The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey Guys

I was looking at the back of the Summer Days vinyl sleeve the other day and each of the members say a bit about the album, and i found this interesting what Brian said. He said 'And then there's Denny who fell asleep in the camper truck Parked outside the studio the day he was supposed to sing a lead'. So I was thinking about the song Sandy. The backing track was layed down during the Summer Days sessions and no vocals were recorded. So was Dennis supposed to sing the lead on that song?

No, I believe it was You're So Good To Me.

However, I can imagine him singing Sandy.

I thought this was going to be a 'Grease' movie thread  8)

Your so good to me.   Hmmmm would love to have heard a version of Denny's singing it

I would love to hear Dennis' take on Sail On Sailor, if it exists.

I obviously would love to hear any lead vocal variants. I'm not sure how well Dennis's range would have worked for "You're So Good To Me." I'm also not sure how his voice would have worked on "Sail on Sailor." I think that "Slip on Through/I'm Going Your Way" type of voice *may* have worked.

But neither of those songs jump out as if the first thing that pops into my mind is how Dennis was suited for them.

Ironically, Mike's idea of a Dennis-style lead on "Getcha Back", especially in light of, say, his late 70s voice, seems like a more obvious fit.

If I had to drop someone from the band into "YSGTM" and "SOS", sticking with how they sounded when those songs were recorded, I'd probably go with Al on "YSGTM" and Carl on "SOS."

Carl did a bang up job on SOS live in later years.

I thought Carl's lead on the 1995 recording of "Sail on Sailor" on MIC was great. Even though some of the instrumentation is a bit 90s-keyboardish, and it sounds like it was taken from a house mix DAT or cassette or something, it's still wonderful. I'm glad they didn't let the slightly sub-par mix/fidelity on that recording keep them from including it.

I wonder if they have even a rough mix of the show from the 80s or 90s where Blondie popped in and sang SOS.

I didn't even know about its existence! That sounds pretty cool...

I'm going off a vague memory of Blondie's memory. I think a couple years ago he gave a phone interview (or print interview) where he mentioned being at a BB show in the Carl era (so I'm guessing probably between the late 80s and mid-late 90s) and singing the song.

Billy Hinsche and Bobby Figueroa also of course sang the lead at various points in the 80s (and perhaps early 90s).

Al also did a great job on YSGTM live when I saw them in 1991.

If Dennis was going to sing YSGTM and fell asleep in his truck, why didn't Brian just wake him. If I were Dennis and, and I had no lead vocals and few prominent backgrounds parts on the album (after being all over "Today" vocally), I would want to be awakened from my nap.

:lol Exactly! 

I guess Brian was like "you snooze, you lose".

Literally.

Al also sang it with his "Family & Friends" band in 1999 and sounded good there too. There are a couple of Brian-centric leads I wish they'd toss Al on the current Brian/Al tour, rather than mostly handing Al a few Mike car song leads.

http://members.tripod.com/~fun_fun_fun/8-27-95.html

Ah, that's one. I was also recently reading an old thread where someone mentioned seeing a camcorder video of the 1997 tour where Carl was seated playing guitar and Blondie sang "Sail on Sailor." So perhaps he did it a few times over the years.