The Smiley Smile Message Board

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.

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.

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. 

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

Capitol should fire their entire promotions team

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.

Everyone should be fired.

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

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.

That album is icky

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

I very much doubt that.

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

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

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.

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? 

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.

Great topic. But some misunderstandings here.


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.

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.

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.

But some adult contemporary music that was popular did.

Imagination changed me from knowing nothing about the Beach Boys and Brian, into being a BB and Brian Superfan!

To me, it's a wonderful album.

Because it was 1998 and didn't sound like Korn's Follow The Leader album.

I thought with the mob involved, anything could be turned into a hit?

I wonder what vintagemusic thinks about the new single now that we have heard parts of it.

Somebody should press the "button" that lets him back on the board.

I love how he thought that was a button to click. Funny.

I think Imagination had a lot going for it -- in many ways, it is still the most commercial-sounding solo project Brian has put out. Nice variety of songs, and it manages to have its cake while eating it in terms of embracing a beachy feel while still being ever-so-mildly progressive.

The problems, though, were numerous. And if none of them were huge, they combined to create bigger obstacles.

1.) Little promotion. AGD mentioned this.

2.) Little public understanding of who BW was or why he would be releasing a solo record.

3.) No touring until a year after it came out -- way too late to be effective.

4.) Poor video for the title track.

5.) Brian's lead vocals on the record were variable. They weren't bad, but they certainly weren't as good as the leads he managed on TLOS and the Disney records. What's more, the lead to the most commercial track on the record -- South American -- was his worst.

6.) Joe Thomas managed an approximation of a current AC sound, but it was still a little low-rent in some places. In listening to some of the number 1 AC hits I pointed to earlier, you can hear most of the Imagination sonic signatures, but all of the other tunes sound warmer and more natural. There's a brittleness to the final mix of Imagination that is singularly unappealing. I've long thought the album could be remixed to great effect.

7.) Brian was somewhat ambivalent about it. Whatever his level of involvement in his follow-up records, he always sounds proud of them. With Imagination, he was a little dubious of Joe's aesthetic, and suggested as much in interviews. He wanted a hit, yes, and he liked his vocal arrangements and the songs, but the tracks ... hm.

Funny, though. If it had been a hit, I think Brian might not have plunged into touring the way he did. There would have been more demand for a follow up. An interesting alternate history.

hardee hardee har har har!

 :-D

Actually I think that proves my point. Listen back to back Unbreak my heat, Truly madly deeply and Your imagination. IMO there wasn't one radio programmer in the world that was going to say Imagination fit right in that mix. The programmers are very sensitive to this kind of thing.

The production of Your imagination sounds like something from 1990 like this Cheap trick song that reached #12 on hot 100.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyIivJoETk

Well, that marimba setting (or whatever it is) on that midi keyboard didn't exactly help "Your Imagination". It amazes me that they haven't done more organic productions that involve the piano more - tons of artists have had success throughout the '90s and '00s with piano driven songs. And wouldn't you know it... it's the instrument Brian actually plays! It doesn't need to be Summer Days! all the time.

I think Brian feels more pressure to deliver Wrecking Crew style tracks rather than inspiration to do so. It's become clear to me that while the chords and melodies to Brian's songs are (usually) his, the arrangements aren't at all. Brian oversees it and throws out suggestions, I'm sure, but you'd have to be crazy if you think most of the arranging on Reimagines Gershwin or Key of Disney is his. This is a modern Brian production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0zrvCWJZQ0&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0zrvCWJZQ0&feature=related). Sounds like a demo for Adult Child, doesn't it? Hell, it could be a Love You track if you replaced the normal bass with something more farty, and maybe added one more instrumental part somewhere.

I wish we had more of that, and less of Brian deferring to Paul Mertens. I hear "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green, and I think about how it's a long lost Wild Honey song. Brian did tons of valid stuff after Smile, but it seems like his management and band look at those efforts more like indulgences than legitimate directions. It's not like Brian was about to get another #1, so they might as well have let it be real.

Sadly, there was a review of Key of Disney that I think came to close to the truth for comfort at the end:

I hear more natural instruments on Imagination than on the 88 album; the production reminds me a lot of the Don Was produced IJWMFTT soundtrack.

Except for the fact, as I said, that the song was an adult contemporary hit. For two and a half months. So clearly some of these programmers were playing it, and it fit in for them.

You seem to be arguing that history didn't actually happen.


This kind of post bugs me. These things may be obvious to you, but they are most certainly not to everyone, and not to every fan. The track you link to is arranged by Brian with Paul Mertens. (Edit: In its final form, Mertens added a string arrangement. This is a demo with a string synth pad, so I am an idiot.) Just like the Gershwin and Disney albums.

The production of the Gershwin album was well documented, and covered in ESQ. Brian arranged and produced it, with Paul handling orchestral arrangements and digging up the sheet music. Brian picked out the songs and sequenced the album. He was more intimately involved with its production than any album he released since, perhaps, BW88 or Love You. It's tedious to suggest that Brian's music invariably sounds one way, and that if it sounds any other way he's once again being manipulated.

For that matter, I think Brian did have a hand in how Imagination sounded, and his contributions to the backing tracks are more extensive than generally believed. There are horn arrangements and other things in there that are very suggestive.

Paul Mertens didn't have anything to do with the TLOS demos, I'm thought it was just Brian and Scott?

The YouTube link was to the album version of the song, which features an extensive string arrangement by Paul.

Dur. Someone did not listen to the track closely enough.

no.

You're right! And I'm wrong. Apologies.

Still Cruisin reached #9 on the same chart and I don't consider that song a hit. If Your imagination cracked top 20 for one week that probably had more to do with name recognition or payola.

As much as I find it to be a pleasant enough album (actually only 3 or 4 songs really stick in my head) I just can't find a single track on there that is a potential radio hit especially in the late 90's. The title track is just a wee bit wimpy even for the AC crowd at that particular time.