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Ken Bruce just played Saturday Night at 10:55 UK time, caught me out as was driving at the time and just started humming  along as if I knew the song already, then it hit me!!!  I hope the show can be played back off the BBC Radio 2 website at some point, cant check as on my phone at the moment!

Excellent! Nice catch man, I'll check the sites asap!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05mpzxn


1hr 26 mins  25 seconds in

Wow.  The last 3 songs that have been released/leaked have just been fantastic.  The ending of Saturday Night seems to be a bit of a let down, maybe it would have been better had they repeated the chorus one more time and faded out.  Honestly, of the ones we've heard thus far, "Right Time" is my least favorite, and even it's a good song.  But Runaway Dancer, Sail Away, and now Saturday Night have all three knocked my socks off.  I can't wait to get NPP!

Really loving this track. I can see this being a big hit.

Agreed, I think this one could be a big hit!

This is the dog's bollocks. Best track heard yet from this album, by a long chalk. Standout.

Better get the lawyers ready.  Uncomfortable similarity to Greatest American Hero theme song. 

I like the song, but I'm not hearing a lot of Brian.  That's really my only concern about this album.  I want to hear Brian Wilson on a Brian Wilson album.  The guest-heavy tracks are just bonus tracks to me-- and that includes that Blondie verse on "Sail Away."  I dig the symbolism of having him on the album and singing on that verse, but aside from the symbolism he really brings nothing to the table. 

You mean other than writing and arranging them???

Brian is a song writer, producer, arranger, musician, and vocalist.  I am hearing a lot of Brian Wilson on this album so far.  Think of the Santana revival albums.  For Brian, the studio is his voice, his guitar. As for the vocals, apparently he wanted us to hear Blondie here and Al there and himself over there.  Same way he wants us to hear the bass harmonica here and the accordion there.

Sail Away bleeds Brian Wilson, as well as the others.  You just need to be more open to what it means to hear Brian Wilson.

EoL

Yeah, I don't really care much about or notice writing and arrangement.  I guess that makes me music dumb.  Joe Biden could have arranged that number and I wouldn't know any better.  I want to *hear* Brian.  So yeah, I mean other than writing and arranging.

Think if Brian had limited his involvement in the Beach Boys' formative years to writing, producing, and arranging.  Do you really think all those kids were listening and thinking, "Dang that's some sweet arranging"?  It was the sound, and Brian's voice was a major factor there.  I hear more Brian Wilson in the Explorers' Club stuff and Jeff Foskett's solo stuff than I hear in most of Brian's stuff.

WOW.  That makes it 5 for 5 of full tracks the I've heard and love from this record!  Each one is better than the last.  This really sounds like an excellent Beach Boys record would sound.

Far and away my favourite song that has leaked out thus far (and I am really enjoying the others).  Takes me back to the Vegas show.  Nate was the standout guest.  Wait until you hear the full Hold On, Dear Brother.  You will pee your pants or cry or whatever it is you do when you are completely blown away.  This song could be a hit.  Love the banjo.  Killer production.  Backing vocals on the chorus is the sound of the summer waves washing the wax out of your ears.  Brian, you are gift that just keeps on giving!  Thanks for bringing such joy at a time when I really need it!

Yes you do or you wouldn't have cared about or noticed the Beach Boys.  The voices are just another instrument in the arrangement. 

My favorite song from NPP so far. The chorus is unbelievably catchy, and Nate's clear voice complements the melody and arrangement nicely. I think it would perform really well as a single.

Agreed 100%. One thing I love about Brian is that he is willing to say "Someone else would sound better on this song" - he's done it his whole life in the studio...it's what makes him the artist that he is. Nate Ruess sounds incredible on this song, and honestly I can't see this song being as powerful if Brian had taken the lead.

PS this sounds nothing like the Greatest American Hero theme song.

You make a good point.  I suppose the facet of his arrangement that I appreciate the most (inordinately more than the others, I guess) is the vocals.  I think one of the reasons I don't care much for later Beach Boys work is Brian's reduced presence in the vocal stack.

I did catch all the ads and Nate Reuss on "The Voice" last evening as well.  The lead singer on this song is getting face time on national TV in the US as well, so it's all good.

As far as it coming up again here that "only the vocals matter" - do you people truly never consider the fact that if someone hadn't written the song, that no one would be singing it?  Seriously?  Never mind the whole arranging/mixing etc. parts of the recording process.  How would you be hearing anything if the recording process never took place?  I guess we sometimes need to get back to the fundamentals.

My point is that I prefer Brian Wilson songs with Brian on lead (or heavy on the harmonies, a la "Right Time") over Brian Wilson songs with guests on lead.  The vocals are a bigger deal than many people think.

Well, Brian sings lead on the verses of Runaway Dancer; sings a verse, bridge and chorus on Sail Away; and as you noted is heavy in the backing vox for Rught Time -- so it's difficult to say he's not present vocally on the album, right?

Listen to this song with headphones on… it is subtley saturated with Brian's voice.

I said I didn't hear a lot of Brian on "Saturday Night" on the couple times I was able to listen to it.  This grew into a larger gripe about the guests, none of which I care much for yet aside from Al.  In fact, the more I listen to "Sail Away" (my fav so far of the NPP songs we've heard), the more I really don't like Blondie's vocal on that first verse.

I like the song, and with Nate's inclusion, I do believe it could have been a hit. I think the production will preclude it from being one, however.

I'm not sure if it's the way Brian prefers his songs to sound or if it's Joe Thomas' influence, but the production and possibly arrangement of this album sounds neither modern nor "retro." It feels caught in an early 2000s adult contemporary or family-film soundtrack vibe. It's too clean and sterile.

I think an epic sound like Fun's production or more of a stripped down "California Sage" feel would have worked and potentially put this on the charts.

I will listen to this album and really enjoy it, and if working with Joe Thomas gets Brian Wilson albums completed and on shelves, then I have to appreciate it. But, for example, the guitar solo is this song is so inoffensive, it's offensive.

Agree.  I like the others OK, but since hearing the tiny bit of "Saturday Night" on the sampler, just seeing the title has had me singing the chorus.  The complete song lives up to the sample.

Just an aside, John, but after seeing your votes on the Polls threads, I decided that if I am ever winding down my days incapacitated in a nursing home, you would be my pick to do a BB/BW mixtape for me!

The thing is, this is why the album has guest spots. Promo, promo, promo.

They're not going to release BW solo vox to tease the album, unless they run out of the guest tracks. And we've still got Zooey and Musgraves to go.

They need you to do the liners for the album! ;D

In my dream world, this song would be in a big movie soundtrack in an integral scene, would be released as a single and would receive much support form the record company and be a hit.  I love Brian Wilson and have really enjoyed his solo work but have never believed that much of his earlier work would be hit single type of material.  As much as I have enjoyed earlier stuff it seemed unrealistic that it could be big hit radio material.  But this song has serious potential, I think.  Perhaps that has been Brian's hope too.  I am a junior high teacher and have been grooving to this song all morning long and when the kids come in they have asked about it and are really diggin' it.  I told kids the album and release date and many are going to drop the $1.29 on itunes and make it happen.  This is the best song of 2015 for me and it will be the soundtrack of my summer.

the professor has been making wild and crazy analogies lately concerning some of these songs. This particular song, Saturday night, reminds him of the associations hit windy and also reminds him of the sixties song downtown by pet Clark. is there any accuracy in these comparisons, or is the professor insane and incapable of making proper sonic comparisons still?


modify: Bay city rollers too,

Another great song, it is really looking like NPP is going to be a five star album.  I do have one small complaint, the "ba ba ba" part seems like they couldn't decide how to connect Nate's part to Brian's, so they just threw that on top of it.  Otherwise, I love it.

Quincy Jones was a talented trumpet player...until a brain aneurysm nearly killed him and meant that he could no longer play the horn. He became one of the greatest record producers ever. When you buy a Quincy Jones album, you're not gonna hear him singing, and he's not going to be the composer of most of the songs...but his stamp is what makes those records awesome.
I've long believed that this was the direction Brian was heading. He's a great producer and arranger...and—unlike Q—he writes great songs, too. Brian's "instrument" — that golden voice — may not be what it used to be (although he's come a LONG way in the past ten years), but it's always gonna be a BRIAN WILSON record, regardless of how many lead vocals he passes out to guest stars.
On the first BB bootleg I ever owned — the plain white album cover with photocopied artwork, a live show from 1971 — you can hear an audience member shout out "Where's Brian?" And Bruce, I think, says, "Brian's in the music."
Thus has it ever been...so may it ever be. Brian is an artist, a genius composer...not a natural performer. I'm just grateful he's still wanting to make music.

F.*.C.K.*.N.G. Awesome  ;D

I get what you're saying, and you said it very well.  I guess I tend to place more emphasis on those aspects of making music that are most visible to the largest subset of the audience.  That's partly because the behind-the-scenes stuff doesn't necessarily stand out to me personally-- at least not immediately.  I can go for years loving a song without knowing or caring who wrote the lyrics, arranged, or produced it.  I can enjoy a movie with little care to who wrote the script or directed it. 

Brian is my favorite musician, hands-down.  I listen to something BW or BB every day of my life, yet I can't necessarily see a solid thread between his productions.  For example, albums like Pet Sounds and Love You don't really sound to me like they were produced by the same person.  In fact, if I didn't know Love You was a BB album I wouldn't have made it through the first song before tossing the record. (In fact it is the only BB album I never bothered to purchase.)  Even allowing for the artist's evolution, I find it virtually unrecognizable in the context of stuff from other Brian eras. 

That may be my musical illiteracy, but I'm by far not the only listener of music in the world to whom the minutiae of production isn't way important.

This is one of those songs that makes you feel good. Love it.

The songs are similar. Unfortunately The Greatest American Hero Theme is better. Most interesting thing about Saturday Night is the change at the beginning of the bridge, but even that devolves into something pretty bland. I wish I was getting more excited about these two latest previews (this and Sail Away) but I'm not feeling it at all. The production is very nice and clean. This is another song, along with The Right Time that feels very much like 70s Soft Rock (which I like very much mind you) but this one's melody just doesn't grab my ears.

This is a hit!

Wow, we got to hear three new songs in two days, keep 'em coming!

For those saying that they don't hear a lot of Brian on this I will add this:

I've been listening to Nate for quite a long time. Ever since his start with his band The Format. If you haven't listened to their album "Dog Problems" you really should, it's a great one.

But I digress, Nate's vocals are typically pretty sporadic. I think you can really tell that Brian had a lot to do with the melody and reigning in Nate's vocals so they weren't all over the place.

The harmonies during the chorus are absolutely beautiful. The melodies, instrumentation, chord progressions, wow. This track bleeds Brian. I can't help but imagine a young Brian singing Brian's verse towards the end. It is just so good. I think it's the best I've heard on this album so far.

Fallon gave the reunited Beach Boys a HUGE portion of his show in 2012. Letterman has had Brian and the BBs on a lot over the years. Brian's people need to arrange Brian and his "guests" to hit New York for a couple of nights.

For Letterman, with its older demographic, have Brian, Al and Blondie do "Sail Away" and "The Right Time" (id Dave will give them a second song) and for Fallon and his younger audience, have Brian and Nate do "Saturday Night." And if Fallon gives them a second song, you can see if Zoe, Kasey or Sebu is available.

Speaking of The Right Time, it is currently #2 on the BBC Radio 2 Airplay Chart!

http://ukairplaychart.com/1250//BBC_Radio_2/

To clarify my point again, I meant to convey that in the couple times I listened to the track online, I don't hear a lot of Brian's vocals.  Maybe the track bleeds Brian, but I can't really tell, and I'd venture a bet that the majority of whatever audience hears the song can't either.  For non fanatics and non-musicians, production and arrangement tend to take a back seat to vocals.  I know that blows some minds here, but it's true. 

That backs up what I'm hearing on the airwaves… Chris Evans seems to be playing it an awful lot and even stating his growing appreciation of it.

Too bad it's getting no airplay here in the US, at least where I live.

I have to say it... I think Nate should have sung the bridge as well.... While Brian sounds fine the song calls for a single lead voice... (there I said it... couldn't not say it..)

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