The Smiley Smile Message Board

Not neccessarily hit singles, or even charting singles, but I just wanna know what Beach Boys 45's Dennis Played the drums on, y'know for my personal file.....up in my noggen.

Surfin Safari/409
Ten Little Indians
Shut Down
Surfer Girl
In My Room
Don't Worry Baby
Little Honda
Dance, Dance, Dance
When I Grow Up To Be A Man
Then I Kissed Her
Gettin' Hungry
Wild Honey
I Can Hear Music
Rock and Roll Music
It's OK
Good Timin'

There are undoubtedly more but these are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.


*(Surfin' USA probably has a studio drummer at least augmenting DW's part, if not playing all of it, can't remember his name...it's not Hal Blaine)
*(Little Deuce Coupe has been widely reported to be Hal Blaine but new info seems to indicate it was actually Dennis)
*(Alan Boyd says I Get Around may have both DW and Hal Blaine edited together)
*(Do It Again has Dennis with another drummer overdubbed on top of his part)

He probably was also on Friends, Honkin Down The Highway, and Child Of Winter

the drums on When I Grow Up are amazing. always assumed that was Hal

Phantom drummer on "SUSA" is Frank... errrr, someone or other.

Check out this cool site:

http://www.beachboysarchives.com/ (http://www.beachboysarchives.com/)

Frank Devito is the name of the "Surfin' USA" drummer, although as Jon says, Dennis may be on there too...parts of it definitely sound like him.  Unfortunately the original ("Stage One") masters seem to be missing, so it may be impossible to find out.  There was a great discussion of this on the Shut Down board a few months back, and one of the posters there tracked down Mr. Devito and chatted with him.  He provided his session log book with the date of the session...but there's more than one date for that song, so it's a very intriguing story that would be too long to get into here.

"I Get Around" has Dennis on drums and Hal paying something else at the same time...could be brushes on timbales (which is what Hal played on "Hawaii"), or it could be a second drum kit (like on "Memphis Beach"/"Carl's Big Chance"), but it's the double-time parts you hear during the guitar/organ fills between verses that are Hal.  The basic drum part is Dennis.

John Guerin (of the Byrds) is the overdubbed drummer on "Do It Again" (after Dennis did the basic track).

Definitely Dennis on "Child Of Winter" and "Honkin'"...and both Dennis and Ricky on different parts of "It's OK".  Probably NOT Dennis on "Friends" (more likely Jim Gordon).

David pretty much confirmed the whole thing by recalling a substitute drummer on one session, down to his drum set-up. I think even Jon now accepts it.  ::)

Oh, Dennis is also drumming on "Cottonfields" and POSSIBLY on "Darlin'" (the only available documentation lists Dennis as the only drummer, so it just depends if the track used is truly the original Redwood track, or a recreation by the Boys...Desper says "Time To Get Alone" was a recreation by the Boys, so maybe "Darlin'" was too...)

it sure sounds like Jim Gordon

There has been a huge disservice to the BB's as a band perpetrated by the journalists who continue to tell us the Wrecking Crew played on all the BB's sessions after the first couple of LP's. No, that didn't happen. Pet Sounds is the first and perhaps only pre-Friends BB's LP that is truly dominated by the Wrecking Crew, only one track That's Not Me features any BB's on instruments. True research will show you the BB's as musicians played a major part of all the rest.

Summer Days is mostly all "wrecking crew," with the BB only on (I think) Then I Kissed Her, Girl Don't Tell Me, and Girl from NYC. And the latter is a mix of the crew plus Bruce, Carl and Al.

Even on the tracks that are mostly "Wrecking Crew", Carl was almost always on guitar, and Brian was often on piano.  Until "Pet Sounds", then it went to "Wrecking Crew"-only most of the time.

And You're So Good To Me is the Boys as well. Plus the last two tracks on the album are either accapella, or feature just a piano, bringing up a full five tracks that are pure BBs [and Ron Swallow]. So Summer Days is "about half", not mostly all when you factor in Girl From NYC, Carl and Brian's appearances on most of the other tracks as well...

Okay so SD&SN!! has 12 songs the latter two of which have no backing tracks, leaving 10.

Of these, 3.5 are BB songs and 6.5 of are "wrecking crew" songs, which include the three hit singles: Help Me Rhonda (#1), Let Him Run Wild (#3), California Girls (#3). Two of the BB songs ended up as b-sides to hit singles, Girl Don't Tell Me and You're So Good to Me, plus Then I Kissed Her which was a hit single in England.

yeah the BB were good musicians etc, but clearly Brian was by this point writing his major songs for "the crew"

But the point is the Crew has been credited for many years by lazy journalists for playing all the instruments on nearly ALL the BB's post '63 hits and greatest LP tracks and anyone who takes the time to really look will see this is not even close to the truth. Again, the BB's played a significant role as musicians on some of their very best material.

Fair enough I guess. How about that Dennis Wilson organ-playing on Good Vibes  ;)

A major contribution to their best single.  Dennis may not have drummed on it, but his organ-playing provides the perfect "churchy" vibe.  It's not a complicated part by any means, but it's one of those parts where "feel" is everything.

It's so funny --

When I purchased the box set, back in 95, 96, and knew nothing about the instrumentation, I remember listening to the 60s stuff and thinking how distinctive Carl's guitar solos were -- and he had solos in lots of songs.

Just a year or two later, I delved into the internet stuff and decided that Carl had played on nothing. Or just the first couple of LPs. Everyone said the wrecking crew did it, and there was no shortage of folks (Carol K.) willing to take credit for everything the group recorded.

But in the last couple of years, there has been a healthy restoration of equilibrium. Partly because people are seeing the BBs more as a band again (a worthy exercise) and less willing to take anecdotes and celebrity journalism at face value. We now know that the Boys are all over their records.

And what my ears told me 10 years ago is, indeed, the truth. Carl is all over those records. And so is Dennis, and Brian, and etc.