The Smiley Smile Message Board

Recent talk about a Stevie Wonder-sung version of "I Do Love You" made me wonder how many other songs in the BB canon have early versions with lead or backing vox sung by non-BB members. I'm guessing there are more that exist than we think, even if they've never been booted.

Some others that I know of:

- Wikipedia lists a Kokomo early version with Jeff Foskett (and I'm surprised this hasn't been released, even on MIC, since Mike is certainly proud of the song - unless this version is really a stinker. I'd still love to hear it).

- Honkin' Down the Highway (Billy Hinsche lead vox)... was this version ever an actual contender for release with Billy vocals? I imagine politics played a role in the song being re-sung by Al (and I *love* Al's lead, as well as Billy's to a lesser degree)

- Terry Melcher on the alternate God Only Knows (not sure if this should be considered a scratch vocal version though)

Any others?

Andy Paley on an early version of "Soul Searchin'" ...

Terry Melcher lead on demo for Happy Endings (idk if you consider that one)
Then there's John Phillips' early renditions of Somewhere Near Japan and Kokomo. (That may not be what you're looking for, but that's what I thought of)

I guess those are grey areas, but probably don't really count, seeing as I'm not sure what those songs (SNJ + Kokomo) were written for originally - I assume as potential John Philips solo material. Plus then we'd have to count Cease to Exist. I'm more thinking of instances where we have a partial backing track that eventually gets used for a BB release, but we have a non BB singing it as a demo for some reason.

A couple more things to ponder...

- Was the Rocky Pamplin-sung California Feelin' vocal recorded as a scratch demo for the BBs, or as a demo for a potential solo project of his?

- And I assume that random Amy gal singing along to the backing track of Let the Wind Blow was done just as a test to hear her vocal chops after the full BB version was already released or in the can?