Imagination - why wasn't it a hit?

[Lonely Summer]

I mean, with the mob involvement of some of the contributers, seems like they could've made a few moves and suddenly, Brian has a #1 album.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Didn't it out sell That Lucky Old Sun? If so, then that's a crime.

[stack-o-tracks]

Didn't it out sell That Lucky Old Sun? If so, then that's a crime.

The music industry was in a completely different place in 1998 than it was in 2008. File sharing hadn't completely taken over yet so it makes sense that Imagination sold more than TLOS.

[Ron]

It wasn't a hit because at the time Brian was an aging rock star.  Very, Very, Very few rock stars are able to make hit albums, 40 years after they got started. 

[Andrew G. Doe]

Giant fired their entire promotions team two weeks after it was released, and the label itself went belly up shortly thereafter.

[Shady]

Capitol should fire their entire promotions team

[DonnyL]

I hear "Your Imagination" all the time in Walgreens !

[MBE]

I hear "Your Imagination" all the time in Walgreens !

Yeah I've heard it in stores too. I have the vinyl 45 of it and it was a great pressing. It's a good song, but not such a good album.

[runnersdialzero]

Everyone should be fired.

[The Shift]

I've fired myself to save anyone else the hassle.

[Alan Smith]

Well, all of the above + the opening bars are a bit soft and give the casual listener ample time to bail-out before it hits its  stride in the first chorus.  A crying shame as it had a lot to offer.

[Runaways]

That album is icky

[Zack]

References to "the beach" and "another bucket of sand" killed the album two minutes into the first track.

[Wirestone]

References to "the beach" and "another bucket of sand" killed the album two minutes into the first track.

I very much doubt that.

[anazgnos]

See, though, it wasn't contemporary when it came out. It's like...say I released an album tommorrow, claiming to have the hot new sounds...and it's a disco record.

Put it like this...it was the Adult Contemporary sound...of 1991.

[Summertime Blooz]

Everyone should be fired.

Let's get Mitt Romney involved. I heard he likes firing people.

[SBonilla]

Capitol should fire their entire promotions team

Is that just a flippant recommendation? Or, would you like to see the Beach Boys's new album sink at its launching?

[Runaways]

Capitol should fire their entire promotions team

Is that just a flippant recommendation? Or, would you like to see the Beach Boys's new album sink at its launching?

It's a very slim shady statement

[guitarfool2002]

I remember wanting to love this album when I ordered it, wanting to have it to play at those gatherings where new and old music is passed around and given a chance to reach new ears - "Check *this* out, it's Brian Wilson!", I remember seeing a television special where various artists are shown recording vocals with Brian and performing...and the album never became a favorite. The question asked in this thread is basically the same one I kept asking - "Why?"

I think the production, the overall sound and sheen of the album, was a factor. I can't even explain exactly what it was, but it sounded too processed, too digital, almost to cold and too much like it was trying for a slick Brian Wilson sound to still sound like elements of "Summer Days" while updating his overall sound for the late 90's.

It's a tough sell, because, quite frankly, the man made some of the most exciting records in all of popular music for a period of about 3 years, songs that still sound fresh and exciting no matter how old they get. So here was a "new" album that featured a re-cut song from that same 60's period which Brian specifically never liked his lead vocal, so he decided to re-cut it and "fix" the original which he even had vetoed from the 93 box set. But the original had become one of my favorite Beach Boys tunes, and I was putting it on all kinds of mix tapes and listening to it all the time in the year or so before "Imagination". I heard that he was remaking "Let Him Run Wild", and was excited at first but then hesitant until I actually heard it, and that one song, especially the contrast between how a record was made in 1965 versus the late 90's played itself out right there, on Brian's album, for everyone to hear. It was a dividing line between personal tastes, and the difference that 30+ years of advances in recording technology could make on a song that the lead vocalist was never happy with, and could now remake it to his satisfaction using the best technology.

But the original 60's version holds up better, lead vocal warts and all, and I think trying to recapture a stylized version of those classic sounds can be more precarious of a pursuit than just letting the tape roll. Maybe that was my issue with the whole sound of that disc, it just felt overly stylized into a certain ideal of how a Brian album needed to sound.

I liked hearing some of the tunes live, but interestingly he really didn't hold on to too many of the Imagination songs in his future setlists, did he? I saw him on what could have been called the "Imagination" mini-tour in the states, and I can't remember if he did more than a few from the disc. The highlights were the Pet Sounds tracks (amazing) and "In My Room", honestly...where you'd think more of the newest album would have been featured.

[Ron]

What the album is to me, is basically a clinical exercise in how to be great at harmony vocals.  It's almost alien he layered so many tracks on top of each other, it's really something to hear.  Not necessarily the greatest use of those vocals, but you can point to that title track as an example of Brian's incredible talent for harmony.  Didn't he say it's got like 50 different vocal pieces on it? 

[cablegeddon]

The production was hopelessly unhip. I can't imagine what kind of radio format that would've played Your imagination or Lay down burden in 1998 (or in 1988 or 2008). It's really odd how it's produced.

I remember Cheap trick had a hit in 1990 with a song that had a somewhat similar sound but in 98 it was a different game with all that rnb, rap and santana.

[Wirestone]

Great topic. But some misunderstandings here.

The production was hopelessly unhip. I can't imagine what kind of radio format that would've played Your imagination or Lay down burden in 1998 (or in 1988 or 2008). It's really odd how it's produced.

It was aimed squarely at adult contemporary radio. Not all AC records sounded like that in 1998, but some certainly did.
Take a look at the number 1 AC hits from 1996 through 1998 --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_adult_contemporary_singles_of_1996_%28U.S.%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_adult_contemporary_singles_of_1997_%28U.S.%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_adult_contemporary_singles_of_1998_%28U.S.%29

Many of these are not hip artists. And many have production touches that are recognizably of the type Joe Thomas (and Brian) were working for on Imagination.

And Your Imagination was played quite a bit on AC radio. It had an 11-week run on the charts and peaked at 20. So it did hit the spot with the format.

[Fro]

The music that was popular in 1998 definitely didn't sound like "Imagination".  Heck, that song is cheesier than "Kokomo" in a lot of ways.

[Chris Brown]

The simple answer is that it wasn't a mainstream hit because it wasn't trying to be a mainstream hit.  They aimed squarely at the AC market, and as Wirestone said, they more or less hit the mark on that.

I enjoy the album to a degree (the vocals especially), but I've never been a fan of the decision to try and homogenize Brian's music to fit the AC genre.  Brian had always been the one to buck the trends and start new ones, not deliberately try to fit in with a certain market. 

That being said though, I don't really blame Brian (or Melinda/whoever made the call) for doing things that way.  As Joe Thomas said at the time, Brian at the time really missed having hits, and wanted to have a hit again.  At his age, going AC gave him the most realistic shot at doing that.  It's hard to blame the guy, writing hits was what he was programmed to do from the beginning.

[Wirestone]

The music that was popular in 1998 definitely didn't sound like "Imagination".

But some adult contemporary music that was popular did.