The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've been thinking about this a lot, and it's obviously hard to pinpoint just one, but which one does it for you?

I'm in love with "And your dreams come true".
Super intricate, and tons of depth.
Perfect moment for me.

"This Whole World"

"In The Parkin' Lot"

"Surfer Girl"

Their Hearts were full of Spring

Love that harmony fill that links the verses in ''Disney Girls''. Comes a bit out of nowhere and then wow...

Lords Prayer
A Young Man's Gone

Our Prayer

Obviously.

Our Prayer is a work of art.

second verse of The Trader
the end of Surf's Up
Surfers Rule

I'll also go with "In The Parkin' Lot"

From Pet Sounds, "You Still Believe In Me" and "That's Not Me"

"Goin' On" and "Good Timin" have nice harmony

And, BB-related, the ending harmony on "The First Noel" from WIRWFC

Our Prayer
And Your Dreams...
Think About the Days
The barbershop parts of Heroes and Villains
The End of Surf's Up
Where I Belong (I'd kill to hear this without the slickness of the 80's production)

The chorus of Cabin Essence

The barbershop blitzkrieg bit of "Heroes and Villains" makes me want to speak in tongues. Gorgeous.

Wouldn't It Be Nice

For me, the end of 'Til I die, after Carl's "dute dute doos" is the most magical BB's vocal moment.

For pure harmonies, though, I'd go with the very buried backgrounds during the chorus of "IJWMFTT."

why, the end of "Break Away" of course!

Also, the end of Til I die and the acapella part of Sloop John B. Obvious choices but still awesome!

Probably the bridge of This Whole World.  It's amazing when I heard it again in Love and Mercy. :)

The background vocals on Please Let Me Wonder and Wouldn't It Be Nice.

The last 30 seconds of "I'm So Young" it gives me butterflies in my stomach every time i hear it..

The middle of God Only Knows.

If we are talking true harmony, as in barbershop harmony, there is nothing that comes close to the open of School Days. Take that from a barbershopper's son. Of course the other stuff above is great too.

Endless Harmony
Disney Girls
Catch a Wave
My Solution
Let Us Go On

Some great choices here...

I'd add the tag to Day in the Life of a Tree

and for specific essential harmony moments the "ahhhh" in Good Vibes and the "breath" that accompanies "Dove nested towers..." in Surf's Up.

Just to be contemporary, the "goodbye" in Pacific Ocean Highway floors me every time.

One great one I haven't heard mentioned yet- the opening bars of "Can't Wait Too Long".   Craaazy harmonies that completely and totally....work.

Are you talking about the album version? Sounds horrible to my ears. The live cut is another story. To add some later stuff I love some bits of "Goin' On" and especially the intro to "Island Girls".

Our Prayer
A Young Man Is Gone
Girls On The Beach
Cabin Essence
Mama Says
The humming at the end of Vegatables
The choruses of Good Vibrations

Can't Wait To Long that get's my vote.

Soulful Old Man Sunshine
Meant for You
Little Bird
Long Promised Road
Do You Wanna Dance

Yes, the album cut. You must not like or recognize true barbershop harmony then.

Goin' On. Simply stunning.

LOL, there are some arrogant, condescending folks on this board, I'm learning.  Can't he just not like the album version of "School Days?"  I used to sing barbershop and I know a thing or two about it, and I don't particularly care for "School Days," either. The studio version anyway.  There are far better "barbershop" harmonies in the Beach Boys canon than that...you must not have ever listened to "Heroes and Villains."

Wouldn't It Be Nice. Especially "Know it's gonna make ree-ooooooh!", "stay together", Mike's 'dude' bass part in the verse, "Wish that every kiss was never-ending" and the final "Ron-ron-ree-ooooh" under Mike's coda. Being able to hear those parts in concert made my year, even though they've NEVER been able to totally replicate those parts live.

Also the "Don't Go Near the Water" coda, the "Cabin Essence" vocal banjos and the mystical "Who ran the iron horse?", verse backings on DWB, "This Whole World", "The Trader", the da-da-daaaa-daaaa's on "Beaks of Eagles", and "Oooooh, rev it up now" on "Shut Down".

The barbershop section of "Heroes and Villians"

I wouldn't be so sure that's Mike.

Really? The "Doo, do-doo, do-doo, dooooo-do-doo" type part? Are you saying it could be Denny? That would flip my world upside down.

Edit: Just re-listened to the Stack-O-Vocals cut, that's gotta be the Lovester.

A quick listen to the Pet Sounds Sessions box says otherwise.

For me, it's a tie between Our Prayer, and Can't Wait Too Long. Both of these define BB harmony for me.

The Lord's Prayer

Wouldn't It Be Nice

Time To Get Alone

Our Prayer

All I Wanna Do

(valid only on June 18, 2012)

All-time is tricky, but these have been pretty constant:

- "Time to Get Alone" ("deep and wide" - oh man)
- "All This is That"
- I have a soft spot for the harmonies on a few S&S songs, namely "Don't Worry Baby", "The Warmth of the Sun", "I Can Hear Music" and "Caroline, No" - pretty breathtaking (not that I'm saying I prefer them to many classic BB harmonies)

Haha wow, and all this time I thought it was Mike doing that part. No wonder he didn't do it live!

If we're talking snippets rather than whole songs, go to 2:45 of Lady Lynda on Live at Knebworth. And that's live.

I was just listening to this a few days ago as I was reminiscing about their late 70's/early 80's shows. The Lady Lynda vocal break was always a highlight...pretty damn magical. Always made listening to the MIU version disappointing.

LL is not on MIU.

The closing round/fade of You Still Believe in Me.

Modern day honorable mentions: the isolated BGV's to Don't Worry Baby and the acapella intro to the Warmth of the Sun from the Nashville Sessions DVD; the acapella closing to Colin Raye's Winter Wonderland sung by the Boys during that same 1996 Nashville recording period

Yep. I actually wrote "LA" and then noticed the MIU cover on Spotify as I was listening and changed it. I was thinking: "Weird, I'd swear this was on LA." The twofer through me.

Pretty much every song! But...

God Only Knows
Don't Worry Baby
Kiss Me Baby
Little Surfer Girl

It may just be because it was one of, if not the, first Beach Boys harmony I ever heard, but Good Vibrations is just a perfect mix of each singer's voices on the stacks.

That, and just listen to that bit before the last chorus, where, after everyone sings "ahhhhhhhhhhh", the sound just echoes for a second or two before the chorus starts. To be the proverbial fly in the echo chamber...

Wow, what an impossible task! But here goes:

Warmth Of The Sun
Can't Wait Too Long
Girls On The Beach
Friends - BTW I thought Cal Saga did a great job on it too
Our Prayer
Goin' On

BW Solo

What I Really Want For Christmas
The Like In I Love You - listen to the bass vocal line in particular!

Special category for cheesiest song with KILLER background vocals

Sumahama

Picking is an impossible task - there's just too many great moments to choose from!

Time to Get Alone (Alternate Version) from Hawthorne, CA... the acapella outro of harmonies is just plain unbelievable. It's just plain near BB vocal perfection, with their voices in their just-slightly matured prime.

I'd love to hear a recording of those harmonies which doesn't fade out so quickly, as it does on that version. I seem to recall someone saying that this particular version of the song was assembled/created specifically for the compilation and a 1968 mixdown of that specific version and outro arrangement didn't exist (or did I imagine that?)

I hope the long-discussed completely alternate version (done by Carl?) is finally released this year.