Mike Love solo deluxe reissues?

[Bedroom Tapes]

Any idea if we'll get super deluxe reissues of Mike's solo work primarily from 1978~1982?

[Love Thang]

Lord I sure hope not.

[Bedroom Tapes]

I'd gladly welcome more unheard outtakes from Mike's early solo career.  I think Looking Back with Love is a great album but to each their own.

[HeyJude]

Someone else is going to have to go to Mike and sell him on even reissuing his old albums (outtakes seem even less likely).

Mike was comically but I think legitimately embarrassed about "Looking Back With Love" when Brian brought it up to him during those 1989 "Endless Summer" fireside jams.

Also telling is that Mike's recent spate of solo albums and singles (Unleash, Xmas, the covers album, etc.) is not even filed on Spotify under the same "Mike Love" artist listing as the "Looking Back With Love" album. Given that whatever subsequent business entity believes they own the rights to the old Boardwalk Records releases has put "Looking Back With Love" up on streaming services, that would imply Mike doesn't own the rights to that album.

I believe Mike does own the rights to the "Celebration" material, or at least whatever Universal doesn't own via whatever rights they would have to the "Almost Summer" soundtrack material.

Even Mike has apparently gone back to pushing new solo material more on the level of the old Union 76 gas station and Radio Shack releases, as his latest sort-of-new-album, "Mike Love Not War" was only released via download to ticket buyers, and was all old material.

[Awesoman]

Any idea if we'll get super deluxe reissues of Mike's solo work primarily from 1978~1982?

It would be a pointless endeavor.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Any idea if we'll get super deluxe reissues of Mike's solo work primarily from 1978~1982?

It would be a pointless endeavor.

You've got THAT right!!!! 

[bossaroo]

even Mike himself pretends like that stuff doesn't exist.

I've seen speculation that a Love You/Adult Child box set would sell poorly, but a Mike Love deluxe reissue would do exponentially worse

[All Summer Long]

I agree that deluxe reissues are unlikely, but I'd like to see some of his stuff being reissued.  The two mixes of First Love could probably fit on one CD, Country Love (which I kind of enjoy, despite Mike's extremely nasal singing on it) would fit on one CD, and I think it is theoretically possible that Mike could work with Universal to release some of the Celebration material if he wanted to.  According to some quick Wikipedia searches, Mike's 2017-2019 solo albums were released by BMG; BMG reportedly distributes its own material for digital downloads and streaming but hires Universal to do its distribution for physical media.  The Celebration material could fit on 2 CDs total probably; maybe even just 1 disc if you leave out Disco Celebration, which Mike doesn't appear to be singing on (but yet also co-wrote everything on it).  They could even just do a 3 or 4 CD mini-box of the above at a reasonable price, since there wouldn't be a book and I doubt there would be any large booklet (if any booklet at all).  Now again, I'm not saying it's likely, but I think most of the above options are possible if Mike, BMG, and/or UMG were interested.

[HeyJude]

I agree that deluxe reissues are unlikely, but I'd like to see some of his stuff being reissued.  The two mixes of First Love could probably fit on one CD, Country Love (which I kind of enjoy, despite Mike's extremely nasal singing on it) would fit on one CD, and I think it is theoretically possible that Mike could work with Universal to release some of the Celebration material if he wanted to.  According to some quick Wikipedia searches, Mike's 2017-2019 solo albums were released by BMG; BMG reportedly distributes its own material for digital downloads and streaming but hires Universal to do its distribution for physical media.  The Celebration material could fit on 2 CDs total probably; maybe even just 1 disc if you leave out Disco Celebration, which Mike doesn't appear to be singing on (but yet also co-wrote everything on it).  They could even just do a 3 or 4 CD mini-box of the above at a reasonable price, since there wouldn't be a book and I doubt there would be any large booklet (if any booklet at all).  Now again, I'm not saying it's likely, but I think most of the above options are possible if Mike, BMG, and/or UMG were interested.

I suspect that glut of three Mike solo albums in 2017-2019 were not big sellers. Indeed, they had low enough expectations for "Unleash the Love" that they were the ones who asked Mike for the second disc of BB re-recordings.

Now, I'm sure the overheard on those albums was very low. They were not high-stakes investments on the part of the distributors.

I think late 70s/early 80s Beach Boys is pretty niche (there is a market for it, and I hope Iconic/BRI cover that era for hardcore fans), and Mike Love solo material is very, very, very niche. Thus, late 70s/early 80s Mike solo (and adjacent) stuff if niche on top of niche. That being said, there's obviously VERY little overheard in dumping all of his stuff to streaming. "Looking Back With Love" is on streaming right now (implying Mike *doesn't* own that album and whatever entity inherited the Boardwalk catalog owns it).

I think when it comes to *Beach Boys* material, when there is a team organizing and pushing for archival releases as there is now with Boyd/Edelson, etc., then those types of releases can happen when there's momentum and those projects are presented to group members.

Ancient unreleased Mike solo stuff just doesn't have any momentum, and no apparent enthusiasm from Mike himself. He could dump the stuff on streaming, but it'll probably cost more money to have someone master the old tapes than any money he'd make from streaming.

Now, what I *do* think is possible is for at least a bit of Mike solo stuff from that era to be included on *Beach Boys* archival releases. We've seen this already with "Brian's Back" being included on multiple BB sets.

At the very least, and Howie has spoken about this on some podcasts, I think it's worth trying to clear "Almost Summer" for a Beach Boys set, because it's as Beach Boys as other stuff from that era like "MIU", and it's essentially a weirdly "lost" 1978 minor hit for the band.

[Rocker]

I always liked "Tricia".

[Aomdiddlywalla]

I always liked "Tricia".

Tricia/ Little Darlin is a greaaat track.  Especially moving when you are aware of Patricia’s story. RIP.

[SMiLE Brian]

Any idea if we'll get super deluxe reissues of Mike's solo work primarily from 1978~1982?

It would be a pointless endeavor.

You've got THAT right!!!! 

OSD’s back!

[SMiLE Brian]

Tricia would be a great M&B deep cut…

[Rocker]

I always liked "Tricia".

Tricia/ Little Darlin is a greaaat track.  Especially moving when you are aware of Patricia’s story. RIP.

Which I am not. What is the story?

[All Summer Long]

I agree that deluxe reissues are unlikely, but I'd like to see some of his stuff being reissued.  The two mixes of First Love could probably fit on one CD, Country Love (which I kind of enjoy, despite Mike's extremely nasal singing on it) would fit on one CD, and I think it is theoretically possible that Mike could work with Universal to release some of the Celebration material if he wanted to.  According to some quick Wikipedia searches, Mike's 2017-2019 solo albums were released by BMG; BMG reportedly distributes its own material for digital downloads and streaming but hires Universal to do its distribution for physical media.  The Celebration material could fit on 2 CDs total probably; maybe even just 1 disc if you leave out Disco Celebration, which Mike doesn't appear to be singing on (but yet also co-wrote everything on it).  They could even just do a 3 or 4 CD mini-box of the above at a reasonable price, since there wouldn't be a book and I doubt there would be any large booklet (if any booklet at all).  Now again, I'm not saying it's likely, but I think most of the above options are possible if Mike, BMG, and/or UMG were interested.

I suspect that glut of three Mike solo albums in 2017-2019 were not big sellers. Indeed, they had low enough expectations for "Unleash the Love" that they were the ones who asked Mike for the second disc of BB re-recordings.

Now, I'm sure the overheard on those albums was very low. They were not high-stakes investments on the part of the distributors.

I think late 70s/early 80s Beach Boys is pretty niche (there is a market for it, and I hope Iconic/BRI cover that era for hardcore fans), and Mike Love solo material is very, very, very niche. Thus, late 70s/early 80s Mike solo (and adjacent) stuff if niche on top of niche. That being said, there's obviously VERY little overheard in dumping all of his stuff to streaming. "Looking Back With Love" is on streaming right now (implying Mike *doesn't* own that album and whatever entity inherited the Boardwalk catalog owns it).

I think when it comes to *Beach Boys* material, when there is a team organizing and pushing for archival releases as there is now with Boyd/Edelson, etc., then those types of releases can happen when there's momentum and those projects are presented to group members.

Ancient unreleased Mike solo stuff just doesn't have any momentum, and no apparent enthusiasm from Mike himself. He could dump the stuff on streaming, but it'll probably cost more money to have someone master the old tapes than any money he'd make from streaming.

Now, what I *do* think is possible is for at least a bit of Mike solo stuff from that era to be included on *Beach Boys* archival releases. We've seen this already with "Brian's Back" being included on multiple BB sets.

At the very least, and Howie has spoken about this on some podcasts, I think it's worth trying to clear "Almost Summer" for a Beach Boys set, because it's as Beach Boys as other stuff from that era like "MIU", and it's essentially a weirdly "lost" 1978 minor hit for the band.

Hi HeyJude, thanks for the detailed response.  I definitely agree that any "new" archival Mike solo release (unless the new owners of Looking Back with Love run a limited physical release or something) is extremely low.  I hadn't thought about streaming, but that probably would be the least expensive option for Mike (and/or UMG, BMG, etc.) if he went down that road.  

I know Howie has done some podcasts but I haven't had a chance to listen to any of them.  I'll have to search around.  They (the podcasts/podcast episodes) must have some interesting nuggets of information for the "hardcore" fans like all of us here and elsewhere.  I hadn't even thought of trying to clear "Almost Summer" for an archival set.  That definitely makes sense, with Brian, Mike, and Al all co-writing it and (at least) Brian singing on it.  Did Al sing on the recording too?  "Country Pie" might be another good candidate, too, since the band performed it so often in 1978, whenever Howie, Mark Linett, and Alan Boyd get around to it.  

Slightly off-topic, but this is for HeyJude, Howie, Mark Linett, c-man, Joshilyn, or anyone else who might happen to be reading this, is there a reason that the First Love version of Brian's Back has been used over the LA version?  Is the LA version incomplete?  I do enjoy the First Love version, but I'm surprised the team never wanted to try to use more of a "band" version.

EDIT: I also forgot to add: is there any reason that The Beach Boys and Reprise never tried to come to some agreement to allow "Almost Summer" to be on Reprise on MIU and as a Beach Boys single and on the Almost Summer soundtrack.  Also, I'd like to hear "Cruisin'" from the soundtrack on an archival set; it's just a nice classic-style early rock and roll song.  Do we know if Brian or Al are on that or on any other of the Almost Summer soundtrack/early Celebration songs?