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This is a cover of God Only Knows from a Philadelphia-based R&B group named Brenda And The Tabulations, which was released on their album "Dry Your Eyes" on the small "Dionn" label in June 1967. I wanted to share this because it is pretty obscure, and it stands as an early example of an R&B group covering what is now considered one of the all-time classic BB's songs, when GOK was still a song from the most current Beach Boys album at that time.

Here is the link, God Only Knows as covered by Brenda and the Tabulations, released June 1967:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIIYG0b6ync&feature=youtu.be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIIYG0b6ync&feature=youtu.be)

It is an interesting cover, and I think the part which worked best was having that kind of drum and bass groove on the song, especially in the chorus. The rhythm section of this band is excellent on every track of the album. The horn arrangement is nice too, although a lot of the voicings and lines stayed true to Brian's original studio arrangement.

The backing vocals are another story - I won't judge them, only to say there is some bizarre effect they seemed to be going for, almost like they were going for an angelic sound or something. At times, it reminded me of a Yoko Ono or B-52's vocal quality, and it is mixed low but is still noticeable and at times jarring. It reminds me too of some Smiley Smile vocal textures.

About the band itself:

They formed in Philadelphia in 1966, and by January 1967 they had released a single with the song "Dry Your Eyes". The single was reported in Billboard magazine, 2/18/67, as a "Regional Breakout" single, making some waves in the R&B markets in Philly and Baltimore. At that time, R&B radio in Philly was influential in breaking a record into a hit, and there were some famous and influential R&B disc jockeys spinning on Philly stations. As "Dry Your Eyes" continued to break on the R&B charts and radio, it soon got picked up by Top 40 stations nationwide, and by the spring of '67 it had cracked the top 20 charts nationally. People who have heard the existing Real Don Steele airchecks from KHJ in Los Angeles will remember Don Steele spinning "Dry Your Eyes" on his May 3, 1967 show when it was still riding the top 40.

This is the "Dry Your Eyes" single, which rarely if ever gets played on oldies radio despite the chart success in '67:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqQ8m8harw0&feature=youtu.be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqQ8m8harw0&feature=youtu.be)

It seems the success of the single led Dionn records to assemble a full album, and that was released around June 1967. Billboard reviewed it in the June 3 1967 issue, alongside the new Monkees album Headquarters (this review is included in the video). And by the June 17th issue, the album again appeared alongside "Sgt. Pepper" on Billboard's "New Action LP" chart, showing albums which had not yet charted but which were making waves with retailers. Pretty good company for an album released at that time.

The band continued on, with the strength of that single and others which did OK on the R&B charts, and also made an appearance on the Hy Lit television show, from Philly, miming to a terrific song called "That's In The Past". That Hy Lit video is also available elsewhere on YouTube, and the link to the song will be posted below.

A further Beach Boys connection would come later: On their next album, called "Right On The Tip Of My Tongue", they worked with Van McCoy, who handled arranging, production, and co-writing duties with the core group. This album collected several top 40 hits that had been on the pop and R&B charts through 1969-70-71, including the title track written by Van McCoy. Remember McCoy later became world famous with his song "The Hustle", and he had written several notable arrangements for the Beach Boys in the late 60's including Bruce's "The Nearest Faraway Place". The title track is still regarded as a classic semi-"lost" soul single from the early 70's.

Lead singer and songwriter Brenda Payton died in 1992.

Here are some other notable tracks from the "Dry Your Eyes" album worth a listen from any fans of classic and lesser-known 60's soul/R&B groups:

This is the song "That's In The Past", which they did on the Hy Lit show, and probably my favorite song from the group. I love late 60's grooves like this, I think this is a terrific record that isn't too well known in 2013:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZyGii1qMys&feature=youtu.be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZyGii1qMys&feature=youtu.be)

And this is their soulful groovy cover of Bacharach/David/Warwick's hit "Walk On By", from that same first album as God Only Knows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIM4F30JYP0&feature=youtu.be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIM4F30JYP0&feature=youtu.be)

Awesome, thanks for posting!  60's and 70's soul never ceases to amaze me. Great to hear some rare stuff.

"That's In The Past" is great. :smokin

This is cool - and being from the same general area that you're in, I guess I should know this, but I admit this is the first time hearing it. Very spiritual thing they got on the harmonies. I get the same feeling from much of the BBs work - but this is a different spiritual...kind of an indescribable uptown thing. Dry Your Eyes is one I hear occasionally played by the likes of obscure soul and doo wop DJs around here, as well as (bigger names) Harvey Holiday and Jerry Blavat giving them a spin. I'll have to check out their album. Thanks for the worthwhile post!

Here's another one from that time period, that, outside of Philly collectors, is so obscure it hurts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFleKvPDK20

UGH, Different strokes, I suppose...
I enjoyed the Brenda & Tabulations.( never heard  it before)  made me think about the Carmen McRae PS tunes and Sam Fletcher  GOK, tho I guess they're both a bit more in the jazz vein ( both 1967)
 and P.P Arnold's GOK was 1968, but more of edgy rock

this is great. thanks for posting... i had no idea it existed.

reminded me too of the great Carmen McRae covering Don't Talk and IJWMFTT in 1967.
(http://991.com/newGallery/Carmen-McRae-For-Once-In-My-Li-475114.jpg)

Cool stuff, thanks for posting.

Wow! Thanks for the link! Great version

Two questions:

1. It seems that this cover was one of the few Pet Sounds covers done at this time, along with the others mentioned above. Is there a list of other PS covers which were released in, say, 66-68 when the album was still relatively current and when the songs were still getting played on top 40 stations? I know I'm probably missing some info, so any new info or links would be appreciated!

The only prominent cover I could think of, and it's not technically from Pet Sounds, was the Hollyridge Strings version of Good Vibrations from 1967, which I know Don Steele had used as background on his KHJ radio show.

2. Is it possible that Brian himself or any of the other band members had not (or have not) heard this version of the song? If so, would it be feasible to maybe pass it on somehow so at least Brian could possibly hear it (again) in 2013?

There's Bobby Vee's Here Today from around that time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raMmNx0cWRo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raMmNx0cWRo)

I know there have been lists of cover versions for all the songs, not sure if I've seen one for PS only.   \
Howabout you post your list of the ones you know of, we'll all look and see if we have any to add? 
Fairly certain the 3 I mentioned ( Carmen McRae, Sam Fletcher and PP Arnold) are the ones I can think of

Kingsley Abbott's Pet Sounds book has a pretty extensive list of covers, but they don't have the years listed. Most of the ones listed that I'm familiar with are from the '80s, but there are quite a few I'm not familiar with. I suppose I could find some time this week to look them all up if anyone's interested.

Here's Andy Williams doing GOK. It says 1967 but it looks like it was later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utPFpu8j548



In the BBC Beach Boys Story it was said that Bruce told an english band, before Pet Sounds was released I believe, to release GOK as a single. They did but so did the Beach Boys around the same time which Bruce wasn't aware of. Can't remember the name of the band

The only ones on my list would be whatever is posted and mentioned in this thread so far, since I posted the GOK cover. I actually never thought about it until now, just how many covers of the PS songs were around in 67-68 when the album was relatively current. So I can't list anything beyond the one I already posted, but it's neat to see some others getting mentioned which I've never heard.

When I acquired the Brenda + Tabulations albums, I didn't realize they had done a BB's cover, I was originally looking for the single Dry Your Eyes and a collector friend sent the discs my way...surprise, there was a GOK cover!  :)

Nice! I'll track it down, unfortunately I get the WMG Has Blocked This In Your Country... message on YouTube when I when there.

Ya know, I'm wonderingg if "maybe" Bruce was mis-remembering, as "the Robb Storme Group" covered "Here Today" somewhere around Sept-October of  1966: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqoCMn8z4zU

also, according to Wiki, Bobby Vee recorded this in November 1966

That is cool, thanks for posting "The Robb Storme Group" cover! I had not heard that before. They stayed deadly true to Brian's original arrangement and sound, which is technically impressive that they could decode and translate that wall of sound into their own recording, but ultimately I come back to the original Brian version and this cover becomes more of a copy than an original statement. It definitely isn't blue eyed soul as described, but it is a pretty mean cover, especially for '66.

Great stuff, thanks again for posting!

(It sounds like the person who ripped that 45 to digital threw sand on the record before dropping the needle... ;D )

All years, but here's a list of versions I've found so far... 
( some Wiki, some YouTube, some... ) 
God Only Knows by Andy Williams  ( 1967)
God Only Knows by Claudine Longet (1967)
God Only Knows by  Ava Cherry and the Astronettes (1973)
God Only Knows by Betty Everett (1975)
God Only Knows by Glen Campbell (1977)
God Only Knows by Neil Diamond (1977)
God Only Knows by David Bowie (1984)
Pirun Kaunis Nainen by Clifters (1992)
God Only Knows by The Nylons (1996)
God Only Knows by Langley Schools Music Project (2001)
God Only Knows by Jonatha Brooke (2004)
God Only Knows by Joss Stone (2005)
God Only Knows by The Swingle Singers (2009)
God Only Be Without You by Alvarius B. (2011)
God Only Knows     Holly Kirby 
God Only Knows    Mathew Jordan     
God Only Knows    The Flaming Lips 
God Only Knows    Julie Nunes  ( Ukelele version, on YouTube)
God Only Knows     Dean Drouillard   
God Only Knows  by Elton John 

You Still Believe In Me     Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her     
Caroline, No     Eric Carmen-
Robb Storm Group  'Here Today'.
Sonic Youth - I know there's an answer
Frank Black: Hold On To Your Ego   
Anthony Rivers     Caroline No

I think they played the recording on the BBC doc and it was GOK. Maybe that documentary is online and someone could check

You are correct!  Tony Rivers and The Castaways   Columbia( UK) DB 7971 released on July 10 1966; BBs on July 17th 1966 (in the uK) according to RadioLondon;
here's a radio  london tidbit:     http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/kneesflashes/happenings/jun05/hapjun05.html
  a snippet can be heard here:     http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-tony-rivers-collection-vol-1-mw0000672799  or probably on itunes or similar 
and here's Tony's website:  http://www.tonyrivers.com/
and here's another list of GOK covers:  http://www.secondhandsongs.com/performance/91305( including Tony Rivers)

One of my fantasy albums is The Crystals, Darlene Love, Ronnettes etc. doing Pet Sounds. I would love to hear those incredible voices handling that material. Not to say it would be 100% successful but there could be moments of greatness for sure. Sadly it'll never happen but thanks Guitarfool for sharing this version of GOK because Brenda's voice is similar in style and this is probably the closest I'm going to get to my dream sound! Now if only Spector had produced it ...

Oh now I'm in heaven!! Never heard Don't Talk and every time I searched for the Bullion sample of IJWMFTT I couldn't find anything. I assumed it was a modern fake retro cover of the song or something - thanks Bossaroo! It's so cool hearing contemporary covers of the more obscure tracks from PS. Kind of like I've stumbled into a parallel universe!

 :thud

On the quest for 60s covers of Pet Sounds tracks ....

anyone heard and able to comment on The Buffoons' cover of 'You Still Believe In Me'? -

http://www.redtelephone66.com/2010/12/the-buffoons-lookin-ahead-1968/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj1WX95rSMY

Searching Ebay for something else, came on this listing for a 1968 Jazz LP where the artist covered "Pet Sounds": 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FREDDIE-MCCOY-SOUL-YOGI-JAZZ-SEALED-FUNK-PSYCH-PRESTIGE-1968-LP-BEACH-BOYS-/150991870110 

Great list, bgas! I've never heard most of 'em. (There goes my weekend, listening to  YouTube!)

One that escaped your list, though, is a cover by Jack Jones, produced by none other than Bruce Johnston himself. Years ago, I had the album with the track, but it's long gone now, so I can't even tell you the title. My recollection is that it was really terrible MOR that diverged from Brian's basic arrangement about halfway through, at which point it went downhill FAST!

Hey, found it on Discogs.com!

The album title was THE FULL LIFE, released on RCA in 1977. "God Only Knows" was the last track on Side 1 ... right after "Send In The Clowns."  :P

Something I didn't remember is that the album also included covers of two of Bruce's songs, "Don't Be Scared" (from his Bruce & Terry days) and "Disney Girls." I have absolutely no memory of either one!

Avoid the Bowie version.

I really liked this Brenda And The Tabulations version though.

Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet!

I picked up the Robb Storme Group version of here today on 45 yesterday...

At this point I'm really umming and aahing over whether I think this is better than The Beach Boys original. I know the arrangement is basically the same, but somehow the performance feels more exuberant to me.

Brian and the wrecking crew, of course, did a terrific job, but the Pet Sounds take feels more spooky and tentative - especially the middle eight. I might be crazy, but it feels like the musicians played it,but didn't really understand what they were going for, if that makes sense.

The middle eight on the Robb Storme version is so powerful...really pounding drums

Here it is again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqoCMn8z4zU

Any thoughts? 'Your an idyut' type comments not welcome.

Incidentally, the Robb Storme Group evolved into Orange Bicycle who hid away this charming BB soundalike on a french ep, in '67. I love the tone of the guys voice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQSNPS4zIBg

I think the Bobby Vee version of "Here Today" is better than any other version I've heard. The stereo mix (as found on the otherwise dreadful (sound wise) Singles Collection hasn't been uploaded on Youtube, but it's the best way to hear it. That version changes "good love with her" to "bit of a whirl" to a good effect.