It's About Time: Beach Boys Poll Results

i like that youtube version posted above which is from warmth of the sun as compared to the sunflower version

couldn't agree with you more!

wk offtm

it's slower and spacier, i should download that

Yeah, wk, can't agree with that at all. I think most of the 2004 Smile was remarkably true to the original arrangements.

(The original Smile arrangements, that is. Obviously the Smiley Smile versions of "Vege-Tables," "Wind Chimes," etc. were much different.)

cool cool water is such a gas

#57

Country Air - Wild Honey
84 points, 5 votes

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

ahhh, about time another one of mine shows up

country air is great, maybe my fave from wild honey? of course i didn't vote for it. too many great songs!

#56

Please Let Me Wonder - Today!
88 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc4jR7ajbpw

can you imagine any other poll where a song this good gets #56

oh man what a tune. have always wanted to sing that w/ a quartet

such an amazing song. The one potential negative is its combination of directness and weirdness - who would ever say "please forgive my shaking" - but the chorus is about as good as it gets in the BBs catalog. And obviously the arrangement and sentiment are so operatic and over the top that it's better considered as a song the narrator is thinking to himself, not singing to someone else.

Such diversity of sound and situation so far in the countdown.

#55

Wild Honey - Wild Honey
90 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmOE92ACzZY

Wild Honey is being well represented so far, hope that means Darlin' will make it.

#52 (3-way tie)

Then I Kissed Her - Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
92 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwnTzl9HPJM

^^first cover to appear...?

I voted for Country Air, love to play that song on the organ

Wild Honey is being well represented so far, hope that means Darlin' will make it.
--Kitchen Person

It's one thing for a record to sound like it came from a later time, but I think Wild Honey is an extraordinary example. Just the fact that it was recorded in 1967...I mean, I know John Wesley Harding and The Notorious Byrd Brothers came out around the same time, but "Wild Honey" and "Darlin'" sound like early '70s AM radio. In 1967.

I was hoping for some of these Wild Honey megaclassics to place a little higher. Aren't You Glad and the title track should both be in the top twenty.

David Cassidy version of "Darlin'" (produced by Bruce Johnston, Flo and Eddie on background vocals?) is really good, too.

Why, by the way, did I never know that Johnston wrote "I Write the Songs" (also on that Cassidy album, later covered by Barry Manilow)?

Darlin' might be the crowning achievement of post-Brian meltdown Beach Boys. Just a perfect little track. We'll have time to discuss it later though.

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