The Smiley Smile Message Board

Thoughts anyone?

Meant For You immediately springs to mind. Proof that Mike can be a genuinely soulful singer. He really carries this one off and it's quite affecting. That said I for some reason do prefer the abridged Friends version over the MIC version. I'm not sure why. It just works better as a prelude I guess. Maybe the lyrics in the second half let it down a tad. It's certainly one of my favorite album opening tracks though.

It's OK only just occurred to me as one of my favorite Mike leads. Of course it is a self-conscious throwback to the early hits, but it succeeds in being just that so very well. A reminder of how much that nasally jagged tone is actually a key part of the band and hugely characteristic of its formulative sound. Setting aside familiarity with the hits and so on, I think you could play this for anyone and it would be one of the songs they found most instantly recognizable as The Beach Boys. This deserves a permanent place in the M&B setlist. Would make a great opener.

Everyone's In Love With You. I really do think this is a sweet song and a great vocal. Despite meditating myself I did kind of prefer thinking of it as a straight-ahead love song before I knew of the Maharishi connection, but then again I think the lyric deliberately treads that line for accessibility. And we've all known a girl like that.

Student Demonstration Time. Not a well loved cut around here but I really enjoy it. And who knew Mike could do bluesy rabble-rousing grit?

I'll add more as I think of 'em. Hope some others will chime in.

How about Mike's vocals in The Man With All the Toys?  I think they fit the production perfectly, better than Brian's does.

 :)

I also like Mike's vocals in All I Wanna Do.  They fit right in with Brian's refrain.
(http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/p699/pvelezor/Brian-Wilson-Mike-Love-the-beach-boys-33485913-500-380_zps31c0a835.png)

Definitely a great one. The effect on Mike's voice there takes the harder edges off and gives it a great dreamy, ethereal quality that works brilliantly.

I get around. Surfin this and that etc ..
listing anything but the basics in a "whats your favorite mike love" thread just indicates icky reparations. Like, I'm not even sure we take the basics for granted anymore, so it's especially egregious ...  no need to go off and claim Everyone's and love with you is a great thing, when there's perfectly good hit material that Mike Love sings lead on . But then again you didn't say that it was great, you just said it was a "favorite"

Like you say, the hits are ubiquitous and easy to take for granted - that said the touring Beach Boys show is mostly about addressing that to some degree: "Here's the lead singer with all the old hits" so it's all gravy.

And yeah, I'm talking favorites and not even necessarily favorite songs - just specifically favorite Mike lead vocals. I love the way he sings Everyones In Love With You. There's a clear affection and authenticity there.

Not a lead per se, but the bridge of It's About Time is another one that just sprang to mind.

"That's Not Me" ...

One of Mike's best moments, that I think exemplifies a lot of what makes him important to the group's sound is his doubling of Carl's voice on the first line in 'This Whole World' (listen closely ... in the left channel). If you 'OOPS' the track, you can hear just Mike.

"Everyone's In Love With You". I bought 15 Big Ones the day it came out. I think I've played the whole song about 4 or 5 times all the way through since then. And that was by accident - when I couldn't make it back to the turntable fast enough to lift the needle off the record or couldn't reach the "skip" button on the CD player. The instrumental track and backing vocals sounded fine, but the song itself shouldn't have even been a B side on a single. Wimpy and as embarrassing as hell cut for a major Rock & Roll group. The Maharishi had run his course long before 1976, but evidently not for Mike to pay tribute to him with this thing. He even trotted it out during a few live shows in 1978, forcing the audience into submission. Can't believe he polished this turd with a re-make of it in 2004.

Fair f**ks as we say here up North, I can imagine plenty feel that way about the song. Just hoping for one thread that doesn't dissolve into the usual negativity. So on the flipside what's your favorite Mike lead?

"Fair F**ks"? What's that? Fair Fucks? Fair Folks? Why the asterisks?

But I'll play. There are quite a few very good leads by Mike Love. But let me pull just one of them out of my hat that isn't so obvious to many. A travesty that it wasn't released on "Made In California":

Big Sur (4/4).

"Kiss Me, Baby". One of Brian's more stellar efforts too.

He's great on many a song, many of them the obvious: Surfin' USA, I Get Around... hilarious on Monster Mash, astounding on All I Want To Do (It took me more than one listen to notice that's Mike), masterful on Here Today. I love his voice on both versions of Big Sur, and I wish it was Mike with his Big Sur voice who had sung the lines "Surf's Up...aboard a tidal wave, come about hard and join the young and often spring you gave".

Unfortunately, at the same time the Wilsons' voices became dark and gruff, Mike's became even more nasal, on the higher notes at least.

OK, count the 4/4 Big Sur as my favorite Mike lead vocal.

EDIT: While I was typing this, Mikie posted that one too. :) Synchronicity.

Fair fucks indeed, hey, I don't know the boards sensitivities in such matters ;)

Big Sur I have to take another listen to.


Absolutely. Kind of pissed at myself that that one slipped my mind. Mike can be very good at selling earnest romance. It's a shame he's known as the 'bravado' side of the group in some ways.

Not the greatest song ever written, but Mike sounds great on Pitter Patter..... He and Al sound fab or the verse they do together as well.

It's one of Mike's better post-1973 vocals, and if they had come up with a more imaginative chord structure in the refrain, it would have been a great song. The verses and the arrangement are pretty good.

Ya...I like Pitter Patter too.  Here Today is a Fav...and wait... ... ...let me find my full - metal, industrial-strength umbrella...I have always really enjoyed He Come Down.  THAT's spirituality.  It moves me.  YES I believe it.  Great job.  2nd last great album of new material until Smile finally got released and until year 50 gave us TWGMTR.

But anything after Pitter Patter?  That's a great big enn ohh --- NO. :-[

I like the husky sound of "Hawaii"and "Catch a Wave", and the dorkiness of "County Fair" is pretty charming.

I'd say Mike sounds great on Sumahama, Goin On, Getcha Back (OK, he doesn't sound that good on that track, but I sooo love the song), Somewhere Near Japan, Still Cruising, and like Kokomo or hate it, Mike sounds pretty smooth. I love him on Isn't It Time.

"All I Wanna Do" all the way.

Pet Sounder - that is on my list, too!

And

Little St. Nick - when that pours out of some store speakers near Christmas, it is just the best!

Do It Again

Be True to your School

Brian's Back

Getcha Back

Summer in Paradise (MIC version, live)

Don't Go Near the Water

Salt Lake City

Mike has a ton of great leads!

Catch a Wave
Big Sur (either version)
California Saga
California Girls
Aren't You Glad
All This Is That
Meant for You
Hawaii
Fun Fun Fun
All I Wanna Do
Airplane
Be True to Your School
Do It Again

...and of course, Can't Stop Talkin' About American Girls.

All I Wanna Do
Had to Phone Ya
Big Sur 4/4
Add Some Music
Aren't You Glad

My favorite Mike Love leads:
All I Wanna Do
Meant For You
Big Sur (both versions)
California Girls
The Girl From New York City

Another "All I Wanna Do" fan here. That was the one that "did it for me" in 2003...

To me 'All I Wanna Do' shows his best range and soul of any of the songs he sings.

All I Wanna Do is the penultimate Mike vocal.

Maybe it should find it's way into the setlist... ;)

Here Today
Salt Lake City
Kiss Me Baby

Also love his parts on Let Him Run Wild and It's About Time

So wait, what's the deal with the first line of TWW? Something about the quality of the vocal in that first line always left me a little uncertain, but i just always assumed it was Carl. Then, a few months ago, i was taken aback when i noticed that the consensus here says it's Brian. With a new perspective, i listened to that opening over and over and slowly i started hearing it as Brian. But then i returned to it after some time only to revert to my initial stance that it's Carl. However, since then i've (mostly) come around to accepting that it's Brian. But you say it's Carl and Mike doubling each other?? Why you do this to me, Donny?  :'(

Meant For You is a great Mike vocal. I wonder, did Mike not like the way he sounded on this song? Did he (or Brian) feel this wasn't the right "Mike" type of sound? Because he so rarely sounded like this again on record.

Also: Kokomo, which presumably due to the cheesy lyrics and massive overexposure of the song, probably makes it overlooked as one of Mike's best-delivered vocals. "By and by we'll defy", for example, has a little twinge of vibrato or something, which sounds super to my ears.

"In an ocean...or in a glass...cool water, is SUCH a gas."

Simple.  Perfect. Humorous.  Timeless.   Refreshingly right.

 [Yet...not that many seconds later..."cool water is such a groove" which is dated and therefore not a good idea to have included it.]

I've always liked the way Mike sings words with an "er" sound in them, especially the word "girl".  I know that is not a favorite lead, but it is what it is.  I really like his voice, nasal bit and all.  It's nostalgic and reminds of the good things in life, which probably means it reminds me of the relative innocence of youth, which is when I was first exposed to the Beach Boys.

Do you know how to 'OOPS' the track? Someone with more computer-music knowledge can tell you ... I think you just have to invert the phase/polarity on one of the channels in audacity or something (basically, you want to cancel out the middle channel). You'll hear it's Mike! ... just him without Carl. But yeh, it's Carl on the main vocal in the middle and Mike in the left channel.

Anyway, I honestly feel like this is one of those moments that makes me understand why Mike is such an important part of the BB sound. It sounds kinda off-the-cuff too. I think the combination is one of those 'hidden' voices that can add so much dimension to the whole.

But "That's Not Me" kills me and makes me weep in certain moods.

Originally, "In a bottle or/In a glass/Coca Cola is/Such a gas".

All I Want To Do from 20/20-his best rocking vocal. All I Wanna Do from Sunflower and Here Today are great too. I also like his part on Sloop John B.

His bass vocal on Let Him Run Wild is freaking amazing.

I think it's rather telling seeing who's not participating on this thread .....

Some folks really just don't like the Beach Boys

I'll give my three favorites:

I Get Around- Mike gives the song the vocal edge to match the cool lyric
Here Today- I love the song. Great lead vocal, great background vocals, and a terrific arrangement. Probably my second favorite Pet Sounds track after Wouldn't It Be Nice.
All I Wanna Do- Great vocal range on this song.

Lots of great mentions here.

More recently, it was quite a thrill for me the first time I heard Mike pop up for the second verse of Isn't It Time.

All I Want To Do - great rocking vocal , Mr Peace and Sex
All I Wanna Do - majestic and spiritual
California Girls - so well phrased and taken, hard to imagine anyone else surpassing it
All This Is That - Ok not all his vocals, but like many others (eg Cabinessence) his singing adds the well measured earth to this

Kiss Me, Baby is my favorite lead, and I also like most all of his bass parts.

Another great bass part of Mike's is Break Away. You can really hear it in all it's glory on the Hawthorne CA mix.

I really like his whiny proto-punk vocals on "Little Honda," but my favorite Mike Love vocal has to be that bit in "Summer of Love" where he proclaims "it" to be a "love thing." I almost pissed myself laughing rewinding it over and over and over again. Weak bladder or comedy gold? You decide.

I always dug how Mike sang his lead on "Don't Hurt My Little Sister."  Just squares up and nails it.  He does like, the first person voice of the "big brother."  And the Boys sings what he's feeling and thinking.  Just a brilliant little composition.  Everything is perfect.  Perfect!!!

All I Want To Do is a favourite of mine for sure

I love how he sings "409".

 :lol

Yes, yes.  And triple yes.  Quite possibly one of the most greatest, iconic lead vocals of all time - as far as I'm concerned.  That entire song is gold -- something altogether extraordinary.  A religious ceremony.

Also a huge fan of Mike's lead on California Saga III - California.  Just love it!!!

his verse on the album version of isn't it time is pretty great.

His lead on Cherry Cherry Coop is bad-ass

Pinder, you managed to bring bitterness to this thread. That was unnecessary. Let's try to be better than this, ok? :hug Be thankful this thread didn't get trolled by the usual suspects (yet) and just enjoy.

Just enjoyed the heck out of That's Not Me.  Man!!!  That 'Pet Sounds' ain't a bad album still eh?  Even after ALL these years. :hat

These guys might make it big ya know.

All I Want to do.
Here Today.
California Girls
Johnny Carson
That's Not Me.

Drive In. Mike really was king of those kind of subjects and delivering them vocally.
California Girls. Iconic.
Meant For You. Never has Mike sung so sweetly.
Kiss Me Baby, Nobody can do bass vocals like Mike Love.

Hmmm, by cracky I can't think of a single one outta the bunch. Oh well... :old

Come on OSD - I bet if you had some truth serum, you'd come clean with all those Mike leads you love... :lol

Your bark is worse than your bite I bet!  ;)

I love, love, love Drive In. When Mike sings the part about the drive-in people chasing the gate crashers, I laugh out loud, and his vocal is suitably comedic.

I love Meant for You and Big Sur/Holland, as they cast Mike against type and are sung so beautifully. As far as classic BB tunes, I'd go with California Girls and Do It Again.

Oh yeah! Forgot about that one.  :)

It's hard for me to tell, is Brian singing with Mike on the verses, or is it just Mike doubletracked?

Could be, but I've been so over the nasal, teenage dronings of the luHvster for decades now. It was fun for awhile in high scholl and a few years after that but quite honestly, while growing up, I grew out of most of the sand, surf, and beach thing. Every fan ages to their own beat.

Not even Here Today or That's Not Me?

Pet Sounds is da bomb-my favorite however, all they way back to the initial listening, I always wondered why Brian didn't use Al  or Carl instead of the luhvster on those tunes.  :shrug

Probably because Brian thinks/thought Mike had some vocal talent suited to the song.

I suspect you wonder that a lot to be honest. We could probably trace it all the way back to wondering why a different sperm didn't make it to Mike's mom's egg. Hey, I'm coming to a conclusion here....and I don't want to put words in your mouth but......I'm starting to think you don't like Mike?

Ya think???  ::)

I've always trusted Brian's intuition on which singer to use.

Oh it has little to do with trusting Brian. More like a personal preference. By the way, did you get your gift?? ;)

I did! I was going to say something about it, but I kept forgetting. I planned on posting a picture of it somewhere, but I've already forgotten where I put it. It's in my room somewhere. It took me a while to actually figure out how to open the CD case and get to the CD. Why would they make the packaging so complicated? Anyway, thanks.

He did it just to prove you wrong.

I'm not sure. Post about it another 200 times or so just for clarifications sake on your position?

Tell ya what son, let's make it an even 400 - if that doesn't get it done, we'll go the full 12 rounds.  :hat

My favorite Mike vocals...

"All I wanna Do" - urgh... the pretty one, if I missed the title phrasing.  Simply because it's so different than what he usually did.  Also it's covered in reverb and I really like it when the Beach Boys monkey with vocal effects :)

"California Girls" - I actually have this stuck in my head, all the time.  It's such a perfect, "Swag" vocal, "Well, East Coast Girls Are Hip!" I catch myself humming that all the time as ridiculous as that sounds.

"409" - Maximum swag on this one.  Something about the start of the song "Well, I saved my pennies and I saved my dimes..." he sounds like such a badass.  It's a style.

"Kokomo" - It's a good song.  He does a fantastic job with the vocal.  There , I said it.

Yeah, forgot about that one.  Very well done, I don't know why the hell he never was able to string together a decent solo album with that style on it.  It's almost like his speaking voice, his speaking voice is really nice but he doesn't typically sing like that. 

I was positive it was Brian, also near the end one of them does it again in the background "I'm Thinkin' Bout this whole world!" just before the doo-doo-dee-doo part and the big acapella break.  I always thought it was Brian....

Listened to it again a few weeks ago, though, and was suddenly certain that it was Mike.  Not sure...

D/T

Yeah... that's another great one.  It sounds so relaxing, like you just want to mellow out with Mike luv.  It's another FANTASTIC example of how when Brian and Mike traded leads/vocals on songs it was really magic.  You take Mike calmly doing those lines, and then have Brian doing his usual soaring "Keeps On Cool-in Coolin' Me!" in the background, just a magical sound.  

How nice to wake up to you're liking the early Mike stuff! How about Mike's bass skills?  When I watch Isn't it Time, from C50, I'm amazed with the way he swings from a melody line to a background bass line...It's all about that bass!  ;)

I imagine by the time you hit 400 your bitterness will have eaten you alive. Or if by then Mike's no longer around you'll have finally got around to picketing his funeral Westboro style with 'God Hates Mike' signs and got it out of your system.

For my money: "Devoted To You" is pure Brian/Mike magic... Their voices are just made for each other.

Little Deuce Coupe is a great example of the Mike/Brian trick too.  If you think about it, he's actually singing the verses in a pretty high voice, almost a tenor as crazy as that is (it's just a car song, dont' get cray cray on me now) but then in the chorus, he goes down to bass and Brian comes in with his falsetto.  Back and forth, over and over.  Fantastic style, it takes brilliance (on Brian's part, no doubt) to write and structure songs in that kind of a way. 

Brian was also very clever in how he brings Dennis in to cover the bass parts while Mike does his twists n turns

I'll bet if he had Carl, Al, Dennis, and Mike standing in front of him, he could work all that brilliant sh*t into a song in 20 minutes or so... i'll bet over and over again near the beginning there, it was like in the "And Your Dreams Come True" outtakes where he's humming to each of them exactly what to sing.  

They talk about how he could hear all that in his head, but I'm of the impression that not only could he hear all the harmony lines, he would make them up on the spot, I don't think he pre thought any of that stuff out until he got in the studio...

You can hear what's left of that style in "Shelter" on the last BB's album, if you check out the background vocals.  They're doing similar stuff and you can't even make out everything's that going on..

Probably my favorite recorded duet ever. It IS magic.

"hey, little tomboy"

Ditto.

The second one in the middle is surely Brian ... the opening is Mike & Carl though, in my opinion.

"When Girls Get Together" is another one !

Of course his voice is iconic on all of the early hits. Those are among my favorites. But I'll go with "Meant for You" and his part on "Sloop John B."

It's funny, because I never thought his voice fit well at all "That's Not Me." A lot of people consider it among his best, but I think it's among his worst vocals.

Gotta agree that Brian and Mike's duet on "Devoted to You" is pure magic.  An absolutely sublime melding of voices.

As far as my favorite lead vocal by Mike, there are a whole bunch of songs that come to mind, but number 1 would be "Meant for You".