It's About Time: Beach Boys Poll Results

any beach boys fan needs to hear Summer in Paradise at least once. Total train wreck, the distillation of the Mike Love aesthetic into creepy beach sex tracks, late 80s production touches and some grungy guitars. The "Surfin" cover is almost sacrilegious.

Spotify lists that cover of "California Dreamin'" as their 5th most popular song. wtf

Oh no there's a "Surfin'" cover on it!!!! yikes

At least Good Morning Vietnam isn't a crap movie, but I don't think most of us think of "I Get Around" as that song from Good Morning Vietnam in the manner that, say, "Mrs. Robinson" evokes The Graduate

xp lol really? i can see some clueless people being like "i love the beach boys! california dreamin'!"

so this next one is #4 in the alternate list (w/ 3 ballots added) and only fell to #5 late in the game

#5

Til I Die - Surf's Up
569 points, 20 votes, 2 #1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYPFROyCQ9Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGXhpRNTBxw

oh God, this California Dreamin cover is terrible.

(original mix) is actually (engineer fucking around, not at all original mix) but it's the version most people like more

can't fuck with 'Til I Die, one of the Beach Boys songs that converted my wife to a fan, oddly

That alternate mix is boring, why would anyone prefer that to the album version?

oh man you're in for it

I don't want an engineer fucking around for 3 minutes as an intro when the released version is so beautifully packaged and eerie. The production is amazing.

Yeah, the vocals aren't mixed nearly as well on that alternate version

i can see the desire to make til i die into an "epic" kinda thing --but the thing is, it's already epic, even though the album version 2 1/2 minutes!

from Wikipedia:

Summer in Paradise is The Beach Boys' twenty-seventh studio album, their first release of the 1990s and the band's last full album of new, original material. It was released in the United States in 1992 on Brother Records (through an independent distributor, Navarre) and in the United Kingdom in 1993 on EMI. It has been reported that Navarre went bankrupt after distributing the album.[1] The album was left out of Capitol's Beach Boys re-issue campaign in 2000 and 2001 and thus was left to remain out of print.

There's a rare "CHR Mix" of "Forever" (yes, remake of Dennis' song) sent to radio stations, even though none of them played it

CDs evidently sell for about USD$25 on eBay due to rarity, UK version worth almost twice as much

"'Til I Die" maybe their best from the '70s

I bought the US version for around that price a couple years ago. It's actually a very cool package, a weird cardboard digipak one-off thing with a poster inside.

Yeah I didn't like that alt version either - remind me where it was from pls? only heard it once or twice

well, it seems pretty obvious what the top 4 should be at this point

1. Kokomo
2. When I Grow Up
3. Dance Dance Dance
4. Little Saint Nick

love this:
Jardine had been "suspended" from the band prior to the album's recording (apparently due to Love taking issue with his attitude) and for a while into it, and so he only sings the chorus on two songs.

There's a Wikipedia entry about the impending Smile sessions box too

WHERE, PRAY TELL, IS "BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL"!?!?!?

Yeah I didn't like that alt version either - remind me where it was from pls? only heard it once or twice

officially released on the endless harmony soundtrack, had been floating around as a bootleg before that

poor crüt

be true to your school only got 2 votes

so number 4 was pretty predictable, sorta surprised it didn't place higher

#4

http://www.cynicalsmirk.com/images/sweetinsanity.jpg

Brian Wilson - Smart Girls
588 points, 22 votes, 2 #1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0SnpN_O00

smile boxset version is better imo

come on now

Don't make me do a fake one for Denny's Drums

I'm sorry but denny's drums is nowhere as bad as this

officially released on the endless harmony soundtrack, had been floating around as a bootleg before that

I put together a compilation of all the worst songs from each Beach Boys album and included this and Almost Summer as bonus tracks. Saved the best for last.

almost summer is great

Endless Bummer?

there's a demo version that really brings out the tune

OK, so enough with the jokes, what's the real #5?

til I die?

sorry mike

I'll admit (or should I brag?) that I've never heard anything (except the hit) from Still Cruisin',

Worth checking out IMO! Spotify or maybe Youtube should do you. You have to get past the reeeeeeeeeeally dated production, which makes everything sound really tinny and canned, especially the lead vocals. But the title track, "Somewhere Near Japan," and "In My Car" are all perfectly serviceable.

For once, the record label was right about refusing to release an album

I am not mike. more of a + weirdo really

Alot of stuff I hear all the time on the radio from that era has reeeeeeally dated production and sounds tinny and canned. Pretty much the sound of the '80s

i like this one

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

celebration's version of gettin hungry is amazing too

#4

http://www.victorvitaliano.com/alltimegreatestonline/100songs/wouldntitbenice.jpg

Wouldn't It Be Nice - Pet Sounds
588 points, 22 votes, 2 #1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L--cqAI3IUI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar5pnmPllEc

haha

wouldn't it be nice...if Al knew the lyrics
doorsfan48 2 months ago

lol

sooo God Only Knows, Good Vibrations are left... what's the third?

Surf's Up!