The Smiley Smile Message Board

Ok, I love Barry Manilow and the way he delivers it, and I like the arrangement, but the lyrics?  they're good but they're not great so how did Bruce get a Grammy when songs like "Good Vibrations", "Forever", "Baby Blue", "Surfs Up", "God Only Knows", "In the Back of My Mind", "Add Some Music To Your Day", most of the songs from Pacific Ocean Blue or even something simple like "In My Room" or "Surfer Girl" didn't?  ???

The Grammys have made some horrible choices down the years, none worse than in 1967, when the nominations for Best Contemporary Song were:

The New Vaudeville - Winchester Cathedral
The Mamas & The Papas - Monday Monday
The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby
Association - Cherish
Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
Monkees - Last Train To Clarksville

Guess which one of these songs the Academy voted the Best Song of 1967 ?  Correct, that rock classic and eternal standard... "Winchester Cathedral".

The BB were also nominated in the Vocal Group Performance category:

The Anita Kerr Quartet - A Man and a Woman
Association - Cherish
Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
The Sandpipers - Guantanamera
The Mamas & The Papas - Monday Monday

Again, guess the winner ? Correct, The Anita Kerr Quartet.

I know that's bull  :angry.  and then when the Wilsons presented Starland Vocal Band with a Grammy instead of  Boston, who made history that year with their debut, and that same night is when they had to witness Bruce getting a Grammy for "best songwriter"  :quote I wonder what was going through their minds, especially after Brian had written many songs for years that were waaay better than that  :thud

  My guess is they were happy for and proud of Bruce.

Absolutely agree with you! Isn't it ironic Bruce was the only one who got that award (Brian doesn't count as Cow is a remake of an old Smile tune)? With that in mind, I find his version more compelling than Manilow's; just a very horrible voice, unbelievably. Not to mention arrangement.

Yeah, there's no way Brian should take credit for Brian's achievements.

1st off, Happy New Year, Ted! All the nice wishes & stuff. 2nd, I get your light irony, but I meant it's a late award-winning, after 40 years of the real deal. If Brian with the rest of The BBs got it in the 60s, I'd count it, of course. As retrokid, I also find it baffling & sad that the band didn't get notice way back then, in the midst of their avant-garde direction.

Madam de Leary's Cow is still avant-garde to these ears… always will be.

Give it another Grammy tomorrow far as I'm concerned!

AGD, Mike Love sometimes mentions GV losing out to "Monday, Monday" in the Grammys. Was there any category in the Grammys or other award shows in '67 where that happened?

Agreed, the Grammys have made some bone-headed picks over the years. I'm also a Jethro Tull fan, and am dismayed about the backlash that band still gets for winning in a poorly-defined category.

I say MOC counts.

The Tull can out rock Metallica any day! Actually these days they probably could - Metallica suck gonads.

I Write The Songs is gooey shite - Bruce at his schmaltzy worst, which is pretty damn schmaltzy. I don't care what it won - it's bloody awful! Celine Dion wins awards also - I'd still rather insert hot iron spikes into my eardrums than listen to her music. Very pleased IWTS was never released on a BB album...

Omg have you heard him singing "Your Song" by Elton John live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmCWNJFkC9Q  I showed my mom and she was cringing throughout most of it  :-\.  now people don't get me wrong, I like Bruce as a Person but as a BB.....I put Mike Love over him, but as a person I put him over Mike Love  :-\

Heck, Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again should get a Grammy, we've waited 40 years for that too you know  ;)

Agreed  :h5

I knew about Winchester Cathedral  BUT... BUT :rock  The Anita Kerr quartet beating out BB for vocal award of the Year.. ! Lets see GV.. One of the most experimental  off the wall glorius single records ever produced which is a madcap rockin song + performance that even non beach boy scholars  admit to it  being in a class by itself .. Lost the award to CHEESE !!    :spin  Oh did I mention im a Beach Boy's fan..  8)

IF BRIAN WILSON HAD COMPOSED and The Beach Boys recorded "I Write The Songs", Beach Boys' fans would be using the term "genius", it would be on all of our (and Reprise/Capitol) comps, we wouldn't be able to mention it without alluding to Frank Sinatra covering it, and Brian Wilson would probably be performing it at every concert.

Wildly successful song.  And, magnificently performed at Symphony Hall, Boston with its great acoustics.  Context is important. The did do covers, which by-and-large drove me crazy.  For example: Rock and Roll woman, (Buffalo Springfield) Aeroplane (Boxtops) especially in terms of a short setlist and time constraints with the warm-up acts.  

Excellent point.

My bad - I left that one out. The category was Rock & Roll Group Performance and the nominees were:

The Mamas & The Papas - Monday Monday
Association - Cherish
Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
The Sandpipers - Guantanamera
Monkees - Last Train To Clarksville

The Sandpipers ? Rock & Roll ??!!?

The Grammys are not to be taken seriously.

I bet, if it came down to it, you would choose awful music over getting hot iron spikes inserted into your eardrums. Can you imagine?

To be fair, I don't think any of those songs are really "Rock & Roll."

Aye but we fellow boarders could help out if Disney insists… that's what friends are for!

Or better yet if it was a Beatles song we'd be calling it "genius", and it would've gotten more than just one Grammy  ::)

eh...no..no one could make that song good and it would be a horrible blot on BWs copybook as because its a hit, he would have to perform it at every show..could be useful though as barbara ann is too short for a toilet break  :lol

BJ's music almost never does it for me, this song is no exception

If Brian Wilson had composed the Macarena song, Beach Boys' fans would be using the term "genius".

I was thinkng recently about what if Bruce was still with the band after So Tough...would they have put I Write the Songs out as a group or just Bruce? If so, what album? Obviously something around 15 Big Ones or so...I just don't know where it'd fit in

When I think of Bruce Johnston as a BB, I picture  a scrawny freshman nerd  8o, trying to fit in with the jr. and sr. jocks  8) .  it just doesn't work for me.  There's nothing rock and roll about him at all, and then he's gonna call them "surfin Doris Days"   :brow.....that quote alone just ugh  :wall.

It's always just been a paycheck to me (or words to that effect) condemn BJ for life for me. Oh, and I do not get the love for Disney Girls. But no hate for Bruce, I rather like his vocals on At My Window & I like his tracks on Sunflower

Disney Girls has slowly grown on me I have to admit  ::).  one thing I don't get is how there's nothing Disney about the song at all and the only girl who's mentioned is Patti Page, who never worked with Disney (unless someone out there knows something I don't then I'll take it back  :p)

Disney Girls is a metaphor for another era when those terms of courtship existed, and the conditions of life were perhaps simpler and well defined, and things are not as easily definable, today.  It perhaps represents an ideal that might not exist any longer but may be for some, an idyllic microcosm of that existence. I think some artists have covered this song. 

But, I still do like the concept of summer as well as winter days on old Cape Cod!  ;)

I don't like that Bruce has also stated he was inspired to write Disney Girls looking at the drug-using girls who attended their concerts and longing for simpler days. Pious much Bruce?

  For the definitive version, try Art Garfunkel's rendition from the 1975 BREAKAWAY album. (Not The Beach Boys' "Break Away" btw)

Yeah, There is really nothing cool about the man at all, I find it hard to watch any show from the 80's on when Bruce Johnston is there, "How can I like a band that this guy is in"? I say to myself.

I accept all his bullshit though for his contributions to God Only Knows and California Girls alone.

It's Bruce Johnston...he is a force of nature. Complaining about it is pointless.

Dislike the hurricane that is his rage (random and destructive), cringe at the sunlight that is his voice, or even recoil at the flood that are his songs, he cannot be stopped by mortal means.

It's Brucey J, what are you gonna do
(http://chb.live.mediaspanonline.com/assets/341998/image-2-column---new-bruce-johnston.jpg)

lolol

Funny, California Girls was never one of my favorite songs.  I remember when I first heard it and thought "why do the harmonies sound so weird?" then later I find out that that's the first song Bruce sang on.....

What if Brian's new album has a song on it called "No, *I* Write The Songs, BITCH"?

How many of you were adults when I write the Songs  was at the top of the charts?  I was.  I was dating my wife of 37 years at the time.  Barry Manilow was huge at the time.  and this is arguably his biggest hit.  Now, I will say this song was not my favorite piece of music, not the music that was pushing my buttons at the time,  guess I was listening to Little Feat at the time when I could.  but, Little Feat was not on the radio.  Bruce's song was.  And it was way better than the disco schlock of the day that was on my a.m. Radio in the car.  It was romantic, soaring, and melodic.  I'm sorry that Bruce hasn't been allowed to do this with the Beach Boys after all these years.  I recall Bruce sitting through the audience booing when Mike was setting up his Disney Girls performance, the audience booing cause IWTS was not cool according to Johnny Fever, who also hated the Carpenters and any number of other fine music ofmthentimes.   seems it would have been more expedient to diss kc and the sunshine band or some of the other acts of the day doing disco music of the worst kind just  to sell records.  at least Bruce was being Bruce, doing his style of music and succeeding.  How about  those pretentious Laurel Canyon weenies trying to get a disco hit back in the day?   

Laurel Canyon weenies..!! ??  I think my feelings have been hurt.. Is Topanga Canyon next..  ;D

You underestimate my dislike for Celine Dion.

A sappy song, but I would have liked to hear a BB version. I suspect if Manilow and Cassidy hadn't covered it, there wouldn't be so much hate for it. I quite like Bruce's own version. One of the better tracks on that album, though that's not saying a lot.

I love disco, I liked it before I liked rock and I wish that they had burned rap CDs like they did disco albums (when disco died, rap came in  >:() but speaking of the subject guess whose bright idea it was to have a rock band (BB) sing and old tune of theirs in the disco style (when it was on it's way out)......yup the same guy folks  :wall  I love both disco and rock but not combined  :-\.  I never liked the Carpenters either except for "Close to You" they're too depressing for me :-\

I never liked Celine Dion either  :lol she's one of those artists who you either like or don't .

The guy was in a band with a dude who hung out with The Manson Family for a year, who wouldn't be put off by drug taking hippie girls?

Again with Manson  ::)

I'd like to point out that if you check out Bruce's Spotify page the first album is called "Unleash The Beast!!!" which I assume Bruce probably had no involvement in.  :lol

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Ugh. Just listened to this song for the first time (Going Public version) and I rather like it. Incredible cheese, yes. But also very heartfelt and interesting enough to hold your attention-- there are a few fun things going on there, and the modulation for the final chorus tag is a classic Wilson move. Otherwise, I don't really think it sounds like a Brian song, or even a BB song, aside from the backgrounds (which are perfect, naturally).

I would have liked a version from the Boys back in the day. Did any of them lend a hand on this one?

If I may correct you mildly, what Bruce actually said was something along the lines of "People look at us and think we're surfing Doris days". Said with some exasperation.

Yea I know it's just the "surfin Doris Days" part that gets me.  it's just so....... :thud

Not really. And, I agree with Andrew. The perception was not the reality.  They were stereotyped as uncool, marginalized, under-appreciated.  People might not agree, but I maintain that it was the continuous live performing that kept the music out there, and viable.  It was an under-the-radar strategy. Many analogies to politics, where a candidate, or some other entity, stays visible, and therefore, viable.   And I have always felt that it was the record company, who under-marketed Pet Sounds, who was culpable. That seems to have been the catalyst.  The music quality didn't change, looking at subsequent albums.  They actually got bolder and took more chances, creatively.  Even if not commercially successful, it was moving forward, nonetheless.

And, as far as Manilow goes, his vocal work was heard with the many commercials he did, such as for McDonalds, "You deserve a break today," and "I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, cause Band-Aid's stuck on me" commercial jingles. He was prolific, in a non-traditional way.  That song came along at just the right time for Manilow, who had this hit called, "Could it be Magic" and constructed from Chopin's Prelude in C-Minor. That Grammy was well-deserved, and, frankly added to the BB cred. 

Winchester Cathedral winning, was so off-the-wall, against Good Vibrations.  Where are they now?  I know where the BB's have been with C50.