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From articles etc.. that I have read there seems to be conflicting opinions. I have read Mike Love say on more than one occassion that they wrote the song BEFORE his assassination. Whereas most people seem to say that they wrote it after. Has anyone else noticed this?

 From what I have heard, after the JFK assination, Brian was SO distraught, that he locked himself in a room and "The Warmth Of The Sun" was the result. But people MUCH more BB educated may have a different view.

Those who were there with Brian and/or Mike, please let us know exactly what went down-just the facts ma'am- :smokin

I would have to go for Mikes version, on events past he seems the most lucid.
I have one radio interview of his where he implies the song had been written at the time of JFKs death and they (he and Brian) considered changing the lyrics but did not.

Mike says the night before it happened
Brian says the night after

such a great song.
i wish Brian would dust it off and play it.

In the Warmth of the Sun podcast, Mike says they wrote the night before / into the morning of the day of the JFK assassination.

An interview with Brian (maybe on the I Just Wasn't Made For these Times documentary?), he says he and Mike wrote it after JFK had been killed.

EDIT: Yeah, I accidently said "recorded". I meant wrote.

Seeing as the track session was on 1/1/64, I would be inclined to discount this claim.

My take has always been that it's a better tale to have come up with the lyric before the assassination than after... plus as far as I recall Mike's the only person who's claimed it was written pre-11/22/63

Supposedly Al Jardine was there when it was written.  I wonder if he would remember.

On that podcast, Mike says that they wrote (not recorded) the song the night before, and into the early morning hours of the day of the assassination.  So his account says the night of the 21st into the early morning hours of the 22nd.  Right after Mike is finished speaking, Brian comes on to say that he called Mike after hearing of the assassination on the 22nd and asked him if he wanted to write a song.  He then says that it took them 45 minutes to write it, which is much less time than Mike seems to indicate.  I believe Mike on this one.  

The version I have is from the 'Robert W Morgan' radio show from 78/79 and Mike say's it was written the night before Kennedy was assasinated but they thought about changing the words to (and I kid you not) "Oh he got shot on the expressway, what a drag" :o

To me, the song being written AFTER the assasination gives it much more depth, because Brian and Mike were able to take this tragic event, and turn it into a work of emotional and timeless art.

If the song were written BEFORE the assasination, then it is merely coincidence, and shares little with the event, other than a few days in time...

In reality it was written at the time of the Kennedy assassination. The night before it was just another song Brian and Mike had written, and whether the words and music were finalised on that evening we may never know. However the events the next day may have made them look and record the song in a different way. Maybe Brian and Mike got back together and continued writing the song as Brian remembers.

As most of you know there is a big problem with Brian's version (as told in the Don Was docu)- he says that after hearing about it, he called Mike over to his office and they wrote it. Problem is that they were playing a gig in Marysville, CA that day and spent the night in a hotel.  As crazy as it sounds-the show went on, though a Sacramento show scheduled for Nov 23 was postponed til Dec 21.  So if they did write WOS after the news than it was written in a Marysville hotel, not Brian's office

As per Fred Vail's recollection.

My money's on Fred's memory.

Brian had an "office"?

Yeah, he did, from what I hear. Brian said it had a giant window with a beautiful view of LA, but other people say it was just a tiny room with no windows.

Yeah, I meant wrote, not recorded.

I wondered about Brian's "office" too. Maybe he had it as a place to write music? At the time he would have been living in an apartment, or maybe still with his parents, so maybe he needed a place where he could compose in peace.

Would Capitol have provided one? Good view from the Tower I would expect.

Isn't Fred's memory that, in the hotel on the day of the assassination,  Brian and Mike worked on the song which they had begun the night before?

The office wasn't in the Tower. Memory's a bit vague but it may have been in the 9000 building on Sunset.