The Smiley Smile Message Board

Odd to see an article about “Problem Child” come up on my Facebook feed: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/watch-video-for-beach-boys-problem-child-theme-song-w460259

Wow...that is an odd thing to do an article on so many years later!

Not to be that guy, but Mike never "locked voices" with Carl on 'God Only Knows'.

Otherwise, couldn't have said it better. It's crazy though: no matter how bad the song, Carl brought so much beauty to whatever song he worked on. Even 'Problem Child' is blessed with some great vocals from him (albeit moronic lyrics).

"That guy" is AGD. ;)

:lol

If so, it'd have been written by somebody else with his name attached. And half would be wrong.

I bought the CD single for Problem Child at Strawberries in 1990 in the cut out bin for 49 cents. I still have it. I'm wondering if it's the only thing released by the Beach Boys on the RCA label?

While, that is random.  It's not even the 30th anniversary of that movie. 

While I'm not at all a fan of the song, I'd love to see a compilation of this and other songs from that era.  Maybe in an expanded Still Cruisin.  I know it's highly unlikely, but still I dream of it.

To my knowledge it is

I hate to agree (just because the quality of material from that time is lacking) but there are so many gems in The Beach Boys catalog that it would be a shame if more efforts for getting this stuff compiled better fell by the wayside. Again I'll mention the wonders of our current digital age; I wish digital releases were taken better advantage of by record companies. You don't have to truck copies of this collection to record stores, you don't have to promote it in newspapers and music magazines. Just upload the thing to iTunes and Beach Boys fans will find out about it (and buy it, because we are Beach Boys fans and will obsessively buy anything (unless you're repackaging Pet Sounds for the umpteenth time)).

It's easy money for a small bit of compiling.

Exactly! I'll never understand what the holdup for these digital releases are. It costs next to nothing!!!

(https://s27.postimg.org/xndjo6183/Vycmwmn.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/f7t2qrn3j/)upload gifs (https://postimage.org/)

Wasn't there talk about Mark Linett (etc) going through all the Beach Boys material and getting it all digitized (it's how they found the '67 Surf's Up)? THIS is the time to be getting people hyped about the Beach Boys. Sad to say, but older fans won't be around forever and now is probably the best time to get money from them. I have a feeling we'll have to wait for the copyright release date for vault material dating around 1990...2040 can't come soon enough :lol

@Smile Brian. That collection looks glorious....though the premium Love vacation tickets are probably one item people would hope not to find :lol

The "discs of pleasure" has me both intrigued and concerned....

It's the 2042 copyright-protection release!

Time for me to pre-order this beauty!

We're sure to sell 8 units by January...of 2032

Lolz Billy! :lol

Problem Child stands as one of the worst fucking songs I have ever heard. One of the nadirs of not only the BB's recorded legacy, but 80's/90's music in general. The backing vocals are a travesty. Nice one guys, way to score a hit record.

Of course this should be the bonus disc available by special order, alongside the SIP box:

(http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n295/guitarfool2002/sipnakedfull_zps48813d8d.jpg)

:lol

I (partially) disagree. While there are some VERY embarrassing things about it, especially including the "nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-whoah-oh" part... I do like the wordless backing vocal part that comes in when Carl sings "first you'll be married, with kids after awhile". That wordless backing part behind Carl's vocals there surprisingly sounds (however briefly) like classic Beach Boys backing vocals.  It's like a brief bit of magic is injected into the song.

To me, Carl's voice/vocal delivery as the lead vocalist, as well as that one cool wordless vocal part make the song listenable.

However, basically everything else about the song is either bad or wretched!

+1

Argh.. even in its reversed negative form, I knew that Mike shrug pic looked suspiciously familiar...

(http://i67.tinypic.com/14o6ts4.jpg)

I have a radio promo cd of this. It's barely used (obviously). I much prefer the radio edit to any other version.

We need GF's review of SIP naked! ;D

The stripped down "vocals up" mix of Summer Of Love featuring only Mike's rapping over a Roland drum machine are not to be missed.

The track heard the way nature intended...

I think nature would intend it to be complete silence, minus a  brief interlude featuring Bruce getting eaten by a bear.

They also dug up some fascinating bits of control room conversations and session chatter that has never been released until now. One overdub session in particular was recently discovered where a mic accidentally left open in the control room recorded Van Dyke Parks saying the phrase "Terry, what the f***?" repeatedly as he was recording an accordion part.

The accompanying booklet also has all new liner notes and session personnel credits, including finally giving proper album credit to the intern who went for coffee and danish during Mike's "Still Surfin" vocal session and can be faintly heard on the talkback asking if Mike took cream in his coffee.

Don't forget the first little bit where Bruce attempts the "Summer of love" rap only for the beta version of Pro Tools to crash and shut down in protest.

According to one anonymous insider, 50 of the CD packages will contain an exclusive USB thumb drive called "Surfin USB", featuring new remixes of the SIP tracks "Surfin" and "Still Surfin" personally supervised by Mike, Stamos, and Kool Rock-ski from the Fat Boys, with a new video montage created by Noven Jaisi for both tracks.

The inside scoop is that board member "Century Deprived" was contacted but initially refused to allow use of his trademarked term "Surfin USB" until he was promised a band-autographed baseball cap and a surfboard personally waxed by Bruce.

Typical mahagarbage from myKe luHv and a heartfelt kudos to RS for exposing the jackass that he is. Would appreciate seeing him defamed a whole lot more. Bring it on RS!!

According to someone who would know, the liner notes were done by Andrew Doe.

Payment was the vest Mike wore in the summer of love video.

For what it was, I found Problem Child to be a catchy little ditty.  I remember seeing the video for it on I think it was NBC Friday Night Videos?

Was this a radio promo single you bought or did “Problem Child�” get a commercial CD single release too?

It's a promotional copy. There's no cover sleeve with any artwork, but there's information written on the back of the disc cover: Problem Child performed by the Beach Boys. Written and Produced by Terry Melcher. Engineered and mixed by Keith Wechsley. Published by Music Corporation Of America, Inc. 1990 RCA

Are Problem Child (and possibly Forever 1992?) the only BB songs which Stamos performs drums on the studio versions of? Wikipedia lists Stamos as the Problem Child drummer (I assume meaning not just the drummer in the video, but the actual drummer on the recording).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_Child_(The_Beach_Boys_song)

I don't think anyone plays drums on Problem Child. That's a drum machine if I ever heard one.

First time I heard the song - in store at Tower Records - I thought I heard Brian on the bg's. Now i'm not so sure. Was he even at the session for this? Or too busy working on his own masterpiece, "Brian (Thank You)"?

Pretty sure he is not on it.

There was a promo CD single for "Problem Child" with a full-on front and back cover and everything. I had it for awhile, and eventually sold it because it's an awful, awful song and recording and it sat on my shelf untouched for literally over a decade. Their cover of "Crocodile Rock" is a friggin' masterpiece compared to "Problem Child":

(http://images.eil.com/large_image/BEACH_BOYS_PROBLEM+CHILD-69694.jpg)

DRUM MACHINES (AND UNCLE JESSE) HAVE NO SOUL

I'm not making this up, this is the last line of Wiki's plot synopsis for the "Problem Child" movie:

The film ends with Flo in the truck looking out from the suitcase, only to be met by a pig's rump, and the title track to the film, performed by The Beach Boys, plays over the closing credits.

even though the song is bad you still gotta love John Ritter,,,

BW stage banter 2017!

As fitting of a closing-credits use of music as "All Summer Long" was for American Graffiti.  ;D

Perfect visual...this wretched song and the image of a pig's ass on screen as it plays.

:lol

While I will admit that's a very embarrassing scene transition for the film to introduce the song,  and while the production value and production choices of this song coincidently remind me of a pig's rump... I have to say that I like this film somewhat as a guilty pleasure.

I saw in the theater… As well as the seque! I was a kid back then, and although I'm sure I was aware of this band's existence, I have zero recollection of them doing a song for the movie, or having anything to do with the film whatsoever in fact.  It was only many years later when I started becoming a hardcore geek of this band that I became aware that they had done this song, which came as a big surprise to me. That shows what a big impression the song must've left on me.
 
I hope that somebody somewhere has this song on shuffle, and it comes on directly after the song Surf's Up.  Their facial expression would be priceless.  That would be a prank on the level of the pranks pulled by the kid from the film.

Problem Child is Father of the Man!

I actually re-watched both films a couple years back.  They are surprisingly quite mean-spirited and crude, in a very unique way that is bizarre and sometimes offputting because it involves a child.  Somewhat shocking for its time, considering how many years ago these were made.  That said, it is black comedy of the darkest variety, and it does have its moments - the sequel less so!   The kid who plays Junior is very good in the role, and John Ritter elevates the material tremendously.

The only thing that would've been more embarrassing for the band is if they had done a follow up song for the sequel.  Actually, I had almost forgotten, there is a really bad second straight to video sequel with all different actors, except Gilbert Gottfried who perhaps not surprisingly returned for even that one.

A side note of trivia for anyone who is curious, the kid Michael Oliver who played Junior is the half brother of Danny Ponce who was one of the sons on The Hogan Family (he played Jason Bateman's brother).  And after Oliver agreed to do the sequel to this film, his mother essentially backed her son out of the deal for the sequel a couple days before it was supposed to go before the cameras, effectively forcing the studio to pay her son something like 10 times what was originally agreed upon.  

The studio went ahead and filmed the sequel, and then promptly sued her for extortion, and won. That basically killed this kid's career because his mother/manager was blacklisted.  

Somebody needs to track down Michael Oliver and get his recollections on what it was like to do that music video.  I hope they were all really nice to him.  I'll be willing to bet that he was probably most excited to meet John Stamos, being that Oliver was the exact age of the target audience for Full House.

I wonder if this song is getting some belated attention because of the popularity of Gilbert Gottfried's podcast. He's sung this song multiple times on the show and has talked about making the video.


For the record I like this song WAY better than a lot of other stuff they released around this time (early 90's). Carl's vocals save it , and no I've never seen the movie (thank God).

Movie is not quite as bad as you might think! Part of that might be nostalgia talking, but the first one is surprisingly not all *that* bad, particularly if you have a fondness for oddball material from that era.

It’s been a long time since I laughed as hard as I did at the Summer of Paradise set. Well done.

And now let’s get real and make this happen. We can do a GoFundMe, a Kickstarter, petitions, a march on the Capital Records tower, I don't care what it takes, let's get this done because I think, inadvertently perhaps, or more likely in a flit of passing genius, that Smile Brian has hit on something here. A comprehensive Summer of Paradise box set should happen, nay, must happen. Very bluntly, for those of us who can find a way to get a piece of the action, we’re looking at a gold mine here. The CD is on the way out and I see no better way for it to end then with this.

Beyond the obvious components (electronic, gadget-laden packaging, hardcover retrospective book, postcards, stickers, buttons, thong underwear, full-size boogie board), here is how I foresee the content of the discs.

Disc One: The US version. Simple enough.

Disc Two: The rare European version. A no-brainer.

Disc Three: The even more rare Asian version. Same as the US version, but nobody will ever know because three listens to Summer in Paradise in a row, you'll be reduced to a smiling idiot in the throes of ecstasy.

Discs Four-Six: Summer in Paradise Remastered. Remastered versions of all of the above. By remastered, I mean that the sound on each disc will just be cranked up really loud on each disc, Spinal Tap style.

Disc Seven: Stack O Tracks. All vocals removed.

Disc Eight: Stack O Vocals. All instruments removed.

Disc Nine: Stack O Silence All vocals and instruments removed.

Disc Ten: Outtakes Disc: Off the cuff freestyles from Mike Love, warm-up sessions from John Stamos’ recording sessions, etc.

Disc Eleven: Alternate versions disc. Including any and all versions performed on Baywatch and Full House with overdubs from the casts of both shows as aired on the respective programs.

Disc Twelve: Summer in Paradise: Live From Paradise! A compilation disc of live tour highlights from the era.

Disc Thirteen: The Rarities. Let's finish off all Beach Boys fanatics collections with a thorough round up of odds and ends as a nice treat. Load it up with the likes of Problem Child, Crocodile Rock, that Barbie song, etc.

Disc Fourteen: Summer in Paradise: Naked in Paradise. Terrific idea guitarfool2002.

Discs Fifteen, Sixteen, and Seventeen: Fly on the Sh-t: Studio chatter, clips of bored studio players strumming on their instruments, etc. Let's really do this right and give the completists EVERYTHING!

Disc Eighteen: Mike Love in Paradise. A sampling of the solo works Mike Love has worked on and completed since his masterwork Summer in Paradise to really round the collection out and give the buyer full value.

I think we've got a winner here.

Put me down for a disk 9.

Yet I don't know if Mike is going to want to have to pay royalties for doing a cover version of John Cage's 4′33″.

No, John Cage's silence is more melancholy.

 :lol :lol :lol :lol

Of course 2017 marks the 'albums' 25th anniversary which can only mean one thing.

MIKE AND BRUCE PRESENT SUMMER IN PARADISE LIVE

Promotion baby...Promotion!

This would be side A and B of a 45rpm bonus record or a cassette single...that format would hold the sum total of all of it, more or less.

I liked it about 10 years before discovering BBs. I thought it was very cool & that the main singer sounds fantastic! Still like it. :3d

Btw, is it really pig's derriere? I rmbr it as cow & that the song didn't play till the screen going black. Bizarre.

This song is a prime example of two missteps common to a lot of legacy acts - Taking a fluke hit as a mandate to copy it for follow-up releases, and the notion of chasing a hit by jumping on trendy bandwagons versus just doing what you do best.

Do I blame Mike who was the "captain" of this late 80's/early 90's ship in terms of new material and the band's live shows? Yes. Carl too, and whatever other elements in management, within the band, and surrounding the various labels and decisions made.

It was a song like this which helped set back whatever new cred and respect musically the band was getting as their archival material started to reappear via CD reissues and the like.

I'm not going to engage any discussions about opinions pro or con a song like this, or the SIP album, or whatever else: You either like it or you don't.

But what is still baffling to me 25-30 years after living through this stuff firsthand as a fan of the Beach Boys eager to hear more, is the notion of "how in the hell is this the *same band*?"

If the mindset which led to decisions like this Problem Child debacle and SIP were followed in 1964 when the stakes were really high...you'd have the band still surfin' and still cruisin' on their records in 1966, and their records would be relegated to the collections of those who still treasure those old Merrell Fankhauser and Bruce Johnston's Surfers' Pajama Party original vinyl pressings rather than certain Beach Boys albums and songs like God Only Knows and Good Vibrations topping the polls of critics and fans alike, getting heard and enjoyed by new generations, and continuing to sound as new and as timeless as they did 52 years ago.

Every band and artist has to shoulder some questionable or even embarrassing releases in their career, but for this kind of song to come out and an album like SIP to come out at around the same time frame as the Pet Sounds reissue, the two-fer reissues, and the GV box set accompanied by a buzz of young listeners wanting to get more into the music of the Beach Boys...it's still hard to stomach much less understand some of these decisions.

I can only assume Carl wore sunglasses in this video in the hopes that no one would recognize him. 

The song really isn't all that bad, apart from the little kids going "na-na-na-na-na". I thought it was going to be a hit.

I wasn't a fan at the time (my fandom began in late 1991), and from what I remember about 1990, I do think that this song peaking in the lower reaches of the billboard top 100 chart (like maybe #85 tops) could have been possible with enough radio airplay. I do think that the kids nyah-nyah part killed any chances of extensive airplay though.

I agree with the sentiment that the song is not too bad, I enjoy Carl & Mike's vocals.

Definitely a candidate for best Smiley thread so far this year.

It proves you can be irreverent without being rude or gross and get a damn good laugh out of it into the bargain. :lol

I watched the movie on tv a couple years later just to hear the song. The only thing I remember about it was Junior trying to impress a girl he had a crush on...and sending everyone else to the hospital.

I know many people on the board have said this before, but it boggles my mind that Carl walked out on the proposed 1995 album because he didn't think Brian's songs were good enough but sang on this and the Summer in Paradise album.

The only thing I can come up with is, he was more protective of Brian, as his troubled older brother. He didn't want them putting out anything with Brian's name on it unless it was Pet Sounds quality.