The Smiley Smile Message Board

There were a few rumblings awhile back that the guys who have recently done orchestral overdub albums for Aretha Franklin and Roy Orbison were working on a (presumably) similar Beach Boys project. (Interview here: http://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/interviews/5157-a-brand-new-aretha-the-interview.html )

I'm guessing the result is this listing currently up on Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BYPQB1P

This is decidedly far less interesting than opening up the archives for unreleased BB material, but I can certainly at least hope this is another shot in the arm for the BBs and their catalog.

For those unfamiliar with the Franklin and Orbison projects, they consist of taking the old/vintage recordings and rejiggering them mainly by adding an orchestra (the Orbison album also featured partially re-recorded band backings provided mainly by Orbison's sons).

The Orbison album was career-spanning, so it had 60s vintage stuff but also a few of his late 80s tracks. It'll be interesting to see if a similar BB release does anything beyond the obvious 60s hits.

The Orbison album was mixed. I thought a few of the tracks sounded interesting. I thought the "rock" songs, the uptempo numbers, sounded pretty goofy with orchestral overdubs. It works much better of course for ballad and mid-tempo pop songs.

The Wrecking Crew were all the orchestra Brian needed.

What I worry about is that this team of Patrick and Reedman seem to just do the same thing over and over. They've apparently done this to Elvis, Aretha, and Orbison already. It seems a bit cookie-cutter. It's apparently the trendy thing to do with 60s catalogs now.

I'd like to think this will get more eyes on the BB and their catalog and eventually facilitate more archival releases. But we're all getting older and they need to just open the archives. Hopefully this release isn't happening *in lieu* of something else.

But as Howie Edelson recently said about George Harrison, I'll apply it to the BBs: Carl and Dennis are only getting deader, and the remaining fans only want the archival stuff more and more.

California Girls with a full string ensemble? No thanks.

What if they did the entire Sunflower album?

I think the deal with these symphonic overdubs albums is that they're for the masses and are filled with largely recognizable song titles. I would expect a tracklisting that resembles a truncated "Sounds of Summer", with perhaps a few variations or odd selections here and there.

Truth be told, if they are indeed giving the BBs the Orbison treatment, the tracklisting might resemble Johnston's "Symphonic Sounds" album from 1998 (weirdly released during one of the more turbulent eras for the band).

I'd rather see a remix of "Sunflower", along with a boxed set with outtakes, etc., than orchestral overdubs on the songs.

SIP with an orchestra? ;D

I've genuinely been curious for years if multi-tracks for SIP are still extant, which would be required if God forbid they tried to use, say, the title track on an album like this.

Did they make DAT backups? Or are the multitracks rotting away on an old Macintosh Quadra hard drive?

Yeah, I wonder what happened to those “tapes”. Does Bruce have them with his songwriting demos he keeps teasing about?

The Mike and Bruce Show is doing a symphony concert in a Milwaukee suburb in August .