The Smiley Smile Message Board

hi there,

unbelievably i had no idea that The Beach Boys did this one.  i happened upon it one evening whilst wondering whether or not i could find anything interesting on the net.  does anyone have the story on how they became involved with this Disney production?  i'd love to know a little more about it. 

thanks!

It was common in the mid-60s for popular teen bands to appear in similarly themed movies. The Monkey's Uncle wasn't the only movie the Beach Boys appeared in (see Girls on the Beach for instance). Regarding Monkey's Uncle: I've never seen the film, but as far as I know their only appearance in the movie is them doing the backup vocals for Funicello in the opening credits. I doubt there's an interesting story about how that came to be..

By the way, have you seen the cover version of the excellent Fendertones? Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3hVqPhlMMw

God, I love this song. It's infectious, ridiculous, stupid beyond belief, and I want to give it a big hug.

Here's an image of the boys at the Disney Studios with Annette and the Sherman Bros.

(http://i.imgur.com/5uzlV.jpg)

Brian produced the backing track, and to me it sounds like wrote the music for the song (or had a lot of input) and left the lyrics entirely to the Shermans.

Dennis looks incredible bored in that photo  ;D

Haha, Denny is THRILLED to be there.  ;D Carl doesn't look that psyched, either. Or maybe he's just reading a comic book.

Shades and Pipe Man is looking pretty sinister!

Al looks more like band manager than member in that shot. Focused and formal.

Brian looks like he's getting into position to impress Marcella. Amazing photo!

But the song is credited to the Sherman Brothers only, right? It sounds like the brothers were simply emulating Brian's style in their own way, meaning they incorporated a bit of show music into the pastiche.

I haven't compared shots, but it feels to me like the Girls on the Beach on Monkey's Uncle music shots were filmed at the same time on the same set.

If that's not the case...I guess cheap 60s rock exploitation spots are just so similar in nature!

Could be...but it doesn't really sound like a Sherman Brothers song to me and lines up perfectly with what Brian was writing during the All Summer Long/first side of Today! period.  I don't think a lot of ink has been spilled about the authorship of this song, so it's hard to get facts.

Here's an example of the Sherman's writing a "teen-oriented" song without Brian's input...this is from the predecessor to "The Monkey's Uncle", "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mdAXgZAlHk

thanks for the info.  i was aware of "Girls on the Beach" but like i said, this one just seemed to pass me by.  it's a bit of a strange performance of the song too.  Annette Funicello seems a little "animatronic" in her movements. 

Al is doing his taxes.

Could be the Wall Street Journal

Brian's falsetto is amazing on this song. (Come to think of it when is it not?)

After the session they all went back to the Sherman brothers house, where the boys were forced to sing a round of "It's a Small World After All" for over an hour, until Brian proclaimed that the scene was "too weird" and left.

Well, that's officially just leapt into my all-time top ten favourite Beach Boys covers...

No, he didn't. Brian's only contribution, aside from the obvious, was possibly to come up with the backing vocals arrangement on the fly during the vocal session. Tutti Camarata produced the track & vocals at his Sunset Sounds (which while not the official Disney Studio, was pretty much so by default).

:( Oh, damn...I was misremembering Brad Elliot's sessionography. 

It does sound very much like a Brian production from that period and features the usual crew members.

As somebody with a little familiarity with Camarata (I'm also a former Disney artist), I would be more than a little surprised if he was able to knock off something like this without some input.  The guitar sounds, the surf bass, and especially the drums (right out of "Don't Back Down") just scream Brian Wilson- not  Jan and Dean or anything else but Brian, and the little horn swell under the solo just seals it for me.  Camarata was most associated with brass, and that's clearly Brian's unique sound. There was some input at some point, either from Brian or from whoever worked the session.

There is a hot cover by The Fendertones.

Iwonder if this is from the same period referenced in Peter A Carlin's book when Al is rather embaressingly discovered by a BB assosciate one morning sat in a hotel reading the Financial Times and wearing a suit: "I've really no idea what he was thinking?"