The Smiley Smile Message Board

What's the deal with this beautiful track? I know there's I Don't Know from the Smile Sessions from Dennis but this doesn't sound like it.

It's the backing track for Don't Run Away, a Bruce & Terry track from '66.

Again, while there doesn't appear (?) to be any proper known evidence of such (as far as I know), I'm speculating that possibly, just maybe this was on there for the BB's to attempt to sing/record this song at the time in the 70s?

That may be nonsense, and I'm not trying to spread rumors, but what other reason could there be for this being on there? Do we know who compiled this tape to begin with? I thought from reading on this board that the contents came from a source close to the band in the 70s? Somebody's gotta know!

I got to chat with Bruce last year briefly at the BB's appearance at The Grammy Museum, and I mentioned "Don't Run Away" to him as being my personal favorite lost BB-related gem that rarely gets talked about, and he sang me a couple lines of it. I wonder if other than that, he ever sang this song since the 60s? I think it's in the ballpark of being as good as songs from Side 2 of "Today".

"The Preiss Tape" is one of those late 1970s cassettes. They were the epitome of hodgepodge. Whatever could be found was put onto them. I don't think there was ever a plan for the BBs to record the song.

Got it. I wonder how this backing track leaked out though. Glad that it did!

I still wish the BBs had recorded the song, it's on par with "Guess I'm Dumb" as far as I'm concerned, as the greatest almost BB song from that era that there ever was.

Does anybody know more about the song in terms of factoids? I think I read someone say it was recorded with The Wrecking Crew? Bruce was already a Beach Boy at the time it was released, right? That's quite a bit interesting. It really seems like Bruce inhaled a giant whiff of Brian Wilson fairy dust when he wrote/recorded this song, it really sounds like it could've been written by Brian. 

It's a VERY rare Michael/Bruce collaboration. Bruce and Terry Melcher co-produced the track with the usual Wrecking Crew musicians backing them up (as they did on many of their sessions). It was released in April of '66.

I think it's a very good song, but then again the Bruce & Terry tracks are overall quite good. They are pretty much the tracks that Bruce cut his teeth on as a staff producer for Columbia Records, alongside the Rip Chords material.