http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqLTe8h0-jo
Alan Esdaile… Anyone see this air earlier tonight?
Mick Knights… Without knowing what it was I heard it this morning on the breakfast show, my initial reaction was, this is awful, but what do I know!!
Pete Shaw…. Quality! Listen to Stevie Wonder’s phrasing…wonderful!
Jane Hartley… didn’t like it either! Why on earth did the beeb decide to broadcast on all radio and tv channels, declaring it to be sooooo big?
Steve Kinch… Possibly the most perfect pop single of all time! Unfortunately, this version has too many square pegs trying to fit in to a round hole.
Andre Martin… It is original format 1966 it was so good, that like so many tunes, why not leave alone – it was perfect then and almost half a century later its perfect. Strip out all the computer aided recording techniques that were no doubt used for this, and I suspect that many of the artistes would be nothing. Ok so I am an oldie, but appreciate good music, and the Beach Boys and that whole Album, were excellent.
John Storer……. but Steve Kinch may have hit on something. What do we regard as the most perfect pop record of all time? One can get a little over-precious about favourite songs. Its a cover version – a reinterpretartion… the Beach Boys version hasn’t been deleted or anything! Should Ike & Tina Turner not have covered “Proud Mary”? Did Soft Cell ruin “Tainted Love”? Was Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower” a travesty of Dylan’s original? I, for one, enjoyed the track and thought the accompanying video was rather clever. Was particularly pleased that no one from U2 appeared.
Mark Edir… I met the beach boy back stage in Copenhagen back in 2002 or so , such nice nice guys 🙂
Will Cornell… Check out this bunch of “amateurs” out of Philadelphia doing Beach Boys covers-nailing that Wrecking Crew sound as well as the harmonies. They’ve had John Cowsill sit in on occasion. It paid off, one of them is now in Brian Wilson’s touring band. One of the ringleaders is my cousin Catherine’s husband Jim Verdeur. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrr1TTpG9w0 Check out their other stuff too, the “Monkey’s Uncle” vocalist does a pretty good Annette Funicello.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3hVqPhlMMw
Colin Norton… Hey Will, Thanks for making us aware of the Fendertones! Great stuff!
Chris Cozens… It’s not the fact that it’s a cover version or that the original should be preserved in aspic. As you say, the original hasn’t been deleted. It’s just that it’s such a pedestrian version more akin to a James Last cover (no offence) done with little or no imagination or thought. This could have been awesome. Instead it’s all a bit of a yawn with all the usual suspects involved (minus U2)! A wasted opportunity in my (probably not) so humble opinion.
Will Cornell…I like Pet Sounds, for sure, but 10 seconds of “Beach Boys Today” (even that silly “Bull Session W. Big Daddy”) is probably more perfectly pop than 99% of stuff that’s come out in the last 25 years. “Summer Days and Summer Nights” is masterly too. I don’t know if the British versions of Beach Boy releases were same as US, but they’ve done numerous reissues over here. The best I liked were the 2-album on one (or sometimes 2) discs from “Surfin Safari-Surfin USA” up to around the time they signed with CBS. “Pet Sounds” they left on its own, but they’ve done several versions with plenty of outtakes–too many maybe. The “Today/Summer Days and Nights” is just about perfect pop (don’t forget the B sides and outtakes like “Little Girl I Once Knew”!).
Alan Esdaile…Pretty much agree Chris. Classic original by The Beach Boys which still sounds great today but this version certainly dilutes the song.
Patrick Lewis… I’m a big BB fan and have been since I first heard I Get Around in 1964. I have all of their albums starting with Surfing Safari. Would have to agree that the Today album from 1965 is perfect but classy popular music though Pet Sounds is in another league. Brian Wilson at his peak in the mid sixties was modern popular music’s Mozart and the BBs with the help of the wrecking crew were perfect interpreters of his music.
Alan Esdaile… Pet Sounds is still a great album but bizarre sleeve.
Andre Martin… This is one of the best collections of BB music – just perfect.
Patrick Lewis… Though slightly flawed The Smile Sessions is also amazing. Totally different from anything else produced in the mid to late 60’s and still sounds unique and original today, nearly 50 years on.
Ralph Town… No Pet Sounds….No Sgt Pepper…fact.
One can get a little over-precious about favourite songs. Its a cover version – a reinterpretartion… the Beach Boys version hasn’t been deleted or anything! Should Ike & Tina Turner not have covered “Proud Mary”? Did Soft Cell ruin “Tainted Love”? Was Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower” a travesty of Dylan’s original?
I, for one, enjoyed the track and thought the accompanying video was rather clever. Was particularly pleased that no one from U2 appeared
…. but Steve Kinch may have hit on something. What do we regard as the most perfect pop record of all time?