The Smiley Smile Message Board

What are some of your favorite covers of Beach Boys/BW-related songs?

I'm pretty partial to Rivers Cuomo's "Don't Worry Baby" myself.

Not really an official cover but I Get Around by Red Hot Chili Peppers was fun, especially with John Frusciante on falsetto and bass on flea.

Jack Jones' cover of God Only Knows (arranged and produced by Bruce Johnston) is a thing of beauty, completely altering the tone of the original, but showing what a great song it is. There's a video on YouTube; he apparently still does it in concert, more than 30 years after recording it. It's a great lesson in how adaptable a well-written song is. Instead of trying to copy the BBs sound, more artists should try reimagining the songs like this.
Also fond of California Music's Don't Worry Baby.

Apparently I'm second cousins with Jack Jones.  We've never met personally, but he's familiy.  :-)

Jack Jones is a great, great singer, and, as was mentioned, is still performing. Frank Sinatra said he had one of the best voices in the business. Jack Jones' Christmas albums are hard to find, but worth checking out.

Hahaha, I saw your post on tumblr and I was going to recommend this to you but I wasn't sure if it was in the vein of what you were looking for!

There's a pretty much unknown guy named Matthew Thiessen who did a cover of Warmth of the Sun. I think he did pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5hwF5npUYc

Yeah that was nicely done.  Carnie and Wendy did a nice version of it a few years back as well.

I'd never heard Jack Jones' version of "God Only Knows" before - could only find a live version on YouTube, but the song really works well with that arrangement.  As an earlier poster alluded to, if a song is well-written, you can rearrange it many different ways and it will still work beautifully.

There are so many...
For example this Argentinian cover of God Only Knows:  http://youtu.be/FaUpLStwCl8 (http://youtu.be/FaUpLStwCl8)

"Do You Have Any Regrets" by Darian Sahanaja is a killer cover, as was Paul Simon's Surfer Girl cover he played on the Tribute show.

Paul Simon's Surfer Girl is my favorite. It's one of my favorite performances of any song, ever.  A truly beautiful rendition.

Yo La Tengo -Little Honda
Lush -Lady

As far as I can tell Tommy Keene's version of Our Car Club (from his second album on Geffen, Based On Happy Times) has gone unmentioned anywhere here. But it was pretty good and at the time of its release, 1989, I recall reading someplace, maybe Music Connection mag, that Brian had heard it and liked it.

He's actually in a pretty popular band, Relient K. They covered Sloop John B as well.

This is one of my favorites for sure.

Rufus Wainwright - "Wonderful/Song for Children"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjxNh-u8Y1Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjxNh-u8Y1Y)

Art Garfunkel's "Disney Girls" is beautiful.  I think I like it more than the Beach Boys version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QBRwj3kzno

Also Billy Joel's "Don't Worry Baby" from the 2001 Brian Wilson tribute concert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zSbHADm32o

The Descendents - Wendy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTdN8sAhvw0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTdN8sAhvw0)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves this! I posted this a few weeks back and was distraught when no one came in to share my love.

I must have missed your post Quizi, hears a hug to make up for the lack of love  :hug

Only two covers have ever given me reason to listen to them more than once:
Surfin' USA by the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Hang on to Your Ego by Frank Black.

It's been officially released recently, on an EP compiling some of their cover versions.

True dat. This is the perfect cover: staying true to the spirit of the original but adapting the song in a whole new manner which makes it sound as if it was a song by someone else (Paul Simon, in this case). And it's simply a short older guy with a guitar and a voice. Pure musical talent.


EDIT: There's so many good covers of BBs songs, but I'd like to mention the impeccable FENDERTONES. Also, the Queers do awesome versions sof the early car/fun songs.

Actually, Matthew Thiessen is the lead singer for the band Relient K.  I wouldn't say he's unknown by any means.  In their video "Be My Escape", you can see posters of Pet Sounds, Endless Summer, and Wild Honey.  Thiessen is a huge Beach Boys fan and they pay even more tribute with their song "Lion Wilson" and their Beach Boys styled cover of "Sloop John B".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ2O0-CzeIQ

^This is my favorite cover version of a Beach Boys song.

I don't know if this counts, but when I saw Brian and VDP live at the Will Geer Amphitheatre, Rickie Lee Jones burst into a spontaneous a cappella version of "Don't Worry Baby" when Brian came out! And the audience sang all the backing vocals. It was really sweet.

The first covers that come to my mind are 'Don't Back Down' by The Queers, 'God Only Knows' by The Mockers and 'The Lonely Sea' by Eric Matthews.

I didn't realize a lot of people knew about Relient K. Not in a group of Beach Boys fans anyway. Nevermind i guess haha. I love the Sloop John B cover too.