The Smiley Smile Message Board

With the recent discussion about Summer In Paradise, it made me think about the somewhat short list of songs Mike Love wrote for The Beach Boys without Brian Wilson. It's a diverse list, and very few songs are written exclusively by Love without the help of another band member. Obviously from the 1980s on, his writing style focused primarily on nostalgia.

I didn't include any Mike Love solo tracks, mostly because I don't know the catalogue very well. But if there are any spectacular solo songs that deserve mention, I'd love to know about them.

I believe this is the full list (please let me know if I forgot any). What's your favorite and least favorite?

A Young Man Is Gone
How She Boogalooed It
Sounds of Free
Don't Go Near The Water
Student Demonstration Time
All This Is That
Big Sur
Leaving This Town
We Got Love
Only With You
Everyone's In Love With You
Brian's Back
Bells of Christmas
Kona Coast
Sumahama
It's a Beautiful Day
Goin' To the Beach
Getcha Back
Rock N Roll To the Rescue
Still Crusin'
Somewhere Near Japan
Kokomo
Make It Big
Summer of Love
Island Fever
Still Surfin'
Strange Things Happen
Lahaina Aloha
Summer in Paradise
Daybreak Over the Ocean

I would have to go with:

Best - Getcha Back
Worst - Sumahama

Best-Big Sur
Worst-Everyone's In Love With You (too syrupy, especially the arrangement)

this

Best - Big Sur, or maybe Viggie.

Worst - Wrinkles.

All This is that is more of a Jardine thing, but I'll go with that.

Worst? Half the sh*t he wrote with Terry Melcher in the 80s/early 90s.

Best - Big Sur - one of my favorite songs by anyone, pure poetry.

Best = All This is That
Worst = Problem Child (which I believe Mike wrote with Melcher)

Nope. Problem Child was written by Terry Melcher alone.

I would go for All This is That, but It's more Al, like Leaving this Town is more Blondie and Ricky. Big Sur, for me. The worst there is Summer of Love, the biggest piece of sh*t the BB recorded.

[2014-08-21 20:37:24] Swedish Frog: you can’t really say ml wrote a young man is gone
[2014-08-21 20:37:32] Swedish Frog: since it is a cover with new words
[2014-08-21 20:37:53] Swedish Frog: it’s like me changing the words of hey jude, that does not make me a co-writer
[2014-08-21 20:38:05] Smile Brian: Agreed, post that

Take that up with The Beach Boys. They have him the co-write credit. He made the song worse, right? And I would assume no one will vote for it in the best category.

You know what I mean. I can re-write the lyrics of Surf's Up, that does not make me a songwriter. I had no part whatsoever in the creation of that song, I am not its creator. I am not the talented one.

I don't know if Mike "wrote" any of those by himself... but All This Is That is one of the best songs ever.

And the worst for me, might be Everyone's in Love With You... because it's like a giant party pooper in the silly, fun 15 Big Ones party.  It's not the worst song in the world... but it's just so out of place and strange on this album.  He would be involved in "worser" songs... but they're usually on equally bad albums and as such, don't stick out as much.

Best--Big Sur (California Saga version)
Worst--Summer of Love (though I think Bean Bag is right about "Everyone's In Love With You" screwing up its album much more than this does Summer in Paradise)

Not to nitpick, but technically "Sound of Free" was released on a DW solo single; if you include that, why not "Pacific Ocean Blues?"

Best: close call between Big Sur, All This Is That and Viggie, I think I choose Big Sur (ATIT was Al's and Carl's also, and Viggie wasn't released).

Worst: Summer of Love... by far.

Mike's best compositions can be found on the avant gardely groundbreaking milestone record When Sounds:

(http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z353/SupremeKingDan/5d59a8ac-473a-4bcc-9e8a-27ae8e01d392_zps75e374e1.jpg)

"I don't wanna know" is a great song. I think it was on a "Celebration"-album

As far as Mike's solo compositions, Cool Head, Warm Heart is really one of the best BBs related songs post-2000. Those harmonies in the intro are pretty great, and it's TM-related without being too overbearing.

He did not write the intro.

Best: "Leaving This Town"
Worst: Not into worsts

I included Sound of Free because it was released on MIC.

What is the song Viggie?  I've never heard that one.

Ah, touché.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CruGtoJM8Os

Best: We Got Love

Worst: Summer Of Love

It's missing "Can't Stop Talkin' About American Girls". Is that on the intended follow-up album SHiTE?

I have read an interview somewhere with Ricky or Blondie (or both) and they said they didn't know why Mike got a credit on the song.
Would love to hear more about Mike's work with the two guys.

Best: Big Sur or Wrinkles
Worst: Summer of Love

I like a few of those (and loathe a few, too), but would say these are my favorites from that list: All This is That, Big Sur, Don't Go Near the Water, Kokomo, and Only With You. I also like Cool Head, Warm Heart and Pacific Ocean Blues.

As for worst, I'll skip it.

To be completely honest, I only included "worst" because I didn't want any accusations that I was being paid by BRI.

.

Then I shall change my worst to Island Fever which is such a blatant Kokomo rewrite.

I know that Bells of Christmas has been credited to Al,, Mike and Ron Altbach but this seems wrong. Brian has a credit on Belles of Paris and he based his On Christmas Day song on the tune so I would guess he had at least a hand in the music.

Best songs: All This is That, Big Sur, I Don`t Wanna Know, Glow Crescent Glow, Only With You, Somewhere Near Japan, Pacific Ocean Blues, Sad Sad Summer, Don`t Run Away, Cool Head Warm Heart etc.

Worst song: Summer of Love by a furlong.

Listening to Summer of Love right now.

I'm sticking with Everyone Is In Love With You as the worst.  Summer of Love is too iconic in its badness.  Too emblematic.  With the easy-going "rap" of its verse to its "it's a Love-Thing" bassline -- it's the song you play to show someone the bottom of the Beach Boys barrel.  So, in a sense, it's too good (in that respect) to be the worst.

Now listeing to Everyone Is In Love With You -- and it's not funny-bad.  It's pathetic!  There's no reason to like this!!

It's terrible. It just makes me wanna vomit. Nothing good about it.  "Everyone's in love with you...  Though you can't fall in love with anyone...." eghhghghggh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi2l5PUtQ5E (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi2l5PUtQ5E)


That would be the worst in my opinion. The best would be Big Sur. Just love that song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKUILZqZpkg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKUILZqZpkg)