The Smiley Smile Message Board

Why didn't that part make the single version? Does anyone know they decided to cut it away?

I'm talking about that hum di dum hum di dum uuh uuh part before the chorus hits back again. After hearing that on the smile sessions the bridge just sounds full and completed to me, and it gave me an answer to why they had that weird fast fadeout on the single version before the last chorus.

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Thanks for answer!

Oh I see, I love that part, to me the bridge sounds more completed with it.

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I like the hum di dum hum part too but for some reason kinda reminds me of a Disney movie song...  although I can't place it!

Brian may have wanted to use the extended bridge all along, but had to trim it down to first release it as a single; and keep in mind that the single was already long enough as it was.

At 3:35, it was the longest song to hit #1 in 1966. The next highest was Paint It Black which was 3:19; and coincidentally, the previous #1 single that was longer than GV was (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction at 3:45.

Most hit singles then were three minutes or less, and had the cut section been included, the song would have been closer to four minutes, which wouldn't have been feasible then. I actually didn't notice how long the song was for the time period until I read about it in Mike's book.

Had SMiLE been properly released back then, the extended bridge probably would have been included on the album version. But instead, the single version was slapped onto Smiley Smile (against Brian's wishes) and it basically became the official version at that point.

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The only time he wanted an extended bridge, was during the June 16th and 18th sessions. These were very strange, basically amounting to the development of an alternate of just VCVC-F structure, fade being that same bridge 2, extended enormously. As VCVC were largely drumless, these versions weren't typical single fare, much less the toppermost of the poppermost.

For every other session, Brian's preferred lengths of every section can be traced through session tapes. He never pursued an extended bridge bar the 2 sessions above.

This isn't true. It became the official version when Brian created a final mix and released it as a single in 1966. There's no evidence that for Smile, Brian would've gone back to the tapes, included some random backing vocals he didn't use, and edited it back together. It seems he was done with the song

Like A Rolling Stone, Summer 1965: 6 minutes long. That was the one which first helped kicked down the doors in terms of single length. It was as much radio commercialism and all that as it also was pressing long singles onto 45rpm that sounded good. Radio did not want to play something more than 3 minutes, but with Dylan the listeners and fans seemed to push them into playing the full version when this was unheard of. The thing with the Dylan single was it hit #1 on Cashbox charts but #2 on Billboard, and #1 in many regional surveys, so the argument could be did it really hit #1. I'd argue yes, others would say no.

But in terms of groundbreaking singles in both length that radio would play and a label would press as well as the content of the song itself (and its success), Like A Rolling Stone ranks high on nearly every list as the one that really opened the floodgates so to speak when it hit in 1965.

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