The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi there all,
You know, "Celebrate The News" was probably the first Dennis Wilson song I heard and it immediately got to me.  It has a very distinctive sound, doesn't it?  The bass guitar sounds incredible, the drums are just "different" sounding, etc. etc. I could go on and on about it.  Great harmonies at the end too.  By the way, that is Brian singing the falsetto part, right?  I don't know what his involvement was with that particular song.  Does anyone have anymore information regarding the actual sessions for the track, ie. who played the instrumental parts?  I understand there were session musicians but was it members of the "wrecking crew" (forgive me, Miss Kaye!) or was it a new group of players?  What are your thoughts about the track?  I absolutely love it but for some odd reason I often forget how great it is!  Strange track but at the same time utterly amazing. 

'Wonderful stuff. Brian is present in the harmonic blend out on top like you hear. Mike's part is cool too.

Celebrate the News is a great under appreciated tune that proves the BBs could rock out and retain their signature sound of layered vocals at the same time.  Perhaps because of their turbulent relationship with Capitol, this one slipped under the radar, but by all means this should have been a smash hit double sided single! 

This is a nice song but wouldn`t have been a hit single anywhere imo.

Probably in my 25 least favorite BB songs.

My top ten, easy actually. Here is the video of their performance. I was able to get it to zoom closer in so you can see them better,. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5sSULyviSE

Why was this not on 20/20 ?

Recorded too late ?

Correct it was recorded too late, it wasn't on Sunflower because they changed labels. They did consider doing one last Capitol LP with this on it, but put out Live In London instead.

Oh great, another forum member who just love pointing out how much they don't like Beach Boys material. Welcome aboard! ;)

Great song. It's not single material - it's not got a particularly obvious chorus... My favourite bit is Carl and Dennis shouting out the end vocals...they sound pretty far from the Mic. It's a cool sound.

Celebrate The News is just a phenomenal track - I've always absolutely loved it! I rate it above Breakaway, which starts strongly but then just sort of dies away. CTN however just builds and builds and builds, right up until that incredible finale, which is surely one of their greatest ever fades. I was really pleased to see it's inclusion on MIC.

This! Dynamic track that runs away with itself and just gets better and better. The fade is one great big rock n roll orgasm of sound!

 - "The fade is one great big rock n roll orgasm of sound!"

     Certainly rubs me the right way!

I absolutely love this track. Interesting note, my father who is a fan of their early car songs heard this not too long ago while riding with me in the car. At the end of it, he questioned who it was and I said the Beach Boys and he was surprised and said it was good.

"Celebrate the News" is awesome!

I agree, one of my 5 favourites of Denny's contribution to the BBs catalogue. Such a unique track.

"I got news for you, there ain't no blues, I got news for you."

CTN is great! The intro with that awkwardly-sounding "Hello" is kind of a letdown, but otherwise there is all-good BBs about the song - the (dark) melody, terrific vocals by Dennis (one of his best), occasional staccato rhythm, gospel-like harmonies, creative arrangements, cool crescendo followed by immediate fade-out. Also, I like that the song sounds a bit as Never Learn Not to Love which is another outstanding cut of the band.

The best part! It's cool hearing it after "Good Time" - it's like Brian and Dennis are conversing via song.

Betting that you're probably letdown by the "Hi" at the beginning of "The Trader" and the "Hey" at the end of "Good Time" too. ;)

.....not to mention that infernal "GO!" at the beginning of Little Honda.  My God, what were they thinking!

Stay tuned - since this is one of the tracks on the upcoming box set, you'll have the ability to read all the recording details online before too much longer.  :)

2drbeachboy & sockittome: I like all of those little embellishments, especially "Hey" of Good Time. "Hello" is the single such moment I don't dig. There's some "slow in brain" quality to it, seems like Dennis imitated the puppet.

I dunno.  It never bothered me.  I've always seen it as just an off the wall thing.  Kind of like the grunt at the very beginning of Breakaway. 

This is one of the only Denny songs I like. The tag is just epic. The "hello" at the beginning is also a very nice touch.

This song more than any other has made people I know be like, "Damn, this is the Beach Boys, that's crazy!" more than any other song I've tried to play. And it is that good of a song, Dennis knew what was up!

I am firmly in the "friend-of-the-hello" camp. Hi.

This is one of the best things I've heard yet about the box set! Recording credits confirmation ;D Can't wait to have something solid to cite when people say that the Wrecking Crew played on "Don't Worry Baby" or whatever.

Can't believe we are debating "hello"! :o