky overall sound. I guess releasing a track like this may have solidified their anti-cool status in the press but screw that.

xp thx iatee that's alright. i never got a "undeliverable message" though so i dunno what happened. i sent it right around the time you posted "4 hours left". it's no biggie. still fun to watch results/posts.

skip, isn't the fact that side 2 is basically straight up doo-wop a consideration for why those songs wouldn't have "hit" in 1965 after the Beatles literally killed doo wop?

xpost was away when the ballot went up. Just hoping others voted for it.

yeah I'm not seeing it in my spam or trash either. perhaps you sent it to a different address? did you do my ilx name backwards + an extra e?

#50 (two-way tie)

You Still Believe In Me - Pet Sounds
93 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8kLrrZKnNU

well, at least we've seen the last pet sounds track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnV99MQMo8k

yeah I'm not seeing it in my spam or trash either. perhaps you sent it to a different address? did you do my ilx name backwards + an extra e?

i did indeed, alas and alack

#50 (two-way tie)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/Beach_Boys_-_The_Little_Girl_I_Once_Knew.jpg

The Little Girl I Once Knew
93 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8O1Wpul60E

er - non-album single

utter classic

from what I've read, the dead-time isn't actually what killed this one's radio success - it was the fact that 'barbara ann' was released less than a month after this

i am unfamiliar with a great many of these but they are all wonderful, well done to voters. this would make a great playlist.

blerghhh I noticed another math error - didn't combine 'kiss me, baby' and 'kiss me baby', which bumps it up. dunno how I didn't catch that one.

actually hmm I'm not sure

nm yeah, fucked up, 'kiss me baby' - ps: you didn't see that

this means we're back on #50

#50

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/30/Beach_Boys_-_Long_Promised_Road_%26_Deirdre.jpg/220px-Beach_Boys_-_Long_Promised_Road_%26_Deirdre.jpg

Long Promised Road - Surf's Up
96 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVoDULF4sAM

great, great song

love the proto-emo video

in fact, I think Smiley Smile is way better than 2004 Smile for that reason. It's probably my favorite album of theirs taken as a whole, although not many tracks from it made my ballot (and I didn't do an album ballot). I kind of wish Wilson would have just taken all of his various demos and ideas and bits and pieces and edited them together into a sprawling mess of a double album in '67. I don't think it's nearly as interesting in its "finished" form.

I was initially underwhelmed by the 2004 Smile because I liked the rough, fragmented quality of the original recordings (from the 1993 Good Vibrations box set). The new "completed" version felt too much like a whimsical musical revue. But I was eventually able to take it on its own terms.

crazy how many of these songs so far i see and think, "oh man should've voted for that one." "long promised road," so great. never seen that video either.
in re: to the 2004 smile, i don't take i as the be-all end-all version of Smile, just another piece of the puzzle.

yeah, i happened to be in some record stores on the day that 2004 smile was released, and of course they were playing it every where i went, but i wasn't in the least tempted to buy it. i remember being much more excited when the good vibrations box came out. might eventually give in one day, though, who knows...

feel like i ask this in every beach boys thread, but has anyone heard anything more about the alleged smile sessions box set? or was that just a tease.

wiki sez:
The album originally had a tentative July 12 release date, but this was later pushed back to August 9, 2011, to give the producers enough time to finish the missing pieces of the album. As that date approached, the release was again pushed back to a tentative date of October 4, 2011 and as of August 2011 has been pushed again to November 1, 2011.

assuming the hold up is really due to mike love needing more time to record the snarky commentary that will run over the entire box set, a la his contribution to "heroes and villains" on lei'd in hawaii...

Not all that excited for the smile box set unless there's some new/fresh or sonically uograded material, which seems unlikely.

love that sleeve art for I Can Hear Music! nice find. (I voted for it btw)

...and why didn't 'she's going bald' or 'gettin hungry' make it to smile?

I think 'he gives speeches' wasn't on smile either