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As most of us know, Brian Wilson's notes for the Summer Days (and Summer Nights!) album say that Dennis was asleep in his vehicle when he was supposed to sing a lead on that album. Does anyone know what song he was supposed to sing?

And why couldn't they just wake him up?  ;D

I believe David Leaf wrote in the liner notes for the Capitol Today! / Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!!) twofer CD release that the song was "You're So Good To Me."

Lee

And let's not forget 1 year later, the aborted plans for Denny to sing "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", as well as "Sail On Sailor" several years after that.

i identify that song so strongly with Brian, it's hard to imagine anyone else doing it. would love to hear it though!

Dennis was supposed to sing Sail On Sailor originally too, yes? love to hear that as well.

I think Dennis would've done a great job on You're So Good to Me.  I know I'm in the minority, but I really don't think that's one of Brian's better leads. 

But I couldn't imagine anybody but Brian Wilson singing the autobiographical I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.   

It's not autobiographical, it's about Lorren Daro's girlfriend.

Yeah, right.

Is this true? I've heard it before but I have a hard time believing it. It fits Brian so well.

The story is that he literally left in the middle of the session because he had just bought a new surf board and couldn't wait to try it out.

Hasn't it been confirmed that an unfinished Denny vocal still exists in the vaults??

Interesting topic as I was reading about 'Good Vibrations' the other day. Wiki, quoting the Badman book, mentioned Dennis was down for the lead but due to laryngitis Carl took over. Never knew this. Confirmed?

I know I've read somewhere that it was literally taped over with Blondie's vocal. What I wonder is if any audible portion of a previous taped-over Dennis take could be extracted from the Blondie take. That's getting into some FBI forensic type stuff. Probably not really possible, unfortunately.

Autotune might have been making a joke there, considering Lorren's reputation here.

Besides, why would Tony Asher have known Lorren Daro well enough to write a song about her personal insecurities that also happen to be very similar to Brian's?

It's apocryphal.  ;D

Seriously though, not true.

And don't forget the original plan for the verses of Cabinessence ('light the camp and fire mellow...') was to have Dennis singing as the narrator of the story. Now *that* would have been something...

maybe it was for "Guess I'm Dumb" and since he couldn't record it Brian scrapped it and gave it to Glen.... :lol

It was wiped.

He didn't, Daro was talking out of his ass.

Nobody who was there has denied it while VDP alluded a confirmation in a tweet. https://twitter.com/thevandykeparks/status/557757246361583618

Alluded to or confirmed what, exactly?

An "account of the 60's", that's what he wrote. Hardly a confirmation of the inspiration for a specific song.

Nope, because it doesn't. Blondie's vocal was recorded over it.

Thanks. ButI still have my doubts about the "Dennis was asleep" scenario. Takes a heck of a lot of time to create a track, and Dennis could have added his vocal at any time. Unless it was all done live...

It seems to me that time was actually fairly tight. According to AGD's site, the vocals for YSGT were recorded along with the vocals for three other songs on May 24th. And my guess is they had to book specific studio time to record these vocals.

The question is, do Dennis vocals appear on the other three songs for that day: Girl from New York City, Bugged, And Your Dreams Come True.

.

I read --- many (!!) years ago , that he was to take the lead on Help me Rhonda.  Cannot recall source.

If he wasn't originally able to, he finally did so on stage in the 1970s. One example is on the Made in California set, IIRC.

Regarding I Just Wasn't Made For These Times...due to C-man's research it was brought to my attention that forensic evidence of Dennis' lead vocal on that one actually exists within the released version...I hope I'm not letting a cat out the bag here...but yes, I will defer to C-man, but I'm absolutely convinced traces of Dennis' voice is in there, on the actual Pet Sounds version.

Yes...if you listen to the vocals-only mix from the PS Sessions box set, you'll notice punch-ins or punch-outs on Brian's verse lead - specifically, some obvious punches at the end of the verse lines - and these sound exactly like Dennis. My theory is Brian replaced Dennis' original lead, but kept those line-ending syllables, 'cause he really dug the way Dennis had sung 'em. Compare to the way Dennis sang line-ending syllables on "In The Back Of My Mind", and you'll see what I mean.

I just went and listened to the isolated vocals and (while I'm no expect), I thought I could hear Dennis on the end of these lines:

(The first): But what goes wrong

and: Where new things might be found

By the way, is it pretty much confirmed that it's Brian subtly doubling Dennis on the falsetto-ish parts in "In the Back of My Mind"?

For example, "I tried to run far way" and "I tried to rationalize"...

This is an amazing revelation. Wow. Huge. Almost as significant as finding out that Brian somewhat sneakily snuck his voice into Carl's lead of Good Vibrations on the "I" and "when" lines, which I didn't notice for years (along with most people, I'd imagine) until it was pointed out to me.

C-man, and Jon: can you point out the specific words you believe to be Dennis? Now that I listen to it, I'm hearing a number of possible words that might be him, but curious to hear other peoples' opinions.

I'm kinda floored by this, in a most wonderful way.

Before this interesting revelation, I always thought the last word of the verses sounded a bit different.  Never thought anything of it because Brian sounds different to me on this song anyway.  Very cool to find this out!

That's interesting you say that.  Before I became a hardcore fan I thought Brian was singing the whole thing because of those two words.  Then I found out Carl has the whole lead, but I still believed Brian had to be on those parts.  Good to know I was right. 

Weird (and very unfortunate) that there are two leads which both happen to be Dennis, that were eventually completely (or nearly completely) wiped for another lead singer to sing. Man do I wish those tapes for SOS and IJWMFTT hadn't been taped over.

Are there any other known alternate BB member vocals for any songs that were taped over besides Dennis? I guess we are in fact lucky to have the alternate BB member vocals for any songs at all, but I wonder if anyone else suffered the dreaded taped-over fate that Dennis did.

Yes but let's face it Brians vocal on I just wasn't made for cannot be topped by any mortal. Sublime

It seems to me it's only "dreaded"  if Dennis didn't want his vocals wiped. and I can't imagine it was a problem for him deferring to Brian's choices.  I could see  Mike, MAYBE, once in a while having a problem, but I don't get the sense that any of them really had a problem with whom Brian eventually chose to sing the leads.

Presently it would seem that only on "...Bugged..." according to Craig Slowinski.

I only meant "dreaded" in terms of what a bummer it is for us fans, today, that some alternate song versions were actually taped over and erased (not that another vocalist was simply chosen for the final version). At the time, I'm sure future box sets were the furthest thing from Brian's mind; still, we somehow are lucky that some things weren't taped over, as we have alternate versions of songs, like Mike's Please Let Me Wonder and I'm Waiting For the Day leads, Brian's Here Today lead, Billy Hinsche's Honkin' Down the Highway lead, etc.

It seems that perhaps Denny was the only BB to suffer actually be taped over when it came to choosing a different vocalist, but perhaps (and more than likely) I am incorrect in wondering that.

That's Carl.

Very cool, thanks for the info.

I was floored too when C-man pointed this out to me. But now I listen and it's pretty obvious that Dennis finishes two specific lines in the song. The exact points on the link below are at .19 seconds..."leave behind"...the second syllable of behind  the "hind" part is clearly Dennis. And...at 1.33 "might be found"...the second syllable of "found"...again clearly Dennis. There might be more traces of him in the song, but those two points Brian punches his voice out, and Dennis' in, and you know what? It works perfectly. Brian's genius for using the right voice at the right time on display again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO0l8AAEIzs

The last two syllables of both verses, for sure.

I first learned of Brian taking those high falsetto parts of "GV" from a Carl interview in 1981...Carl said his voice at the time wasn't strong enough to hit those high notes, so Brian did it for him. Later, his voice grew stronger and he had no problem hitting those high notes in concert. The writer pointed out the irony of then-current live arrangement, where Brian sang Carl's part ('cause Carl was boycotting the touring band at the time) and Bruce taking Brian's high falsetto lines. Then later, of course, I heard the bootleg mixes where one verse has just Carl's lines and the other has just Brian's, so it's real obvious. Never could hear the song the same way again, after this!

[quote author=guitarfool2002 link=topic=20776.msg514600#msg514600 date=1430437935


And don't forget the original plan for the verses of Cabinessence ('light the camp and fire mellow...') was to have Dennis singing as the narrator of the story. Now *that* would have been something...
[/quote]

I've always been intrigued by what Vosse said about it: "Dennis was going to sing it by himself and sound like a funky cat up in the mountains somewhere singing to a chick by a fireplace; very simple—and that's all there was to it."

Dennis was sidelined with an upper resp infection when he was to sing lead on Vibes. But Carl should have always been the one to sing that.

I agree. Funny enough, the the second syllable of "found" has always been one of my favorite parts of the song, the way it is sung with such longing. I must have known on a subliminal level that it sounded just like Denny, but somehow I never consciously made the connection.

A fascinating comparison is to check out the IJWMFTT alternate lead vocal (by Brian) version on the Pet Sounds Sessions set. That version sounds to be all Brian from start to finish. I think it's possible some of the chorus vocals from that version were not re-recorded for (and were used on) the final album version, but the lead vocal, on the verses especially, sounds to be a wholly unique Brian take.

The timeline is interesting to ponder. I think there are 2 possibilities:

1. Was the IJWMFTT alternate lead vocal (by Brian) version on PSS recorded first as a scratch vocal for Denny to learn how to sing the song?

2. Or was Denny's version the 1st recorded version, which Brian decided against, then leading Brian to recording the IJWMFTT alternate lead vocal (entirely sung by Brian), which Brian also then decided against, whereupon he then decided to blend small parts of Denny's initial take, and Brian re-recording Brian's own vocals surrounding those Denny parts?

3. I guess the other alternate possibility is that Brian specifically had Denny come in to record those parts after Brian's final lead had been recorded.

We'll probably never know, unless Brian remembers and spills the beans. Anyone have any theories?

I've always been amazed by how Brian managed, on a couple of spots, to sound exactly like Dennis on IJWMFTT. And so it is.   

Astonishing.

It's disguised a little because BW doesn't fade out all the way in each case.

But wow.

After years of listening to a song, you think you know it inside out and then you learn something new about it. Great discovery guys!

Listening to the "alternate" IJWMFTT just now, I gotta say this: it sounds (to me) like it's Brian AND Dennis singing the lead together all the way through! The phrasing throughout is too off to be just Brian double-tracked, and I can hear the same Denny inflections on the final two syllables of the verse lines as heard in the final mix, but here Brian is also singing over the top of them. It's similar to the Brian-Carl dual lead on the alternate GOK (which I know is a hotly debated topic, with some claiming it's actually all Carl and others all Brian, but I hear it as Brian-Carl). Same with this alternate IJWMFTT. I think Brian laid down a "demo" lead, which Denny then doubled. Then Brian decided to leave his own voice in there for this mix, but eventually decided to drop Dennis (except for the last two syllables of both verse lines), and possibly redo his own lead (or at least one of his two lead tracks). There are two track sheets extant from the Columbia 8-track vocal sessions for this song: the first, dated 3-10 (and with the notation "Dennis Tune" written down the left side of the sheet) has three sets of handwriting (probably the engineers'), which seem to indicate later revisions made prior to the date of 4-13, which is on the second track sheet (apparently the date when additional revisions, as heard in the final mix, were made). Among the later notations on the 3-10 sheet are ones for "Bryan - New Lead". This leads me to believe the "alternate" version from the PSS box set was made on 3-10, after which Dennis' lead was mostly replaced on a later (undocumented) date by a new Brian lead (probably the one we hear in the final mix). I think the only parts added on 4-13 were the group vocals that come in during the latter half of the verses, which are absent from the "alternate" mix.

Wow, wow, wow and... oh, I dunno... WOW! I'm gonna go back and listen to the alternate IJWMFTT right now with good headphones. I love that after all these years, we are still figuring out and discovering incredible nuggets of info like this which were previously unknown for decades. Amazing. And right under our noses, no less...

EDIT: Just listened to headphones now. I'm not 100% sure on the theory that Denny is on the alternate IJWMFTT from PSS. But maybe...

Parts I think could possibly be Denny, since Brian sounds a bit "off" and not quite like his usual voice:

the word "good" at 0:25

last syllable of "Inspiration" at 1:19

interestingly, last syllable of "about" at 1:45 sounds very Carl-like

I'm not sold, but I'm a solid maybe.

This has motivated me to dig in deeper with some unofficial recordings (not that I possibly have them).

Give a listen to the track labelled "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (1st Lead Vocal Overdub)" from Unsurpassed Masters Volume 14: The Alternate Pet Sounds Album Volume 2

At the very end, at 3:28, after Brian has finished his vocal take, someone else (in the right channel) quickly and slightly jokingly sings the line "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"; sounds like Dennis to me. Maybe this was left over on the tape that got taped over? It sounds like just before this, Brian is coaching Dennis how to sing it.

Would anyone that has the skills able to do some sort of digital extraction of the alternate lead to separate the doubled part so we can hear them separately? (I don't know if it is possible, but it's a thought....)

More Dennis spots?
"...in" at 0:04?
"...could" at 0:28?
"...out" at 1:40?

Agree with the Carl-like at 1:45.

And on the acapella version: at 1:21, listen to the darker(/hoarser) voice of the two singing "arou-ound". Could that be Dennis too?

Also, if we think there's an entire IJWMFTT lead vocal by Dennis buried beneath Brian's, isn't it possible that it could be on a separate track? Or would it already have been discovered and released on the PSS box set if that was the case?

No, I think it would have been released if it did still exist. The track notations on the two track sheets have "Bryan" (sic) next to all the ones labeled as lead vocals, and there's no mention of Dennis specifically, except for that "Dennis Tune" notation down the left side of the 3-10 sheet.

If that's true, it's a very interesting almost-history to consider. Brian pegged Dennis for being the lead singer of two of Brian's own most important and seminal tunes (GV + IJWMFTT).  Brian was really trying to get both of his brothers, not just Carl, to come out of their shells for leads on top-tier songs right around the same time.

Add the almost-Dennis lead for Sail On Sailor into the mix, and you have an alternate BB history that Dennis perhaps gets quite a bit more recognition and credit. Not saying that the final, released non-Denny leads on those songs aren't killer, because they are very, very much so.

Speaking of alt. vocals (and "Sail on Sailor"), did Mr. Desper say he thought that he may have had somewhere (in storage, believe) a copy of Carl singing the lead on S.O.S.?

Or am I misremembering?



Oh, and also: Brian joining Carl for those signature falsetto "I... hear the sound of a" and "When... I look" hooks in the verse of "Good Vibrations" is an example of my favorite couple of moments in all of recorded 'Beach Boy-dom' (surpassed, perhaps, only by the classic "Ahhh......." harmony sung by the whole group later in the same number).

It's been a while since I listened to the performance, but I believe that the two brothers sung it 'live' together like that during the rehearsal prior to the gig (though I cannot recall if they did it during the actual shows) in Hawaii, '67, right?

Finally, does anyone know of any other recorded times where Brian joined Carl for those two key moments of G.V. in a live setting?

I can hear Dennis doubling the verses too. It's hard to hear Dennis clearly under the reverb. His voice is definitely a lot quieter than Brian's for the most part but it pops out more on those phrase ending syllables that people mentioned... or in some cases it sound like his voice is boosted or replaces Brian's altogether.

The Brian/Dennis vocal on IJWMFTT is blowing my mind right now. I've always liked those ending syllables on "behind" and "found," but I never really connected them to Dennis until I saw this thread. The Brian lead vocal on the higher parts of Good Vibrations is also news to me. It's truly amazing how deep these recordings really are and how much more stuff you notice with each listen.

Hopefully the full Dennis-lead on IJWMFTT gets released someday, but it probably would have been featured on the Sessions box if it still existed. It's a shame that Dennis never got to sing lead on Pet Sounds, but I suppose it was for the best.

Also, hello!

I can't believe I missed this discussion back in May...  I have ALWAYS thought I heard Dennis' voice at the end of the verses to "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times," but I never put it in writing.  My dog-ears are usually right when I think I've heard something; good to know that they still work in my AARP years!

Lee

I'm sure whatever song he was set to sing, the vocal wasn't going to be "great".

Brian stated in 1990 that it was "You're So Good To Me".

I always thought Dennis should have sang the lead on Vegetables.  I love Al's voice, but he sounds a bored to me on that song.  None of the playfulness the tune deserves.

I always did think the way the voice fades at the end of certain lines in IJWMFT was awfully like Dennis. How great to have this confirmed.

I recall him saying this as well, about the Carl lead vocal.

And Brian had Dennis try singing the first verse of Sloop J B as well - would love to have all those Denny vocals as alternate takes to the familiar versions!

I have a feeling that the Denny vocals were on the same track as the Carl vocals...probably had 'em all take turns on the same track, and Carl would have been the last one. But man, Carl's vocal just...so did not work...

BTW, if Denny was supposed to sing lead on "You're So Good To Me," why didn't he sing it in concert instead of Al?

[LATER ADDENDUM]

OK, I missed the whole IJWMFTT portion of this thread! I listened to the vocals-only, and sure enough I swear I heard Denny a few times. I texted my wife and asked her to call me during my lunch break. I told her about this thread. She didn't have headphones (I told her to listen with headphones), but she listened to it via iTunes on her laptop, with the crappy laptop speakers. I heard it over the phone from those laptop speakers! She actually said, "OH MY GOD!"

Her theory is that it might actually be Brian but attempting to sound like Dennis.

My theory is this: since the obvious Dennis moments are at the ends of lines, it *is* Dennis. Brian went in to overdub his vocals on those lines, erasing Dennis's lines in the process. The louder, higher lines ("Where can I turn..." etc.) were ALWAYS sung by Brian, so he only needed to wipe out the first two lines, sung by Dennis. Why do we hear Dennis at the end of the line? I seriously doubt Brian would have intentionally thought "Hmm, I want the end of that melisma to use Dennis's voice." Too delicate an operation. One mistake and the Dennis vocal is COMPLETELY obliterated. My thought: the engineer punched out a bit too early, or perhaps the erase head on the tape deck wasn't properly in sync with the record head. That would explain why it's only really audible at the end of some lines.