In (SEMI-)Praise of Here Comes The Night 1979

[petsite]

Ok, as I said in a post about my dealings with Bruce here in Houston after the guys recent tour stop, that the guy was a pain. But I want to go back to a time when Bruce was working hard for the Beach Boys to have a future. ANY type of future.

Its late 1978. We have all read about Brian leaving Alvarado Hospital in San Diego and flying out to meet the band at Criteria Studios in Miami. Brian got hot for several days when something knocked him on his ass (which really could have been anything given his fragile state). So Brian makes a call to Bruce to come sing the high parts on the songs that he could not longer hit. Bruce went from singing on the LP to co-producing it with the group and Guerico. At the same time, Bruce was working with Curt B. and California Music cutting tracks for RSO. I have their semi-disco remake of I Can Hear Music that isn't half bad.

So I am Bruce Johnston, being asked by former bandmates and CBS label mates if I can help them produce a new LP. The head of CBS as well as the head of Caribou has also asked if I would please help them out. And I happen to have this track in my hip pocket that I cut with my own group that I think would be a hit for the BB as it is one of their songs I am covering. At least Bruce meant well. And yes he got a little full of himself about it in interviews at the time, but he was trying. And I think the short version works well.

So as someone who was coming home from a date on a Saturday night and turned on the radio to hear "a new one from the Beach Boys", who then pulled up into a parking lot so he could listen and just went crazy with excitement, here is my semi-praise for HCTN.

Bob

[Danimalist]

Wow! I can't believe you actually heard that the one time it was on the radio.

I was so obsessed with all things Beach Boys that I bought the 12 inch.

[petsite]

I was an intern at the radio station it was playing on. It was an AM station and their current TOP 40 were all 45s. They used tapes for the oldies, but the new stuff was 45s. I went to the station on Monday and grabbed a copy of the 45 from the studio and put a new copy in its place. I still have that 45. I also have my copy of LA from the same station. It came in just a plain white cover. The track Good Timin' is circled to be carted up on tape.

Bob

[Jay]

To be honest, I actually think that the vocals and the harmony arrangments on the disco version are better than the original version. Carl's voice had matured quite a bit, and he could really belt out a song when the mood struck him.  Those "dit dit dit" parts in the begining are pretty darn catchy, too.  I also really love the "di di di dit" vocals at the end. It kind of reminds me of With Me Tonight.

[Lonely Summer]

To be honest, I actually think that the vocals and the harmony arrangments on the disco version are better than the original version. Carl's voice had matured quite a bit, and he could really belt out a song when the mood struck him.  Those "dit dit dit" parts in the begining are pretty darn catchy, too.  I also really love the "di di di dit" vocals at the end. It kind of reminds me of With Me Tonight.

It works well on the single, but the album just drags it out too long. Too bad the cd version didn't omit the 10 minute version and include the single instead...and that would leave room for another track, maybe It's a Beautiful Day.

[stack-o-tracks]

Those "dit dit dit" parts in the begining are pretty darn catchy, too. 

That's been stuck in my head for the last several hours for some reason.

[MBE]

I am no fan oif this one probably because I think the Wild Honey stuff is so good it shouldn't be played with. I also dislike 90 percent of disco so it's not my kind of record. The 45 is better, but only because it ends quicker.

[Eric Aniversario]

I've always enjoyed it...I think the harmony parts are fun!

[adamghost]

I love it.  And it got a lot of play where I grew up.

[D409]

The harmony vocals are excellent, Carl sings a great lead, and it's very enjoyable in an ironic open-shirted medallion man, white suit disco kind of way. I certainly don't skip over it when I play L.A. (Light Album).

[rogerlancelot]

The harmony vocals are excellent, Carl sings a great lead, and it's very enjoyable in an ironic open-shirted medallion man, white suit disco kind of way. I certainly don't skip over it when I play L.A. (Light Album).

The only thing I skip on my cd is the MIU album.

[MBE]

Funny thing is on CD MIU and LA LIght are now hard to get as the twofer.

[Fro]

I like the radio edit quite a bit, actually.

The album version is way too long.

[Runaways]

i don't like the WH or disco versions

[Nicko1234]

It isn`t a bad song but it does unbalance the L.A. album completely and shouldn`t have been included imo. Daybreak would have been a better choice.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Wow! I can't believe you actually heard that the one time it was on the radio.

"Here Comes The Night" got more radio airplay than you think. In the spring of 1979, just as the weather was warming up, I remember hearing it a lot on AM radio, and it sounded good. The only problem was that disco had already peaked, and "Here Comes The Night" sounded like a lame attempt to jump on the bandwagon.

Yeah, the edited version was the way to go, mainly because of the space the 11 minute version took up on L.A. Light Album. Side 2 of L.A. is one of the most perplexing - and disappointing - Beach Boys' sides ever.

I am slightly surprised the radio edit hasn't appeared on a major BB comp.

[Matt Bielewicz]

It did - at least here in the UK. The HCTN single edit was on a 1995 Beach Boys Greatest Hits CD which was the first thing I ever bought by the Boys, when I was in the first flush of fandom following a viewing of Don Was's documentary on Brian.

I'm a fan of electronic music, synth pop and dance music (yes, including disco...) as well as pop from the 50s to the present day, including The Beatles and The Beach Boys, so I have never had any problem with the remake, and I'm glad some people are 'coming out' about their love of the disco HCTN as a guilty pleasure in this thread. The long LP mix does drag a bit, and I agree that it disproportionately takes up far too much of the Light Album... but I never had the problems that some people here seem to have with the fundamental concept of a disco-ified Beach Boys track. I will confess I find the HCTN remake more in line with my pop-fuelled tastes than some of Dennis's later solo stuff, for example, which isn't to say that I think he wasn't a talented bloke — some of his stuff is terrific — but I do find corners of POB and Bamboo a bit too heavy on swagger, posture and self-indulgence, and too light on good tunes. YMMV, of course — and of course it was still worth buying the terrific POB reissue a couple of years back for the good stuff glinting away in there.

Mind you, if you were into the more 'rock' elements the Boys and Dennis had been flirting with in the mid-70s, I can see why the 79 HCTN remake might have caused you to spy your hoop, or even to lose your monocle...!

MattB

[Kirk]

I remember seeing the BBs in 79 at Pine Knob outside Detroit and wishing they would do HCTN just so I could say I'd heard it live. Of course, it was about four months gone from the setlist by then. (And Dennis was about two months gone from the band then, too, unfortunately). The only compensation? "Sumahama" LIVE!

Actually, the LA tracks they did (Suma, Good Timin', Lady Lynda) all sounded good at the Knob.

[The Heartical Don]

Funny thing is on CD MIU and LA LIght are now hard to get as the twofer.

On amazon, there are 2 offers for new copies, $ 108 and $ 250 respectively.

I won't buy one of these.

[punkinhead]

I recently listened to the HCTN disco-medley with all the hits included...dang it's awful. THe beat is way off. Who's doing all the clapping and vocals like "oh yeah" and "wwoooo"....was this a radio promo?

[Danimalist]

Reading through this reminded me of a classic BB's lip-syncing moment. They are doing HCTN on Midnight Special (and someone can check the video, but I am remembering this from when it actually aired); it's painfully obvious that it's a lip-sync, given all the disco instrumentation that is not on the stage. Then, in a magic Carl Wilson moment, he reaches down to his volume knob and fiddles with it, as if to say, "WE ARE PLAYING THIS LIVE AND MY GUITAR IS NOT LOUD ENOUGH!" Except Carl is a bit more subtle than that.

Must go dig up the video now...

[Danimalist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHUCdXiGFOQ

Begins at about :12.

Beautiful.

[adamghost]

I hope Stebbins doesn't come out of the woodwork and clout me on the ears for saying this (he hates this track and vehemently disagrees with me on this point), but I love it because to me it's a surprisingly edgy disco track.  Compare it to what Mike Love did on the Celebration album.  The synth textures have a bit of grit to them, there's that batsh*t monkey sound going off, Carl's vocal really sells it, it does have that kind of edge that pretty much everything that came out in '79 had, when New Wave textures started to go mainstream.  The chorus where the modulation ascends is downright eerie (kinda was on the original, too).

I love HCTN.  I love L.A. too.

[punkinhead]

Ok, as I said in a post about my dealings with Bruce here in Houston after the guys recent tour stop, that the guy was a pain. But I want to go back to a time when Bruce was working hard for the Beach Boys to have a future. ANY type of future.

Its late 1978. We have all read about Brian leaving Alvarado Hospital in San Diego and flying out to meet the band at Criteria Studios in Miami. Brian got hot for several days when something knocked him on his ass (which really could have been anything given his fragile state). So Brian makes a call to Bruce to come sing the high parts on the songs that he could not longer hit. Bruce went from singing on the LP to co-producing it with the group and Guerico. At the same time, Bruce was working with Curt B. and California Music cutting tracks for RSO. I have their semi-disco remake of I Can Hear Music that isn't half bad.

So I am Bruce Johnston, being asked by former bandmates and CBS label mates if I can help them produce a new LP. The head of CBS as well as the head of Caribou has also asked if I would please help them out. And I happen to have this track in my hip pocket that I cut with my own group that I think would be a hit for the BB as it is one of their songs I am covering. At least Bruce meant well. And yes he got a little full of himself about it in interviews at the time, but he was trying. And I think the short version works well.

So as someone who was coming home from a date on a Saturday night and turned on the radio to hear "a new one from the Beach Boys", who then pulled up into a parking lot so he could listen and just went crazy with excitement, here is my semi-praise for HCTN.

Bob

When/where/what did Bruce say when he was "a little full of himself"?

[GhostyTMRS]

Coming from a guy who just trashed several remakes on Summer In Paradise, I'll come right out and say I don't mind this one (the single version anyway). I think they just did it too late. The Stones, The Four Seasons, McCartney etc. had all done their disco songs a little earlier and by the time the Beach Boys came out with this one disco was on the way out. I think that hurt them. Kiss had a huge disco hit the same year and got ribbed for it by their fans too.