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I've never heard this until now. Supposedly it was recorded around 1963, a year after "The Surfer Moon" by Bob and Sheri was recorded and released and before another version of the song was recorded by The Beach Boys.

It's supposedly actress Vickie Kocher singing the lead, along with what sounds like Brian Wilson and maybe Bob Norberg.
Is this thing legit? I never knew Brian recorded another version of the song other than with Norberg and Cheryl Pomeroy and The Beach Boys. I wonder if Brian was trying to get a national hit with it or just thought another female voice would sound better? I don't know if this version is better than the Bob & Sheri version, but maybe it was a demo acetate recorded as a favor for someone or something. And Glen and Hal supposedly played on it? You can hear Brian talking at the beginning. AGD, can you add some info to this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmW3mkmVpkY

That's really interesting.  The engineer's voice at the beginning appears to not be Chuck Britz.

One thing weird I've noticed - in the early 60s, whenever Brian worked outside of the BBs, he seemed to try create bigger sounding productions than he usually did with the BBs. He'd add horns, strings, and other stuff that was seldom heard on BB records at the time.

Well... sounds like the same track to me, and the male vocal sounds awfully like Brian, not Bob. And, yes, sounds like an acetate too.

Sounded to me like "summer " may be crudely overdubbed over "surfer".

Naw. On the sessions for the BB version you can hear Murry reminding Brian that it's now 'Surfer moon', rather than summer, so this must be the original.

I think this is an overdub of the Bob & Sheri backing track, so this and that predate the BB's version. without the track to hand I couldn't guess whether the BBs version also uses the same backing track.  Given the speed with which the BBs recorded the Surfer Girl album, and the fact that it's the first BBs track to use orchestration, I'd guess it's the same backing track.

AGD'll know, I know he will!  :)

To me this one sounds definitely like the track used for the Beach Boys' version.

Maybe this helps, here's "Surfer moon" with just Brian's vocals (acapella)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2J579aywXI&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2J579aywXI&feature=related)


and this seems to be the backing track for Bob & Sherri, which means without strings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyJmS54WHdc&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyJmS54WHdc&feature=related)

You're right –  I was well out. Bob & Sheri = no strings; BBs = strings. This Vicki Kocher version seems like the BBs only slower and therefore in a lower key.

I apologise - going by my ropey memory again. And listening to the VK version, I can't hear where I thought I'd heard an overdub first time around!

Will have to add memory pills to the daily little blues...

Hearing this version really underscores for me how beautiful Brian's/the BB's vox were.  There's no comparison.

And no crickets thrown into the intro either on this one. So Brian re-recorded the Bob & Sheri instrumental track (or added strings) in this version with Vickie Kocher before he used that same track for the Beach Boys version in 1963.

Look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3oXExDziqQ

Interesting are the notes by the contributor (gossip411234) that Sheri is her Grandma. And another poster has the 7" record of it. WHAT??? He's playing the original rare 7" Safari 101 vinyl of it?? But it has a crack in it, so that devalues it somewhat. But it's worth big $ !!

I'll tell you later what Brian said to me about Sheri.  ;D

Let me guess... he knew her quite well once ?  ::)

Why are you rolling your eyes, Andrew?  This is serious stuff here.

And yes; Sheri must have been a very attractive woman and she showed her love to Brian.

I wonder if anything came between Brian and Vickie Kocher........

Dennis came between them, as he always did

Lets be careful how we use that verb, now

Did?

Ya know, I noticed that part about the grandma recording the crickets. I hope that doesn't get out, cuz it might mess with Jodi's book( if she ever finishes it) I'd swear she told me she was the one hanging out the window ( at Brian and Bob's apartment)to record those darn crickets; and to the best of my knowledge, her movie star daughter doesn't have any children...

Great thread. Well spotted, Mikie!

Whatia think of it, Ed?  Who do you think has the better voice, Sheri or Vickie?   Vickie ain't bad looking, eh?

Good points, Bgas.

It's nice to have something 'new' like this and to see people put it in its context. It's why I come to these boards - an all-too rare good thread.

Definitely an interesting find.  What I find odd is that since this came before "Surfer Moon," the key is still (in my opinion) too low for a female voice to be singing the high harmony.  It seems like it was written to fit Brian's voice from the start, as opposed to a male/female duet.  If anything, you would think that Brian's version would have been in a lower key than this, not the other way around.  I would suspect that the fact that this particular female singer wasn't a very good one may have had something to do with it - otherwise it just seems like a bad key choice.

Um... given that it's patently the BB track they're singing over, I don't see how this can be.

Interesting find Mikie!!!

Note that there are free online tools out there that will allow you to capture the audio from a YouTube video into an MP3 file.  I'd try it, but I'm at work.  Is there anyone out there that can do that to the "Summer Moon" version, and then Perhaps Manage to find a home for it before the BW police have it taken down?   ;)

Lee

I'm surprised no-one's already done that.  ::)

Huh?

"Is there anyone out there that can do that to the "Summer Moon" version, and then Perhaps Yes yes yes, I don't know how to follow the rules!anage to find a home for it before the BW police have it taken down?"

I was saying, I would have thought that Possibly Might have happened by now.  ::)

DVDSoft free studio.  It's easy.

It's like a community here; Since it's easy, how'zabout you do it, and post a link?

I was basing that on grillo's comment: "On the sessions for the BB version you can hear Murry reminding Brian that it's now 'Surfer moon', rather than summer, so this must be the original."  It's definitely the same track, you're absolutely correct.

No matter which came first, my point was that the song sounds terrible in that key with a female lead, and I'm not sure why Brian didn't realize that.

More than that, the girl can barely hold a note - towards the end, she's really bad.

Very true, she's pretty awful. 

Did somebody send Lee an Mp3 of Summer Moon yet?

Send me 1 2

 :o

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas, listening to the sounds..... 
One of my dearest palsy/walsies hooked me up with, OH! I can't talk about this....

On a song such as The Surfer/Summer Moon, Brian gets the sole writing credit? There's some nice rhymes and such in here, so what did he need Mike or Gary or any of the other lyrics guys for?  He wrote them all himself and it was just fine.

This may be the most sexist comment I ever post, but I'd just like to state she couldn't sing for toffee but she sure did look hot.

For foder's sake: you spend so much time in front of your computer, do it yourself.  I've given you a link to download software that will enable you to do this in no time at all, again and again in the future. Don't be so ungrateful.

Short question: was that actress called "Kocher" or "Korcher"? I've found both spellings..

Reading the video blurb, it would seem to be Kocher...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRFiS_2HHM

Alright, thanks a lot.

Definitely "Kocher."  The spelling "Korcher" was a misprint in Capitol's THE BIG BEAT 1963 credits, and unfortunately has been picked up by various press sources and propagated.

Lee