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I'm dying to hear this album. Love the cover. Apparently it has a similar flavour to Ray Conniff.

It's very much like those kinds of schmaltz albums, esp. Hollyridge Strings.

I was in Princeton Record Exchange about ten years ago, and my wife and I found this gem in the Beach Boys section. The price: $29.99. Still in the shrink wrap (NOT sealed), with "F R E E" stamped in the corner -- a telltale sign it was one of Capitol's promo pressings. (I've seen others.) The vinyl was pristine -- hell, who would play it anyway? :)

Some time ago a guy in Massachusetts heard I had it, and he e-mailed me and asked if there's any way I'd lend it to him so he could burn it to a CD. He wanted the cleanest copy he could find. I asked for a huge favor in return, and so I sent him the record. He asked if he could take the shrink-wrap off because it wouldn't scan properly with the wrap. I said yeah, go for it. Sure enough, the guy did the huge favor I asked him, and he sent the record back with one of the CDs he burned -- complete with the front and back artwork, the notes on the back, and even a replica Capitol label on the CD. (Really, chances are if you have a CD copy of TMMOMW, it probably came from this guy's copy.)

A few notes of interest...there's a cover of "The Warmth Of The Sun" on it. Also, the album has "Italia," an Al Jardine instrumental. Finally, both sides contain an instrumental written by some guy named Eck who was a friend of Murry's. The guy was a plumber, hence "The Plumber's Tune."

heh...a few years ago, my wife and I had some Brianistas over for a party, and I popped in some BB-friendly CDs in the CD changer and hit "Random." A couple of guests arrived late, and one said to the other, "Hey, you recognize that?" "Yeah, it's that Murry Wilson CD we listened to on the way up!"

My favorite cut is The Happy Song, perhaps by the same plumber, I can't remember. But if you ever need a cheesy, overly-perky theme for a game show, The Happy Song will make you very happy indeed.

Some years ago on eBay, auctioned off was a lead sheet of one of the songs on Murry's album in Brian's hand with the composer  listed as Brian Wilson (it wasn't Warmth Of The Sun). Anyone know what song this was?

"Heartbreak Lane"

So is that really a Brian composition, and is it any good?

It's been said Brian wrote that Italia song with Al too, but I think Murry would have played it up had Brian really written those songs. Besides they sound nothing like his style. The album is pretty boring, if well executed.

My favourite Murry Wilson song is not on there - 'The Colonels song' a KFC jungle, probably because I like KFC..

This album is really boring. I have to say I like Italia the best.

And I agree with matt-zeus, The Colonel's Song is much better than anything on Many Moods.

I just did a quick listen to the album. Alot of the material is just normal generic stuff. But, Heartbreak Lane and especially Island In The Sky stand out. In fact, Island In The Sky bears a resemblance to Til I Die. The sophisticated chord progressions (the bridge to Hearbreak Lane goes in some unexpected directions and is not a normal 8 bar section) lead me to believe that Brian may have contributed two (uncredited) songs to this album. Murry was a songwriter, but he was no Henry Mancini.

Thanks for that. Whenever I'm going to think again I'm going over the top in terms of my own Beach Boy mania I will just have to gently remind myself that there's actually people playing the Murry Wilson record on their car stereo. :)

To really appreciate this record you have to wear a smoking jacket and have a few martinis. 

It plays on an endlesss loop tape in my home elevator.

     The Murry album is now being planned for reissue on CD by Ashley Warren thru the Astralwerks label.

Was reissued on CD in Japan a coupla years ago.

This is my guilty pleasure when it comes to um... nice tunes in a responsible AOR setting without the evil weed...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418JWY3H15L._SL160_.jpg)

any more fans out there?

Heard it a few years ago. Not intending to listen again soon.

I have a really nice copy of the Murry album on vinyl; I've actually never listened to it.  I have the Gary Usher album with a different (not as cool) cover.

a good friend of mine has an LP copy. it is also stamped "FREE" as a previous poster said.
it's basically the sort of thing you'd skim right past if you didn't know who murry was.
fairly bland instrumental sort of stuff. still, it's an awesome obscurity to own if you can get your hands on it.
does anyone know how murry talked capitol into releasing it? probably just to shut him up, hey.

First, he made the Capitol A&R head honcho defecate on a copy of The News Of The World.
Then, he threatened to take his glass eye out.
The exec simply cut his losses at that point.

 :-D

I think the loss was subtracted from Beach Boys's royalties.

Was that the previous Black Monday in the USA? I mean, when the BBs stock nosedived and nearly surfaced again amongst the antipodes?
The current crisis is beer money compared to THAT one...

i heard brian went away to mexico and murry had spent all the money brian gave him to buy paper plates and defecate on them on glass eyes and recording equipment instead, and when he came back brian was really angry until he heard "the plumber's tune" and admitted murry was on to something. there's also this creepy bootleg of brian bursting in during the "Betty's Waltz" sessions and trying to boss him around.

art, my friend, that is the most intriguing explanation of the history of the album that I've ever seen. Thank you for your insights; it sure gives listening to schmaltz another point-of-view of the mind of Murry; he's a genius too, ya know.

I heard that when you play 'Two Step, Side Step' backwards at 16 rpm, you get a speech from Charles Manson, with nothing but praise about the sheer talent that Murry has.
Could that be true?

was there actually a 78rpm pressing of Two Step Side Step ?

I heard he got a little schizoid during the sessions at one point, believing that his music was inspired by God and would be played in churches across the country one day. During the recording of "Plumber's Tune", he had a broken toilet brought in the recording studio and had plungers for all of the session musicians. Only Carol Kaye grabbed a plunger, out of pity. Mike Love famously just kept shaking his head over and over again when he visited the studio the day of the fiasco, offering Murry some of his apple juice before he left in disgust.  Murry was trying to create a specific 'mood' for the recording, months before the Beatles did the same for Sgt. Pepper's, but the rest of his family called him crazy for his avant-garde antics.

A few weeks later George Martin stopped by the studio and kept going on about Murray's amazing production techniques on "409", and how the Beach Boys vocals had never sounded as good since, especially since Brian took over the production. Later on, the two broke into an impromptu cover of "Tutti Frutti", with Murry singing. Al Jardine walked in during the famous meeting and still regrets not getting it on tape to this day.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mlmbtzhw0ei/murrypsychsus.wav (http://www.mediafire.com/file/mlmbtzhw0ei/murrypsychsus.wav) - Check it out! This is a session excerpt from the beginning of the "Many Moods" period. EXTREMELY PSYCHEDELIC! After his family heard this they shot him up with thorazine and the result was the sterile album we hear today.

Trippy man  :-D

That was from the "Italia" sessions, by the way. Boy, Al's eyeballs must have been popping out of his skull when heard that imaginative treatment of his song.

There have been other "Many Moods" albums.  I have one of Mancini.   I can't recall the others.   This is a fun era of music to explore.  Not just the music, but the album covers and the style and attitude of the time.   Someone said the music is to be enjoyed with a smoking jacket and martini.  I would add that one should have some reading material appropriate for browsing while listening to this music.  I would suggest Dumb Angel 4, and a 1965 issue of Playboy Magazine.   Also, this music is best played on a vintage console stereo.  Not for the sound, but for the style and ambience. ;D

Ah, those were the days... bachelor pads, and smoking wasn't bad for you, it was even endorsed by family G.P.'s with their own favourite brands (Chesterfield was a firm favourite)... seemingly hangovers did not exist, and working was not an option... and the babes never got pregnant...

Murry Wilson and vintage porn should not be combined.

 ;D

No. They don't mix shhyncopate that well...