The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've read a lot about that the album was hyped as a collaboration between Carnie, Wendy, and Brian but Brian is barely on it.  Besides contibuting backing vocals and writing a couple of new ones (Everything I Need and Miracle of which I both really like though I prefer Jeff Foskett's version of Everything I Need but I digress), him being on the album seems more like a guest spot rather than a full fledged collaboration.  Was his role just overhyped or was he meant to have more to do and just lost interest?

He's on four tracks -- a third of the album. He wrote or co-wrote three of those and sings on all of them.

But yes, BW had ambitions to produce the girls for an entire record. First it was going to be mainly new songs written by him and Tony Asher. Then he started cutting remakes with them (LHRW, Surf's Up) and finally the album just went in a different direction.

Miracle ? I don't think I've heard of that song (haven't heard the Wilsons-album at all). Is it any good ?

I really like it a lot.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EyzrF7FDuI

I like it too.
The first part of the verse and chorus sounds like typical Brian.
"Am I a fool to expect a miracle?" also seems like something he could come up with.

I wish there was an early BW-version of this, like for Everything I Need.

Thank you ! Did he write it with Tony Asher ?
Would like to hear a Brian/Beach Boys version. I'm not a fan of Carnie & Wendy's voices.
This doesn't sound liek a Brian production imo. Is it ?

I think there are 5 writers on it.  My understanding is that Brian said the line "Am I a fool to expect a miracle?" to his daughters, and they thought it was a cool line for a song, and it got written by Carnie, Wendy, and 2 others.

I could be wrong but I think these sessions were around the same time as "Imagination" and Brian had Joe Thomas as his co-producer hence why the songs don't really sound like Brian Wilson productions.  In my opinion, neither did the songs on "Imagination" really.  One of the credited writers on "Miracle" is Dave Stewart of Eurythmics who's also a renowned music producer.  I wouldn't be surprised if he had some input on the production as well.

Despite the now-dated "trip-hop" arrangement/production (it was even a little dated in '97!), I think the cover of "'Til I Die" is fantastic. This is a good example of Joe Thomas enhancing the production instead of overcooking it.

I LOVED that cover.