The Smiley Smile Message Board

According to Al’s Facebook, he will be announcing a new Christmas single entitled “Sunshine to Snowflakes” today. It looks like it’s already up on digital vendors.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0koOGcw9xRA

Here’s the cover art:
(https://i.imgur.com/vwFLHHF.jpg)

No autotune!

Thanks! Link doesn't work for me. But I guess that's because it is blocked in Germany. Will try it later.
I added the song also to the Christmas Rarities topic

Nice! Very bouncy, catchy.....great singing by Al too! Definitely no auto tune on this one!!

Do we know who wrote this?  I like it!

Here’s the announcement from aljardine.com:

Al Jardine's new single "Sunshine to Snowflakes," is a 60's flavored rockin’ tune that tells a unique Christmas story. Al is joined by his son, Matt, on gorgeous vocal harmonies and the song, penned by songwriter Deborah Arman Lent, was produced by Michael Lent, longtime guitarist for Barry Manilow. Come along for the ride as Al Jardine takes you on a West Coast to East Coast Christmas journey…sunshine to snowflakes!

Thanks!

Disgraceful!  ;D

The song is ok. 

Song is nice, but man I love that part right after the 2:00 mark....Al's voice sounds so darn good there. I wonder if he tried to double-track his vocals on this, I think it would've given it more of that 60s feel they were going for.

Overall, it's a nice little tune. I hope it goes up on Apple Music at some point.

I love it! Go Al!

The song can be streamed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0koOGcw9xRA

I haven't a chance yet to give it a good listen, but man, Al's voice sounds great as always. Hope he gets to record more leads for either a Brian album or an album of his own.

My first impulse it to say this one is better and a little bit less of a "novelty" sort of thing compared to 2015's "Hurry Up Hurry Up Santa Claus."

Above all, I dig that Al's staying active and putting stuff out. Al maintaining a solo career and *also* going full time in Brian's band is really the ideal scenario.

Beat's the hell out of "Santa's Goin' To Kokomo"! The question that begs to be asked is will myKe luHv listen to it?? Huh?

"℗ 2017 Deborah Arman Lent"

Same here for NL. >:(

Probably as soon as Brian & Al listen to Unleash the Love.

I'm iffy on the lyrics, but man the overall sound is terrific. And Al sounds SO great!

Can this be purchased anywhere, I don’t see it on iTunes.

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0788CY2K8/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1513393804&sr=1-16&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Al+Jardine&dpPl=1&dpID=51xoPLPH7CL&ref=plSrch

The art looks so cheap and tacky. Couldn't they just use a photograph of Al as Santa or something?

I now had the chance to listen to it. Al's voice is great, we know that.
But I don't think the song is that good and I hate the Beach Boys-parody like background vocal-arrangements. Mike uses stuff like that on his solo recordings (his new recording of "Alone on Christmas day" got destroyed by that imo) and Al at least in this case has done the same. I'm always up and happy for Al releasing new material. But I think he deserves much better than this (like NPP, that's how his voice should be used imo).
But not to forget, this isn't supposed to be a statement from Al as an artist but probably just a fun thing to do for him every now and then. Therefor I can appreciate it.

What so you mean he deserves better? He didn't have to record it.

I mean that Al always deserves great material. Imo he didn't get it here. Still, mind my last sentence in the above post.

Al's voice is amazing without the qualifier "for a 75 year old guy" but when you add that, his voice is impossibly good. Not sure about the lyrics yet, but I do like the coast-to-coast aspect of the song. The beginning guitar riff reminds me of a less powerful version of the intro for It's A Beautiful Day.

The background vocals sound generic overall. I would love to hear some prominent bass background vocals and maybe some high-end harmonies in the mix as well, but Al never asked my opinion.

For those who cannot watch/listen to it on You tube (me included) It’s now out on Spotify! Al sounds great (as usual)!

Yeah, I think its a very average song but always great to hear Al's voice on something new.

Good vocals by Al. Song and the arrangement...not good. Sounds like a cheap advertising jingle that some local furniture store would run on the radio.

Al could sing the phonebook and i would listen! :hat

Maybe... I think that would betray his dorkdom though, just like this light piece of fluff.

Can't vastly disagree with other posts. Al's voice sounds BETTER and BETTER seemingly as time goes by.

The song is innocuous at absolute worst. I probably like the *song* itself a bit more than the "Hurry Up Santa Claus" track from 2015 (though both songs are kind of novelty bits). But "Sunshine to Snowflakes" does sound very "demo-ish" on the backing track/production side of things.

Al needs a hook up with a producer and songwriter that give him material that will allow him to use his great voice. I dig Al singing on Brian's stuff, but that's only going to happen so often and Al will only get a few of the leads.

No offense to Michael Lent, who I'm sure is a fine guitarist. But his bio indicates he plays with Barry Manilow and does TV soundtrack work and Broadway work, and his studio work has been with David Foster, Jeffrey Osborne, and that ilk. I think even Joe Thomas in comparison might sound like AC/DC compared to some of that stuff.

I think Al's simple production style on some of the "Postcards" tracks like "California Feelin'" would be great. So I think Al could still just produce himself, but he needs an engineer or "executive producer" to push the project along, and some good writers to augment what I'm sure are some good Al-penned songs in the vaults. I have no doubt Al has enough built up tracks to just make a "Postcards 2" without having to record another note. Hopefully his club show point to Al getting more motivation to do more of his own stuff.

Someone needs to do a Kickstarter for Al to find enough money to pay Jeff Lynne to produce him.

He has Brian Wilson.... :hat

Unfortunately, I don't envision Brian, if approached by Al, writing and producing a full album for Al. Al would probably never ask of course.

Al seems quite content to just hang with Brian and be there for whatever Brian asks of him. Great for Al, great for their relationship. Not as great for folks who want to see more stuff from Al.

But the solo "storytellers" gigs are a good step. Hopefully we'll see either a live album culled from those shows, or some other recording project from Al.

In my opinion the only thing this song is missing is a robo-McGrath yelling “snowflakes, sunshine”

Al's already on it.....

(http://www.rap-up.com/app/uploads/2010/02/watw-17.jpg)

Rap Jardine! ;D