The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was looking up Sunflower on Wikipedia... I'm hype for the box set, leave me alone! And I saw that All I Wanna Do lead vocals are credited to 'Love with Johnston'. Yes I know it's Wikipedia and my neighbors dog can edit it, but is this taken from anything... 'official'? I can hear almost everyone singing on the track (except Dennis, is he on it?) but I don't specifically hear Bruce.

Am I missing something? Is this an 'official' credit from somewhere? I hear clear Mike lead with some delay on his voice, and definitely Carl and Brian. I'm sure Al is there but this period is harder to distinguish Al and Brian. I don't specifically hear Bruce.

Historians?

Bruce is doing the high part. "in my mi-i-i-ind" (1:14 mins.) and the multiple "All I wanna do" (starting around 1:26 mins. and 2:04)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVis0FbvJsU

"A gentle thought comes in my mind" is all Mike. Not a Mike you usually hear, but it's Mike.

Bruce's "all I wanna do" refrain could be construed as a co-lead vocal in a way, but it is just one component of the backing vocal round. Brian and Mike sing the chorus lead in harmony. Everyone but Dennis is on it.

Yeah, one of very very few Mike falsetto performances.

WHOA. I had no idea that part was Mike. The only other falsetto of his I can think of is his parody of Brian on "Cassius Love vs. Sonny Wilson."

He sings pretty high in the chorus of "Please Let Me Wonder". Not falsetto, but likely the highest he ever sang outside of the two above.

Please Let Me Wonder isn't particularly high at all, just light. He's only singing up to an Eb and D. It's right in the middle of his usual range.

Another example of a Mike upper register moment would be "upside your head" in She's Goin' Bald (where Brian helps him out). He frequently reaches the same high A with the full-voiced yelling in All I Want to Do.

Really? Awesome! I didn't know that. I always thought Bruce came in here to help him.
Mike was/is such a great singer with a distinctive voice and I love to learn new things about his singing. Thanks guys!

There is his plaintive leap into falsetto on the latter half of the word "time" at 3:01 in Student Demonstration Time.

Yeah, it's referring to the 'all I wanna do' in the refrain. I think it's reasonable to call that the main hook for that section.

I don't entirely buy that the falsetto on 'my mi-ind' is Mike as opposed to a stealthy Bruce punch-in. Maybe it'll be clearer when the acapella comes out in July.

It will, because it is. Beyond a shadow of a doubt in this case. You'll have to suspend some disbelief and trust until then.

I'm happy to be wrong - is there evidence I'm not aware of? Seems like everyone's pretty certain that it's Mike the whole way. I only maintain scrutiny because working in audio I know how easy it is to mask cuts when there's that much delay and filtering on a vocal track.

The evidence is that it's Mike's voice and not Bruce's? 

To be clear I just meant I was open to the possibility that another member 'punched in' or joined in faint unison just for that head voice bit. Definitely not outside the realm of possibility considering they had done it before (Brian embellishing Carl's head voice notes on Good Vibes verses).

But I'll concede that on repeat listen it does seem to be entirely Mike without any help on that section. The head voice there is very pinched and there's no sustain to it - if it was Bruce it'd probably be more legato.

I do hear a faint chorus effect on the lead from 'a gentle thought...' until the end of that line - based on cursory listens I thought that could've been someone faintly doubling Mike, but more likely it's a faint double tracking by Mike or artificial double tracking via tape speed manipulation.

Yeah, that's a typical blues-phrasing. Good point.

I'm in the minority of people of really, really like SDT. Such a rocking version, great production! And Mike's singign on this one is so good! Just one of those things that I don't think any of the other Boys could've sung and come across as authentic.

It's only single-tracked, and very evident that it's Mike unassisted when the delay effects are taken away. July, I promise.

Oh, good catch! Didn't think of that one. A little wobbly, but he hits it.

These examples make me think he could get up there but didn't have much control in that register.