The Smiley Smile Message Board

This is something I've wondered for years. When Wendy was added to the setlist in the early 90s, Bruce was assigned the lead and has continued to sing it since then. Anyone know why Mike doesn't sing the lead? We know the reasons behind him not wanting to sing lead on getcha back (though I think his 2004 lead on that was great!), but I've never heard anything about Wendy. Any ideas?

I always got the impression that for whatever reason Bruce demurs when asked about singing more leads. "Wendy" strikes me as one of the least taxing, most low key lead vocals out of the pool of songs they could work from, so I would guess that was a small thing to throw Bruce's way that he wouldn't decline.

I remember after the very early C50 shows, there was actually some confusion about who was even singing the lead. As in, a few people who went to the shows couldn't figure out who was singing the lead. That's how low key it is!  :lol

Eric - I Guess I've never heard those reasons...care to share?

Mike has said that he had Dennis in mind when writing Getcha Back. It was sort of a tribute to him in a way. He always felt that it should have a tighter grittier lead. I think he felt that Christian and David both were closer to the sound he wanted.

Wow, that's cool. Is there a specific interview where he talks about this?

I don't remember the source for that info on Getcha Back. But it has been discussed here several times on this board. I wish I could remember who brought it up.

He probably just likes singing it, not much more to it than that.  I get the feeling Mike likes to shuffle the vocal duties around as much as possible to give his voice a rest aside from the more popular numbers like California Girls, I Get Around, Surfin' USA, or Fun Fun Fun where the audience will really want to hear Mike sing those ones.

I really like Brucey singing Wendy, especially at the C50 show I saw.

To add to the point of Mike shuffling vocal duties, David was given Catch a Wave + Hawaii in the early shows (right?) and sang Getcha Back for the whole tour. His vocal delivery on GB was so so good, I'm glad they gave it to him. That was like the only song to make it through the C50 live CD un-butcheredbyJoeThomas.

It was just Hawaii. When Getcha Back was added, the lead on Hawaii immediately reverted back to Mike.