The Smiley Smile Message Board

At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony that aired tonight, Elton John was going through a long list of the people Leon played on and included the comment "all of the Beach Boys records---including Pet Sounds." I'm a huge Leon Russell and Elton John fan, really; but that made me laugh. Just thought I'd share it with everyone. From a scroll through c-man's great website, I know he played on:
Do You Wanna Dance
Help Me Ronda
Kiss Me Baby
In the Back of My Mind
Sherri She Needs Me
Salt Lake City
California Girls
Let Him Run Wild

But did he actually play on anything from Pet Sounds??

Wow, I had no idea he played Beach Boys sessions. I imagine this is a similar sensation to the one people get when they hear that Glenn Campbell did the same thing.

But yeah, in the lists of people who played on Pet Sounds, I'm not seeing anything about Leon Russell.

Sorry to "hijack" the topic for a moment, but I have a similar question of my own. I once saw an interview with Glenn Campbell where he said that he played on Good Vibrations. Is that true?

Going by Wikipedia, that's a yes.

It just seemed weird to me. You don't expect somebody like Glenn Campbell to play on that kind of song.  ;D

Campbell remembers playing on at least five different sessions for Good Vibrations.

TD, wasn't Brian on one of the songs on the Elton John/Leon Russell album released last year?

 A lot of the guys from the Wrecking Crew had a good knowledge of Jazz, and can play anything. Although he doesn't read music, Glen was inspired by jazz guitarist Django Rinehardt. Glen Campbell is a very versatile guitarist. That's him playing on "Just Dropped In" (To See What Condition My Condition was In).  I've heard him play some incredibly blistering licks in jazz, country, bluegrass, and on Classical Gas and the William Tell Overture. Check out his guitar solo on his Beach Boy medley on YouTube.   I think Glen mainly played rhythm guitar on a majority of his Beach Boy sessions. Any info on Beach Boy guitar solos that are specifically Glen?

 Leon also wrote "This Masquerade" which was a hit for George Benson. He also was adept at honky tonk country blues.
 It's a shame that you don't hear about popular musicians today having the versatility of those session guys. A bygone era.

Glen played the intro to Dance, Dance, Dance.  I enjoyed listening to him on that session. He kept screwing it up. "Damn it to hell!"
One of the other session guys suggests a replacement for Glen and says, "Brian do you want to call Jerry Cole"? Glen replied, "What are you gonna call him?"  ;D

Or sing on a song like 'My World Fell Down'   ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZf49jYrzH8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZf49jYrzH8)

pretty lame

That was lame. As vanilla an arrangement as there could possibly be. You'd think being an ex touring Beach Boy and performing on their records that he would have performed them with a little more care and spirit.

  Well, I was commenting on Glen's guitar playing, not that show band arrangement.  If you can improvise a solo like that on guitar, then I tip my hat to you. I'm taking Jazz Theory in college, and many of my professors know of Glen's prowess on the guitar, even if they consider the Beach Boys or Country Music lame.

Yep, he sings backgrounds on "When Love is Dying." I love that song though critical opinion is divided. Elton said that when Brian came to the studio he and Leon hugged each other for about a minute and a half.

I assumed that with Leon a regular with the Wrecking Crew, that he played on a LOT of BeachBoys albums.  And Phil Spector albums as well.

This is one for the data retentive experts on the board. ;)

in the liner notes it also says that Brian arranged the vocals for that song. Brian's contribution to that song is certainly a very good listen

Yes...on an acoustic 6-string guitar that doubled the electric 12-string played by Carl Wilson. 

Not according to the AFM contracts for that song (none of which bear Glen Campbell's name).  You'd think out of the five GV sessions he claims to have played on, at least one or two of the contracts would have his name.   Oh, and there is also no reference to him on any of the GV session tapes that have leaked out.

Fascinating - I never thought to check on Glen's name, and his name has been linked to Good Vibrations in several sources, including his own words. I looked at seven available contracts from Good Vibrations dates just for my own curiosity and Glen (or Leon for the record) was listed on none of the seven. To be fair to Glen, and Hal Blaine said this too, the sessions got so mixed up from the first one to the final 45rpm release that they didn't know which takes had been chosen by Brian for the final edits. I had a question:

So there were seven contracts with confirmed dates, plus a few dates without contracts - can we say with authority that Glen was not on *any* GV sessions or are we missing something because no paperwork exists?

I also assumed Glen was on the first version from something written in Brian's autobio but that source is shaky anyway. And I also always assumed there were more sessions for GV than what is logged in, just by reputation and how much it cost to make in 1966 dollars.

Again thanks for a fascinating bit of info, that surprises me quite a bit to not see Glen listed (so far).

...

According to the individual track credits in the Pet Sounds Sessions box, Russell didn't play on any of the tracks.

Typical Reg - without even looking at the research, I seriously doubt Leon played on Surfin' Safari, Surfin' USA or Concert !.  ;D

Documentation exists for 12 "Good Vibrations" tracking sessions (some under the alternate title "Inspiration").  None have Glen's (or Leon's) name(s) attatched.  Tapes have circulated for all 12 sessions, and their voices can't be heard, nor are they mentioned by name (as many of the musicians are).

Known "GV" sessions (yellow = AFM documented):

2/17 - as "#1 - untitled"
4/9
5/4
5/24
5/25 - this session might be spurious: the AFM sheet for the 5/24 session (which granted ran past midnight) is dated the 25th
5/27
6/2 - as "Inspiration" - 9am-2pm
6/2 - as "Inspiration" - 2pm-5pm
6/12 - as "Inspiration"
6/16 - 1pm-8pm
6/16 - 5pm-9pm
6/18
9/1
9/12 - vocals (obviously, this session, and the next, won't have AFM documentation)
9/21 - vocals

Thanks for the great info, that definitely solves another question about Beach Boys mythology - Glen did not play on Good Vibrations. Why or how he has said he did through the years is up for debate.

One similar question: There was a contract that lists among others Glen Campbell (gtr) and Russell Bridges (Leon - organ) for sessions related to a list of songs including "I Get Around" and "Don't Worry Baby", the specific one dated 7/23/64 with Leon and Glen with Steve Douglas as the leader.

I took a quick glance at it and thought it was a Beach Boys session, but that is not the case...so what exactly was this session?

Can't recall exactly now, but I researched that - it was a session for one of Gary Usher's studio knock-off groups. I see that AFM sheet, and another that I pointed out to young master Tedesco as misleading, are still on the Wrecking Crew movie site.

EDit: OK, pulled it from the depths of my archives. The session dated 5/20/64 was for The Catalinas Fun Fun Fun LP, produced by Terry Melcher while the 7/23/64 one was for The Knights Hot Rod High, produced by Usher. Finally the 7/10/64 session was for The Beach Boys Song Book by The Hollyridge Strings.

Yes, thanks for the info! When I saw it, it seemed to be one of those knock-off hot-rod type of studio group cover projects, but it looks for all the world like a Beach Boys session as it appears on the website. It is misleading. It's good to have confirmation for sure.

It's also maybe a caveat to not take every session sheet at face value, as there are indeed some on that site like "Classical Gas" that seem to be unrelated to the actual session, but that is the exception. I can look at those sheets all day, they're fascinating!

I think that's one of the biggest problems with Wrecking Crew memories, the fact that they played on the various knock-off versions of Beach Boys songs and have often conflated that with the actual BB's versions. Tedesco backing them up with faulty evidence isn't helpful. Regarding those specific tracks...there are only BB's playing on the Don't Worry Baby session (I've heard the multi-track) no session musicians participated in that, I Get Around also has the core BB's playing on it (Brian keyboards, Dennis drums, Carl guitar, Al bass) with Blaine on timbales, Pohlman on extra bass, and two saxes by Jay and Steve. BTW, Leon is on the Why Do Fools Fall In Love session on Shut Down Vol. 2...that's probably his first BB's session...1/64, and probably the only one he played on SDV2. Elton needs to get with the truth program.

"WDFFIL" was the first 'real' full-on BB session to use the Crew extensively (that we have documentation for):

Steve Douglas
Frankie Capp
Hal Blaine
Ray Pohlman
Jimmy Bond
Bill Pitman
Tommy Tedesco
Plas Johnson
Jay Migliori
Leon Russell
Al DeLory

When was it given the title "Good Vibrations"? I've always thought the call out "Okay Good Vibrations take one" from the SS/WH two-fer referred to the very first take ever of the song, but I'm wrong then, I take it?

"Inspiration" was just a working title given to one of the sections of "Good Vibrations" in order to keep track of them (since this was the first time Brian was working in modular form and had many variables that could potentially end up in the song). Similar to how "Iron Horse" or "Home On The Range" were titles given to individual segments of "Cabin Essence".

Leon Russell played every instrument on Pet Sounds. He sang most of the vocals too.  ;D

It's logged as "GV" on the 4/9 AFM.

I remember when people thought "Inspiration" was an unheard Smile track :lol

Mainly 'cause Andy Paley said so.  ;D

So the callout "Okay Good Vibrations take one" would most likely stem from the 4/9 session then?