The Smiley Smile Message Board

On Dumb Angel Rarities Vol. 6, there are 4 tracks of which 3 of them have no writer's credit and in the book are only described as "Four Mike Love solo tracks from the 80's". Does anybody know any story behind them (for instance what project they were intended for). One of the songs "Oh! Those Girls" is an unusual rocker that might have been a minor hit in the 80's and  I really like it. On the other hand, one of the songs "Can't Stop Talking About American Girls" is one of the worst songs I have ever heard. Ever. You can hear him try to find the key in the beginning and then simply give up thereby singing the entire song out of key. This was a founding member of a world prominent vocal group?

Anyway, I did a search on this forum and didn't come up with any information. I found some YouTube links for those unfamiliar:
Can't Stop Talking About American Girls: http://youtu.be/-pZYWQUe8FA (http://youtu.be/-pZYWQUe8FA)
Hot Summer Lovers: http://youtu.be/_-pW2OMxlv4 (http://youtu.be/_-pW2OMxlv4)
Let's Dance: http://youtu.be/iK7LOTgcweg (http://youtu.be/iK7LOTgcweg)
Oh! Those Girls: http://youtu.be/qZuy5WcHCBo (http://youtu.be/qZuy5WcHCBo)

I just noticed that all 4 of these were just recently posted (3 weeks ago) by the same uploader. They've been circulating for some time but I wouldn't even know where to begin dating them. Perhaps post-LBWL and pre-BB85? This has to be sometime after the solo album and Celebration projects. Like I said, I did not find anything using the search but felt this topic merited it's own thread.

Weren't those written/produced by Adrian Baker?

I've been curious about Can't Stop Talking About American Girls for quite some time, I've even asked about the song on this board but never grabbed any attention. So what is the deal with the song? Mike's vocals and the backing track sound like they're off maybe a half note? I'm thinking that Mike probably sang the vocals on key to a track that was in the key he was singing in, but maybe the backing track was later changed but Mike's vocals weren't?? I wish somebody could explain this train wreck to me. Does a version exist where the vocals are on key with the backing track?

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The cover of "Let's Dance" is the same version on A Baker's Dozen. Most of the Adrian Baker/Mike Love tracks that I have are remakes of BB songs or oldies/covers. That doesn't help identify the other 3 songs unfortunately.

Per the vocals on "Can't Stop Talking About American Girls": since they've been double (maybe triple) tracked and the recording sounds like vintage 80's, I can't see how his vocals would be in a different pitch than the music since this was most likely recorded on tape. And, yes, a train wreck indeed!

Mmm Hmm.

I've never heard him sing so badly off key like that before. How does this even exist?

Someone obviously applied some pitch-shifting to MIke's vocal track on "...American Girls".

It's simultaneously hilarious and painful.

I just can't possibly believe that somebody was able to pitch shift Mike's vocals without access to the multitracks. To my knowledge, this has been around for a while as it is (no alternate takes or mixes). Something tells me that despite the fact that I want to believe it's a prank of sorts that it really isn't.

As for when these were recorded, Bellagio is your friend http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs83.html

You will see mention of sessions both in the spring and in December of 83. A couple of the songs from the list in the original post are not specifically mentioned, but I suspect they are part of the same Adrian Baker sessions and surely recorded around the same time.

How did I miss that?

Spring, 1982:    ??  - Mike Love/Adrian Baker sessions: Dance, Dance, Dance/Let's Dance/Keep
        On Dancing/Do You Wanna Dance/Let's Party/American Girls
        [Baker's home studio, Essex England]

December, 1982: ??  - Mike Love/Adrian Baker sessions: Dancing On A Saturday Night/Summertime
        City [Baker's home studio, Essex England]

And there is an entry for 1981 sessions as well. Mystery solved on that. I suppose the question is what were these sessions for if not for a BB project?

I actually like "Hot summer lovin'" and think that it had a lot of potential  had it actually been finished but think "American Girls" is one of the worst vocals ever done by any of the beach boys.. the other two are just so so IMO...

It doesn't seem likely any pitch correction (or incorrection?) has been applied to "American Girls." Tape speed variances also wouldn't explain the flatting, since the vocal and backing are presumably on the same tape.

I think it's just a wonky scratch vocal (perhaps not a good key for him?). Beyond simply having a rough go at the vocal, I suppose it's possible he's having trouble locking in a harmony among other voices that have been mixed out. The opening vocals in particular sound like backing/harmony vocals should be there.

Who said anything about tape speed variances? If you are familiar with the munchkin effect of digital pitch shifting, you can clearly hear this artifact on his vocal. Sounds like somebody played a mean joke on the Lovester at mixdown of this tune. There's no way he could have sung this out of tune even if he tried.

Yeah, it sounds to me like Mike's take has been sped up/changed afterwards.

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Why would somebody sabotage the recording like that? On the other hand if the vocals really were that terrible, who would bother to even mix it?

So far we have found out the source of the recordings but not yet the reason for them. Again, they can be found as the closing tracks of Dumb Angel Rarities Vol. 6 and therefore have been out there since 2001 according to this site:
http://bootlegzone.com/album.php?name=da007&section=14 (http://bootlegzone.com/album.php?name=da007&section=14)
If somebody did mess with the pitch, then why and by whom? Is this a fantastic forgery that has been around (mostly unnoticed) or an indication that Mike has pitch problems (which I've suspected in his lower register for some 15 years)? Either way, I've listened to it about a dozen times today (earlier anyway) and I'm still waiting for my jaw to pop back into place.

Then a little more elucidation is in order....

http://electronicmusic.wikia.com/wiki/Munchkinization

I think you could just put it through an SPX 90 (I am pretty sure they were around then - they were ubiquitous not long after), and you'd get the vocal coming back in a different key.  It sounds like a joke someone pulled in the studio.

"Can't Stop Talkin'..." was offered to The BB. "Hot Summer Lovers" was originally titled "Hot Summer Singles". As for the off-key part, yeah, someone messed with the multis: I've heard a version that's perfectly in synch.

One of the posts above mentioned the prospect of tape speed variances. I was simply pointing out why that seemed unlikely.

As many have suggested, if anything has been altered, it would require access to the multitracks to alter the vocal separately from the backing track.

If this was done as a joke or prank, then it's a pretty obscure one.

Thank you, AGD, for clearing all of it up. And what a strange prank for somebody to play back in the day.....

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Yeah, I was about to say, there is no way Mike could sing off like that...I don't think he could even do it joking around. It doesn't even sound professional.

'Can't Stop...' sounds like last call at the Holiday Inn.  :lol

I know that one song from the Mike Love/Adrian Baker sessions that actually got a proper release was "Let's Party" as the  b-side of "Jingle Bell Rock".

And I know "Camp California" and "Summertime Music" were both issued on the Summertime Cruisin' album by Mike and Bruce.

Also of interest (I guess) would be that under "Adrian Baker" on iTunes is a bunch of the stuff that appeared on those Mike Love "albums" from the '90s (Catch a Wave, Salutes NASCAR, Summertime Cruisin'). No originals I'm pretty sure though. Just remakes.

It would be funny if it were a prank, but isn't it more likely that somehow a tape of the vocals (or of the backing track) got played back at an incorrect speed, thus causing the pitch to shift and sound terrible as it does? Just a guess. I wonder which it is: prank or innocent goof?

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As I said, a bunch of yahoos hanging around the studio put the vocal through an SPX 90 and do a mix with the return in a different key.  It would still be in rhythm to the track.

And as far as it being obscure, if you've ever hung out in a recording studio, this kind of thing isn't at all unusual; it just usually doesn't get disseminated.  It's just a private joke for the engineer and his buddies.  Maybe Mike annoyed the engineer that day or something, and he took revenge for his own amusement later.  Or something like that.

I wish a version like Andrew described (in key) would show up as it would really help dispel any speculation. Either way, this version is so funny that I will be putting it in my music mixes just to watch the reactions of others. Curiously, the makers of the Dumb Angel Rarities series had nothing at all to really say about it.

But this is not a matter of speculation. It is not possible for the human voice no matter how gifted a singer they may be to sing exactly the same interval off key and stay exactly on that pitch throughout a whiole take like we hear here. it's just not possible. It boggles my mind how there are some people that even for a half second consider that this might have been anything but a post-production occurrence.

You're right. Andrew said he had heard a version that he called "in sync" which I imagine means that vocal and instruments were in the same pitch. Of course, that is only an assumption based on what he said which to me means that this was a prank on the part of the engineer who leaked this particular tape to the bootleggers all those years ago. Last time I listened to this song last night, I played along on my piano in the key of F Major but could not figure out which key the vocal was in since it kept changing slightly leading me to believe (even if for half a second) that maybe this was just some really poor vocalizing. Please prove me wrong, somebody. Anybody. Is singing everything really flat supposed to be the equivalent of jazz music?

How far back do these tapes go in terms of circulating? Didn't Adrian Baker get fired by Mike? That would seem like good incentive to have a laugh at Mike's expense, whether by Adrian or a sympathetic friend of Adrian.

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so are there supposed to be lyrics in the "do do do do do, la la la" sections? or was that how it was intended? it's actually not a bad song but it sounds unfinished,,,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-pW2OMxlv4&feature=youtu.be

Mike spent a good chunk of the 80s  and 90s singing half a step off key...... But seriously, I'm amazed how much better Mike sounds now than he did in the late 80s and 90s.  I know he took vocal lessons,  but I will credit him with whatever it was. 

I think the worst thing that Mike could ever do with his voice (which he did, gratuitously for about 15 years) is actively try hard, really really hard, to sound nasally and “young” the way he did in the early days. When he did that in the ‘70s and ‘80s it just became awful, awful self-parody. When he toned his voice down more into Kokomo/Cool Head/Meant for You mode, it suited and suits him far, far better. Perhaps he did that because age wouldn’t let him sound like his “young” self anymore, but thankfully he seems to work better within his own limitations these days.