The Smiley Smile Message Board

I recently found myself wondering again why it is that Brian used Al, Carl, Dennis, and Bruce so infrequently for lead vocals.

I'm talking pre-home studio here (and excluding Party because it’s a covers album that had no relation to any other album in terms of arrangements and production):

Dennis had:
1. Miss America (i tend to forget how early on he used Dennis for lead -- first album)
2. Surfers Rule
3. This Car of Mine
4. Do You Wanna Dance
5. In The Back of My Mind
6. My Only Sunshine

Carl had:
1. Pom Pom Play Girl
2. Louie, Louie
3. All Dressed Up For School
4. Girl Don’t Tell Me
5. God Only Knows
6. Good Vibrations
7. Wind Chimes

Al had:
1. Christmas Day
2/3. Ronda/Rhonda
4. Then I Kissed Her
5. I Know There’s An Answer
6. Vega-Tables

Bruce had:
A hard time getting a lead.

It blows my mind that God Only Knows was only Carl’s FIFTH lead vocal. I mean, can you imagine...Girl Don’t Tell me is only your fourth professional lead vocal on record, God Only Knows your fifth, and Good Vibrations your sixth? What the hell. And you’re only nineteen years old. o_O

So, the question is did Brian view his and Mike’s vocals as the “brand” of the Beach Boys, not wanting to stray too far from the signature sound, or was there some other reason he made so little use of the rest of the group as lead vocalists? I mean, consider how many leads he and Mike had pre-Smiley (i don’t want to do the math) compared to the other guys with their 6/7 songs a piece.

I wish he had delegated a few more leads to the others.

Strange question when we have boatloads of leads from the others post 66!

And until Brian pulled back,  (which coincides with the home-studio era) I think, yes, his voice and Mike's were the Beach Boys brand, with the other guy's on harmony with cameo leads here and there. They started as a garage band with Mike and Brian on lead and they developed from there.

Yeah. Mike was basically the lead singer. When Brian wanted a high voice for a lead, then Brian himself was the obvious choice.
Although, from the sleevenotes of Summer Days:

"I'm glad I finally wrote a song that Carl dug singin'"
and
"And then there's Denny who fell asleep in his camper truck parked outside the studio the day he was supposed to sing a lead"

Has it ever been said what Summer Days song Dennis was meant to sing lead on?

You're So Good To Me.

While I'm a huge fan of post-1968 Dennis Wilson - both his composing AND singing - I think the reason Brian didn't use him earlier as a vocalist was because he couldn't sing very well! I find Dennis' 1962-65 vocals to be weak and, frankly, amateurish. Man, that would change. But when you have Brian Wilson and Mike Love during their vocal peak, and Carl Wilson and Al Jardine sitting on the sidelines waiting for their turn, well, Dennis ain't gonna see a lot of playing time.

I think they had a basic formula they stuck too:  Mike on lead for the fast songs, Brian on lead for the slow songs...they even said as much (without using the word "formula") in that 1964 Swedish interview.

I don't think this really holds up as Brian's reasoning. Consider that Dennis was the first of the three other members to get a lead -- on the very first record. He was actually also the second to get a lead, his second one coming on the third record (still no Carl or Al leads at that point). By the time Carl and Al would get their first leads (well, Carl having his first two on the same album), Dennis already had three (granted, the third one came from the same album as Carl's first two). Actually, Shut Down Volume 2 is interesting in that it only has two Mike leads! 

I assume Brian would still have sung the high "And I love it, love it" part.
I can see why Brian didn't have Carl singing a lot of leads at first. He was so young, and if I only ever heard "Girl Don't Tell Me" I wouldn't be very impressed.

The consensus (and maybe fact) is that Brian chose the lead vocalist who could BEST sing the part/song. This is total speculation on my part, but it's something I always considered, and that is Brian gave Dennis some early lead vocals because of guilt (remember Brian didn't initially want him in the band), or wanting to make him feel as talented vocally as his brothers, or maybe Brian wanted to capitalize on Dennis' appeal (not necessarily vocally). On almost every early Dennis lead - IN MY OPINION :) - another Beach Boy could've done the part better than Dennis. I especially have a hard time with "In The Back Of My Mind". And, just to repeat, I LOVE Dennis' later work.

For me, the question would be: Why so many Mike leads? (and my answer would be: band politics) Really, don't want to start bashing Mike,  has a lot of fine leads, not to mention his work as a bass/baritone singer on the harmonies, but there's a lot of pre 1967 songs that would have work better with a different singer. Even the rock and roll songs would have sound a little less formulaic. Witness the moment on "Do you remember?" when Brian takes over the lead: I think a lot of those RnR songs would have been better served by Brian, even Al's or Carl's voices (as it has been said, Dennis' voice was on a formative period during those years)
Then again, nowadays the question would be: Why so few Al's leads? Since, clearly, he has the best set of pipes today (even "RoboAl" issues considered)

I would call Carl's voice more "formative" from 61-66 or so than Denny's. Dennis always sounded great to me on stuff like "Do You Wanna Dance?", "In The Back Of My Mind", "Surfers Rule" etc. Carl, even on "Good Vibrations", still sounds like a guy trying to find his voice, but that's especially true of those first few leads. It's nice, I have no real issues with it, but there's this kind of uncertainty to it or something, like he hadn't found where his voice excelled and how to use that quite yet. To me, he only really found his voice in '67 on Smiley Smile, but especially Wild Honey.

Al, on the other hand, just sounds perfect for "Rhonda" and it's strange to me why he of all non-Mikes and non-Brians got so few leads. He sounds really solid, confident, and a natural at doing lead. Even after everyone started contributing and the leads were more varied, did Al ever get a majority lead on something he didn't write? I can't really think of anything. Even now, the d00d had one lead on That's Why God Made The Radio and a few lines in other songs when it's obvious the guy's voice has held up the best. Strange.

He's not family

I might have been a little harsh on Dennis. Sure, I like his "Today" leads, but he really didn't found his "character" until his "Friends" songs. On the other side, while I enjoy his "Wild honey" lead, I think that on that one  (or "I was made to love her") Carl still was "trying to find his voice"; he matured faster as a ballader/pop singer ("Darlin") than as a R&B/R&R one.

Wasn't summertime blues Dave and Carl on lead?

I always figured that Al got so few leads early on because a big part of his role was to cover Brian's in concert.  The lead singers were Mike and AL on a lot of those tours.  Remember Brian only did the TV spots and "important" dates on a lot of them.

I radically disagree with the notion that Brian used the others seldom because they couldn't sing well. It's been said by him in several interviews that the Boys had good voices from the start (I agree with him, I like all the early vocs by the rest). Each of them. As we know, Brian has a knack at creating the complex harmonies while being able to hear its segments separately. So he definitely knew who could sing what, what song would be most suitable for Mike, Al, Carl & Dennis - both in the stack & on (shared) leads. F.ex., "Luau" where Brian decided not to sing it with Mike (again) but have also Dennis as a guest vocalist for shouting a few words in-between. And it worked! That's one of Brian's top features as a composer/arranger - to know exactly whether the song needs 1 voice or many, when the lead singer shouldn't be accompanied by the background vocs & when it's totally on the money etc. To cut it short, Brian used the others so infrequently because he didn't vision it otherwise. Even if he did, after a few takes, he stuck with himself or Mike. After all, they are the leaders of group, so why not emphasize it? From what I can tell, every band's like this, The BBs weren't the 1st or last in that case. At least, 6 songs is bigger than 1 (or 2?) lead by Bill Wyman.

 But how would that keep hm from getting leads of his own?  If he was the lead on a song, Brian wouldn't have to be singing it anyway.

Just a matter of each band member's function. Initially, Mike is the lead singer, the rest of the guys play instruments and sing backup. Then Brian, with his distinctive falsetto, takes more and more leads. Finally, Brian gives Carl, Dennis, of Al the occasional lead as a sort of novelty showcase -- just like the Beatles gave George or Ringo the occasional lead in their early records.

I mean, why did Frankie Valli get all the leads with the Four Seasons? Smokey Robinson with the Miracles, Diana Ross with the Supremes? They weren't the only -- or even necessarily the best -- singers in their respective groups. But their group function was as front man or woman : the lead singer.

It's very rare to have groups of that era where each member got to showcase their lead vocals. The Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Temptations -- can't think of any other offhand.

The point is it didn't keep him from getting them.  When it came to concerts, it gave him more.  Brian didn't perform live but it was still his band (as later evidenced most succinctly with Pet Sounds).  He was going to sing a good portion of the records.  Because Al sang those songs in concert, Brian probably felt he had plenty of songs to sing. 

I find it interesting that in the span of a year and a half, two of the three singles with non-Mike/Brian leads went to number one, and that that's half of their number ones right there. I wonder what Brian made of that, if he ever thought he maybe made some wrong decisions, like maybe he should've tried capitalizing (or Capitolizing if you wunna be cute) on Al's and Carl's lead vocals after that chart success, or maybe even started using them earlier, being that he's so driven by hits and all. And Brian never had a true lead on a number one, kind of interesting too. Did this make the big guy even more insecure about his Mickey Mouse voice?  :'(

Maybe it was Brian acknowledging how important the Al/ Carl back-up vocals were? He didn't want to break that mix up.

I have always thought Al's 'On Christmas Day' to be very bland and weak. Unbelievable to think of the singer to come a few years later. Still today he has the best voice of the remaining members.

Despite being my all time favourite vocalist it did take Carl about five years to become any good at singing. Summertime Blues, Pom Pom Playgirl, All Dressed Up For School, he sounds like a more harsh, bratty version of Brian. Girl Don't Tell Me is where he starts to find his voice, although I'd hardly call it a great vocal. God Only Knows is where he became the master, Brian certainly noticed the vast improvement too - look how many leads he got on subsequent records.

I believe it was because Mike and Brian were the 'professional' singers in the group, and they were able to get the best results more quickly and efficiently, and had more experience as lead vocalists. The others proved they could pull off a hit lead vocal, but it probably took more studio work to get to that point.

Al's voice is indeed clear-as-a-bell strong, but Mike's ability to do that doo-wop bass line and swing to a melody line is still amazing, and carry all those leads.  I think Al only needed confidence back then, to be more forceful.  Likely the same with Dennis and Carl, the "sleeper" voice that just exploded.  I think that was also a matter of confidence, as well.

And DonnyL mentioned the Brian-Mike efficient leads.  Good point.

If Brian's "note" on Summer Days is correct, I can't understand why he didn't just go out to the camper and get Dennis. If I were Dennis and Brian told me later, "You were sleeping, Denny, so I sang it instead," I would have said, "Damn it, Brian, why didn't you wake me?"

Depends on what Dennis meant 'sleeping'! ;)

I'm betting the only reason things were the way they were is because that's how Brian heard them in his head. You know, unless someone was unavailable in their camper outside the studio or something.

Kind of a ridiculous thread.  Let's be honest the beach Boys capitol years recordings are vocally perfect as is. It doesn't get any better than brian singing don't worry baby, so why should I imagine someone else singing it.

Couple of random comments:

I don't think Brian trusted Dennis on lead too much.  Consider that he gave Dennis a crack at "In The Back Of My Mind," one of Brian's very best compositions to that point, and Brian later commented that he thought Dennis basically ruined it because he couldn't nail the double-tracking.  I don't personally agree, but you can see Brian's point.  Dennis had great tone in the harmony stack, but his voice wasn't as flexible as the others', and his pitch and control were less reliable, too.  I'm not saying he sucked.  I'm saying he was, with respect to the overall band, the weak link at that point.  A simple lead vocal showcase here and there to capitalize on his appeal with the female audience, no problem.  But I don't think Brian ever gave Dennis a key vocal assignment after "In The Back Of My Mind," at least not until LOVE YOU.  Al characterizes Dennis' participation on PET SOUNDS as being "cameos."

Al claimed in a circa 1999 GOLDMINE interview that Brian started making a concerted effort to give the other guys lead vocals around 1965 because "it had become unbalanced."  It's relevant that this is around the time that Brian started to retire from the road (and also that the interview was given when Al was in a feud with Mike, so that may have colored his recollection).  If Brian wasn't onstage to do the leads, it made sense to start spreading it around....but...it seems that with the music getting more and more complex and personal, it was still easier for Brian to sing the bulk of the leads himself than trying to get the other guys to pull it off the way he heard it in his head.  So Brian probably wanted to give the other guys more leads, but time constraints were such that he couldn't.

I think the "branding" argument is a good one, and I think that's most of it.  I think simple expediency is the rest of the answer.  Any diversion from the norm in terms of the division of labor was extra work.

Not sure that Brian was so let down by Dennis as to intentionally exclude him from getting leads on subsequent albums. He was supposed to sing "You're So Good To Me", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and the big one, "Good Vibrations". A bunch of unfortunate incidents (sleeping through a session, illness) meant he didn't manage to get the leads. As great as these leads are, shoot, I bet Denny would've done just as well with them.

I'll get condemned to hayull for this, but picturing a solid Dennis lead on "Good Vibrations", he just might've done better than Carl who, to me, was still finding his voice when he did that lead.

Just one. But he sang all the leads on his solo albums