The Smiley Smile Message Board

A couple of people put In the Back of My Mind on their worst-of compilations.

I know that some people don't like this song, and some people love it. I personally love it, but it's true that Dennis struggled with it. As a non-singer, I would think that this is song that is extremely difficult to sing. So, is it the song, or the singer that make people dislike it? Would it sound a heck of a lot better with a different singer?

If so, who? Who could sing those odd rhythms and still do justice to the introspective nature of the song? Maybe it's not necessarily a Beach Boy? Who could cover this song well?

I wonder what Mike would've made of it. I think it's the shoddy double tracking against a lovely track that causes people to dislike it. I love it too myself.

The song's exquisite. A major achievement.

Amy- I think you pretty much nailed it. The vocals just kinda don't do it for me - I don't hate the song by any stretch, but I find I skip it when listening to Today more often then I listen to it. The backing track is pretty great though, it's almost "Let's Go Away For Awhile, Part 1"

Dean 

I think it would've worked better as an instrumental. It's not just the vocals themselves...it's the *rhythm* of the vocals that bother me. It sounds clunky and forced. I don't think any other singer could've made it work.

Yes the double tracking is a little off in places, but double tracking is hard if you're not experienced with it.  The song isn't hard to sing, Denny just didn't have much double tracking experience.  I still like his vocal though because he put so much emotion behind it, and that really worked well with the sadness of the lyric.  Such a beautiful yet haunting track.

Wow, I'm surprised that people don't like this. I always thought it was a given that this was a BB gem. I love the mournful anxsty feel of this track. I hear it as one of those songs that's a precursor to Pet Sounds. I'm amazed that this has made people's worst of lists!

It would've been a brilliant instrumental.

I used to not like this song either, but I've grown to love it over the years. The double-tracking is pretty bad, but I think that's part of what I like about it. Brian obviously decided to do a quick Double-track as they mixed it down. Great way to end an album.

I wouldn't I put it on a "worst of" comp, but it is a little frustrating given how brilliant the instrumental is.  I can appreciate the heart-wrenching effect of Dennis's vocal, but the results are a bit too messy. A listen to the Unsurpassed Masters single-tracked vocal take(s) really work best for me.

Also, in the finished track the vocal seems loud over the instrumental.

Its a nice instrumental and the first and second verses of the song are very good.

Yeah, that part is alright. It's that damned tempo change that does it for me.

This song is a tricky one. It's from Side 2 of Today, so one is supposed to like it, but I don't. And Dennis is the lead singer, so you're supposed to like his (rare) lead vocal, but I don't. And most BB biographies/books praise this song, but I still don't get it.

Then, I hear the backing track only, and it blows me away. So I guess maybe this one would've/could've been an instrumental, but then you're second-guessing Brian, at the height of his genius.

The song is anti-climactic after "She Knows Me Too Well", that's for sure. I think the best vocalist for this particular song would've been Brian, but then he would've hogged the entire Side 2 of Today. Which, come to think of it, would've been fine... :police:
 

I don't put it as a worst-of, but it is pretty low on the scale of songs from that album, and for that matter, of BBs songs from that great era. I don't like Dennis' vocal or the song itself, personally.

What about the live version fron ten years later on the BEACHAGO tour? Even though he flubs some lines and the sound is crappy, Denny's California soul really comes through!

And see...that's what makes me dislike it even more. It gets all this praise, and besides the track itself, I can't stand it.

I absolutely love it...call me crazy, but it's one of my favorites. Vocals and all.

Contrast it with "Do You Wanna Dance", from the same album.  Now THERE'S a tight-ass Denny double-track.

That's a good point.  Maybe that one was easier for him, for whatever reason.  Since In The Back of My Mind is a ballad, perhaps that made the task more difficult.  Either way, it's never really bothered me.  All of the boys, even Brian, messed up double tracking at one point or another.  I think it adds character to the vocal in many cases, including this one.  Brian must have thought so too, since he didn't make Denny do it over again. 

It always seemed like the melody line for this was probably written as more of an afterthought, and Dennis obviously had some trouble singing it.  I still really like the song, though.  The backing track is genius, very modern.  It's also really hard for me to hate a Dennis vocal.  He sung with such heart and earnesty, you can hear him put 100% in everything he sang, even if the double tracking sounds off in a few spots.  Doesn't seem to bother anybody in Girls on the Beach.  I love the middle section: "I try to run far away" with the pizzicato underneath.

I don't think another member of the band could have pulled it off any better, or made it a more commercial "hit" sounding song.  Just an odd, introspective, love it or hate it type of song.

It's a nice bridge into the glaring oddness of "Bull Session". A nice remix could give a different prespective on it, perhaps - mix the vocal slightly lower, maybe cut the second vocal track off and fatten the first one. It wouldn't the definitive version, but it might help people into the song a little more...

I absolutely love it as is. such a great tune, and the double-tracking really isn't that off.  the only really glaring spot is on the very last "my mind", which to me only adds to the song's charm. and as someone else said, there are a lot of double-tracked vocals out there that aren't perfect.  not just the Beach Boys.  he nailed the middle part, in fact.
the pizzicato strings and the weird swirling fade at the end are some of Brian's finest work.

i think Brian, Carl, or Al could have tackled this one. but Dennis really did give it the emotional oomph it deserved.
haven't heard that live Beachago version.  can anyone help me find that?  I'd also love to hear the instrumental track.

Brilliant song.

Here's the instrumental track: http://download.yousendit.com/910ACA335E487B25

Pretty odd it hasn't seen a commercial release anywhere.

Carl and Brian doubled Denny on the bridge (sung in unison).

Thanks for posting the track Ebb.  I haven't heard it in awhile...I forgot how brilliant it was.  Everyone should listen to this, even if they don't like the song all that much.  It's Brian at his pre-Pet Sounds arranging best.  I can't remember who said it but I read somewhere someone describing this song as Brian allowing the world to hear a Pet Sounds track a year early. 

Someday I'd love to hear this song with just ONE lead vocal track, with the double only coming in for the two lines, "I try to run far away, from thoughts I shouldn't try to keep away" and "I try to rationalize that someday I might realize."

Like this?

http://download.yousendit.com/D202CC7030C6B5E7

That's much better.

A-Freakin'-MEN. Well, to the instrumental. I haven't heard the remix, as I just got to work and I can't play music here!

Thanks so much for those.  Wow, what a beautiful song.  There are some strings/horns overdubs missing from the instrumental track, and it would be interesting to hear the track with those overdubs intact.  The single tracked version sounds fine, but I'm one that likes the song the way it was released.  I could hear Leslie Gore singing this one (with some slight gender adjustments to the lyrics).

yeah those mp3's are great.  thanks a ton...!


that reason alone makes this one of the coolest tunes in the Beach Boy catalog. 
I'd like to see Brian and his band dust this one off and play it.  I'm sure Brian is proud of it?

Yes - that was great.  Thanks for posting that!

Even in that wonky mix, just hearing the one vocal track makes the song more intimate and powerful, somehow.

Didn't Brian rerecord the song, with a new bridge, circa LOVE YOU? I wonder if it's releaseable.

Wow i always suspected that a single tracked lead vocal on this song would improve it...and now we have proof. Thanks! This is the way it should have been released. definitely more intimate...and easier to see/hear why Dennis was the right guy to be singing it.

Absolutely. I'm baffled by those who don't love this recording, remixed or not. Dennis' voice, at this point in his life especially, was perfect for this. It captured the doubt and the anguish and the hurt in the lyrics and the melancholy of the instrumental. It wouldn't have been convincing if sung by a smooth crooner. And comparing his vocal with Do You Wanna Dance is like apples to oranges.

I think you are correct about the signle track vocal.  I can understand what Brian was looking to get with the double tracked vocal but they quit before they got the double tracked vocal right.  A single tracked or mostly single tracked vocal might have been best take in any case. It would be interesting to hear this done by an accomplished jazz singer, like Nat King Cole perhaps.   I would still probably like Dennis's version the best though.  I consider this song an eye opening accomplishment for a neighborhood garage band best known to this point for making a string of great adolescent fad songs.  To anyone then who happened to be paying attention, this song demonstrated the enormous talent that was lurked under that image.

I think a big part of it was that Dennis is able to perfectly capture the bridge from adolencence to adulthood in his timbre.  He may not have been consciously trying to do that (in fact, probably couldn't have sung it any differently), but maybe Brian knew he'd be be able to capture that special quality if he used Dennis as the vocalist.  The singer sounds just SOUNDS like someone full of doubt, anxiety, love, and bewilderment all at the same time.

Wow, that remix is AWESOME.

This song is definitely the first sign that Brian's paranoid schizophrenia was sneaking into his work.

After I downloaded it, the song didn't play and my browser and email program wouldn't connect to the next. Related?  Idiosyncratic?

I'd like to hear it, but don't want the problems back again......