Beach Boys session at Abbey Road 2018

[GhostyTMRS]

The Roy Orbison one sold ridiculously well in the UK - been in the Top 100 since release, spent 8 weeks in the Top 10, and is available in all the supermarkets.

Still I can't see a Beach Boys one having half as much promotion or sales.

Yeah, and the Elvis ones (all three volumes) were smash hits.

Who's buying these things when the original recordings are sitting right there next to it on the shelf?
People who are so burnt out on the originals they they're trying to recapture the freshness they experienced the first time?
People who say "Y'know, Don't Be Cruel really could've used an oboe. I've said this all along and now I'm vindicated!"?
The people who bought those Hooked On Classics albums?   

[Gabo]

The Roy Orbison one sold ridiculously well in the UK - been in the Top 100 since release, spent 8 weeks in the Top 10, and is available in all the supermarkets.

Still I can't see a Beach Boys one having half as much promotion or sales.

Yeah, and the Elvis ones (all three volumes) were smash hits.

Who's buying these things when the original recordings are sitting right there next to it on the shelf?
People who are so burnt out on the originals they they're trying to recapture the freshness they experienced the first time?
People who say "Y'know, Don't Be Cruel really could've used an oboe. I've said this all along and now I'm vindicated!"?
The people who bought those Hooked On Classics albums?   

(Lady in checkout line at Walgreens)

"Hey my husband loves The Beach Boys! Might as well surprise him with this!"

[joshferrell]

I have a feeling it may be Pet Sounds, or at least that makes sense to me.. Although what I want to see is a 2 disc release with Pet Sounds and highlights from Smile on disc 1 and hits and underrated classics on disc 2...

[HeyJude]

The only thing we know is that if any actual work is being done with the original, vintage recordings, it has been signed off on by presumably at least three of the four BRI board members.

Projects like this one, like the recent Orbison album (the album, not so much the tacky hologram tour), are mostly innocuous at worst. As with any side project targeted at the masses, if the idea is that these wide releases help fund/promote interest in more archival projects, then I'm all for it.

Unfortunately, as with countless hits packages, it never really works that way particularly. These other projects happen either independently of archival releases, or arguably *instead of* such releases.

But hopefully more archival stuff is being prepped separately from whatever might be going on with any off-shoot orchestra overdub album.

It *is* a bit weird to do such an album when many of the principals are still alive and still touring/recording (and when there is a TROVE of unreleased material in the archives including MANY game-changers in terms of quality). Orbison has been gone for 30 years and died young, and one could envision he may have done an orchestral album himself had he lived. So, while Orbison's estate also needs to open up his archives more, I cut such releases more slack when we lost out on 20-30 years of new potential Orbison albums. 

[HeyJude]

Also worth noting is that this project was and is apparently NOT a big secret. Patrick and Reedman mentioned working on a Beach Boys project to follow up on the Orbison and Aretha albums all the way back in this November 2017 interview:

http://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/interviews/5157-a-brand-new-aretha-the-interview.html

For better or worse, most if not all of the surviving BBs/BRI members are probably easily talked into following up on a new trend like these orchestral overdub albums. I still think it's a bit creepy that they might be tracking this album in the same fashion as the Orbison album, essentially outsourcing the project as if the band members are deceased.

[HeyJude]

I don't really mind the added strings / orchestrations on those records, which are guilty pleasures of mine.

I do mind the re-recorded rhythm sections. They make the whole thing seem cheap.

I can indeed make things sound a bit rinky if not done well. The Orbison album has a mixture of some vintage rhythm section elements (especially on the latter-era stuff like tracks produced by Jeff Lynne) along with some new, to mixed results. On something like Orbison's "A Love So Beautiful", the original backing track has very bombastic drums (recorded at a faster speed so they would sound extra bombastic when slowed down to original speed), so I can understand why they would not want to use those on a more delicate re-arrangement of the song.

The Orbison album is okay (I think the non-ballad songs sound pretty goofy with an orchestra generally speaking).

What I'm hoping the BB album either avoids or at least duplicates from the Orbison album is the use of modern singers to create "virtual duets." They did this with one Orbison track ("I Drove All Night"), and the duet version sounds pretty awful. However, they included two versions of the song, one with and one without the new singer. I appreciated that.

[Zesterz]

my own opinion is....if no new vocals or harmonies, I wont buy. Especially if no original BB is involved with the orchestral side