The Smiley Smile Message Board

A few questions about this tune:

- Does anyone know whose idea it was to record this tune and actually put it on a BB album? I'd guess that Stamos made it known how much he liked it, and that Mike pushed to get it recorded. But I wonder how the other bandmates felt about it. Carl certainly gives a killer vocal performance which elevates the song a ton, and gives it a shot in the arm of legitimacy.

- What do you all think Dennis would have felt about this version, and its inclusion on an actual BB album? I think it's surprisingly not too bad, despite some dated cheesy production.

- Stamos' "Dennis" voice (on SIP's Forever) vs. Taylor Hawkins' "Dennis" voice (on Holy Man): not that I'm some huge Stamos fan/defender in general... but I think he does a decent vocal on here, and the more I think about it, I think it's *relatively* on par with Taylor Hawkins' vocal on Holy Man (which I also think is surprisingly good). Thoughts?

I'm going to assume it was Mike's idea to feature John Stamos on the album and that it was Stamos's idea to sing that particular song.  The inclusion was more as a tie-in to their Full House appearance and to make the album appealing for fans of that show than a tribute to Dennis which makes me wonder if it would have happened whether or not Dennis had passed.  I get the feeling Dennis would have been pretty flattered though.  It's not a bad performance technically, it's just a weird recording on principle, to heavily feature a TV actor from what was basically a kids show to guest star on their album and letting him sing lead vocals but it's far from the worst thing about Summer in Paradise which is just a very problematic album even if you get rid of that track.

Funny story....

My buddy generally dislikes the Beach Boys.  I mean, I played "Smile" for him claiming it was the greatest album ever (which I honestly believe), and he hated it.  He made me turn it off.

However, this past weekend, I played him 'Summer Of Love'.  HE LOVED IT.  HE FRIGGING LOVED IT.  He declared it the best Beach Boys song ever.

*face palm*

John Stamos and Lori Loghlin originally sang the song during the show's fourth season when their characters were getting married.

http://youtu.be/Kus-YGkFR8w

The power ballad version from SIP was from the show's fifth season finale. Considering that it was the final track on SIP, it's placement may have been a last minute addition intended to boost sales.

Funny, I watched Full House as a kid (before I was a big Beach Boys fan), but I wasn't aware of that timeline of "Forever" - thanks Andy. I even (shudder) at the time, as a kid, attended an audience taping of Full House, but alas, not a BB episode. Would be fascinating to find someone who attended a Full House audience taping of when the BBs were on the show to hear some behind-the-scenes stories. Side note: I attended lots of tapings in the early 90s, including a Married With Children episode with lots of non-actor special guests (pro baseball players), and those non-actors needed lots of extra takes to get any acceptable takes for line readings; I'd guess the same may have been true for the BBs.

So it seems that somewhere along the way, after performing the song on the show (Stamos probably orchestrated that happening), the decision was made to record it and put it on the SIP album. I wonder if any "buzz" happened around the song at the time after the song was showcased on the marriage episode? If not full-fledged media/pop culture buzz of the time, maybe just enough people mentioned seeing it to Stamos and Mike, which led to the power ballad idea.

I could buy the idea that its placement may have been a last minute addition intended to boost sales, although I'd wager to guess that even if it was planned to be on the album from the onset, that the band would maybe put it as the last track on there anyhow, seeing as it has a guest lead vocalist and sounds so different from the rest of the album.

The power ballad version was specifically for Full House.  It is the only SIP track not produced by Terry Melcher - Stamos, Gary Griffin (who had occasional guest appearances on the show as one of Rippers) and Lanny Condola (sp?) produced the track.

Dunno what Dennis would think, but Ed just put a link up to the wedding version on his Facebook,  and the comments tell you what one of the kids think! ;)

Taylor Hawkins on Holy Man is fantastic and his vocal works well with the original backing track, so more in touch with Dennis's powerful original.

Stamos may sing pretty and perfect, but such an approach with jack hammer power ballad is miles away (the wrong way) from Dennis' tender original.

Slightly off topic, but I still vividly remember, as a kid that was born in 1980 and grew up with Full House, the first time I listened to the Sunflower album in my 1993 Jeep Cherokee at the age of about 18 and hearing the original Forever come through the speakers.  I almost had to pull the car over in shock that my beloved Beach Boys were playing a song that I always considered a cheesy tune from Uncle Jessie's band.  It was a jarring and shocking moment.

You need a new buddy.

As a Foo Fighters fan I love Taylor's version of 'Holy Man'.  Wish there was a way for him to do some more.

Check out the video below and have a look at Taylor's t-shirt!  This was a few years before the 'Holy Man' recording came out.  You can imagine how pleased I was to see this at the time, having also bought one of the t-shirts from Urban Outfitters!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kE7LRKwacr8