The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've always loved this joyous racket. Why on earth anyone should dislike it is beyond me.

So do tell. ;D

I prefer the album version...I'm not overly fond of Dean's 'sound'...as I find it a little hard and irritating.  And...realizing that it was about their 5th or 6th biggest charting song doesn't excuse the fact that it was a just an easy cover...hurriedly thrown together...recorded tongue in cheek.  IMO novelty songs really don't have a regular shelf life.  That said...it does work well at a Beach Boys concert...'cause THAT is a party.  Brian shouldn't really lean on it though.  He has WAY better songs in his repetoire.

I guess I feel like I'm being cheated out of hearing something astonishingly great when Brian wastes another 2/12 minutes on it...although they did kind of jazz it up a tad this year.  Still.  I'd rather hear Busy Doin' Nothing.

If I had to guess, the reason people don't like it, is because it's so overplayed. It feels like it has been played at nearly every BBs show since the song was a hit! They did lay off it in the early 70's, but for the most part, at this point- It's as iconic as Surfin' USA.

I hate to say it but it's true. When the average person thinks of the BBs they think the five striped shirt guys singing Barbara Ann.

I really enjoy Barbara Ann... In small doses. When I saw M&B last year, they really rocked it, which made the experience much more thrilling.

Oh yeah... One more reason why people hate it....... The awkward kickline.....

There is not enough musical substance there to hold up under repeated hearings.

I guess I dislike Barbara Ann for the same reason I dislike Do It Again or  Endless Summer. It's not so much the songs themselves, but the context of the times. Barbara Ann represented the label friendly safe single on the eve of Pet Sounds. Do It Again was a successful single that is a nice song, but had enough success to make many believe the Beach Boys were still a surf band. Endless Summer was a major reason they didn't continue to progress after Holland. But if you take away the context, I still like those songs. My favorite version of Barbara Ann was live in 1966.

It's beneath them and by extension as a fan it is beneath me.   For such an amazing musical entity to be widely known for this loathsome knockoff is endlessly frustrating.   

I love it. Add Some mentioned it being a hurriedly thrown together cover, and it is, but that further goes to show just how perfectly these guys could harmonize together. These are some of the most lively/perfect vocals/harmonies these guys put on tape...which is exactly why it was a hit.

That being said, during the encore in Philly, EVERY song there had the crowd really energized, but then Barbara Ann came on and you could tell the crowd was a bit less enthusiastic about it. So perhaps it should be retired from Brian's setlist.

It's not among my favorites, but I certainly don't hate it...or even grossly dislike it. 

My only issue with it is that, along with a few other of the Boys' bigger hits, it's been overplayed, and I don't feel a serious need to hear it again in the near future.  That is not the fault of the song itself.

I think the sparse instrumentation and the (deliberately) sloppy arrangement tends to throw some people, as they knew that by the time Party was released, the Boys were on such a higher musical level.  If Barbara Ann had appeared on one of the earlier albums, would it had seemed more in place?

Barbara Ann is a classic song. I don't hate it. Not everything has to be Pet Sounds.

The only people who I know of who ever expressed dislike for "Barbara Ann"... are on this board.

When I used to DJ weddings, parties, dances, etc., I could never get the people to dance to Beach Boys' songs, and I tried a lot of them. But every now and then, if I was DJing at a bar or a small party, I could play "Barbara Ann" and get some response, even a fair amount of singing along and head bopping.

Many, many years ago, I was trying to impress - win over! - this special girl, and one of the first things I did was make a Beach Boys' mix tape for her. It was one of my 90-minute Maxell high bias cassette classics! And, I included not only the hits, but some hidden gems like "This Whole World", "Cuddle Up", and "The Night Was So Young". Well, I let her digest the tape for about two weeks, and then, when I asked her what her favorite song was on the tape, thinking she'd say "God Only Knows" or "Surfer Girl" or even "Fun, Fun, Fun,", no, she immediately blurts out "Barbara Ann"!!!!!! :o

  Ding! Ding! Good answer. Every group of some duration ends up with a novelty hit or two.

 

Another hate thread, huzzah! Let's hate!

I don't hate "Barbara Ann." It doesn't rank among--or even near--my favorites. But it's fine. I wish to hell I'd written or otherwise been identified with it, that's for sure. It's a lightweight, but it's fun. If someone wants to push the artistic depths of the Beach Boys, "Barbara Ann" isn't going to be the example. OK, fine. But it's fine for what it is, which is a track I'll mostly always skip at home, but can enjoy live if I've had a few. And I've always had a few.

I was there and saw no such thing. Hell, where I was sitting everyone was singing along with it and standing and clapping.

Just what I perceived. Haha I and everyone around me was singing, standing, clapping along with it really enthusiastically to the song (pretty sure the whole crowd was!), but it was just a bit less enthusiastic than the rest of the songs in the encore.

Another thing to consider...if you ever get an opportunity to sing with the Beach Boys, you will probably be singing Barbara Ann! 🎤

"Barbara Ann" has also been a staple at Brian Wilson's shows.

Because we all have an ex girlfriend named Barbara Ann somewhere in our lives (for females it was a college experiment) and we don't want to hear her name repeated over and over again, driving us crazy, until we can't take it anymore!!!!  :o :o :o  :lol

:lol

Perhaps hate is too a strong a word but I have seen it mentioned here as "Barbara f*ckin' Ann" by at least one erudite poster, lol.

"Barbara Ann" to me is the 45 that came out in late '65 with "Girl Don't Tell Me" on the flip. Period. At the time there was nothing like it----who else was singing doo wop in 1965?

Thanks for the heartwarming and (so far mostly) encouraging answers, guys. :=)   

I detest this inane ditty with an unholy passion usually reserved for that sanctimonious twat Morrissey. It is my life's stated ambition to persuade Mike and/or Scott to remove it from the set list, just once. I was close in 2014, at Epsom. Next time...

 I take it that was then end of the wooing then?  ;D

 I dislike the song....although my love of The Beach Boys knows few bounds, there are some songs in there I just plain don't enjoy hearing...this tops that list. For me, the populist, sing-a-long surf music period is probably my least favourite from the band. There are a few moments of genius in there, don't get me wrong, but you could probably take the bands first 6 albums and turn it into one great best of and not lose any sleep over the discarded tracks....

At the end of the day, it's just a repetitive song with bad production and 90% of the lyrics being "baa baa" like a bunch of sheep. So by itself it sucks. Combined with what it represents as some one else said--the label holding them back musically--and it's even worse. It's one of those songs that's a total embarrassment when trying to turn people on to their music or admitting you like their music. Someone will bring up or put it on and be like "really? This is what you like?"

I think it helps to have heard it on the radio when it came out as a single. At that time no one was aware of an album version, or certainly hadn't heard it if they were. No live versions to throw into the mix. It was what it was. It's been denigrated since then by that obnoxious "bomb Iran" business and its use in ads but I love it still.  

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

Nothing wrong with Barbara Ann. Sure, it's not deep or complex, but not every song has to be. It's a fun, party song, and that's ok. I sometimes wonder if we all need to quit analyzing things so much and just kick back and enjoy it all a bit more.  People hate Barbara Ann because some music snobs think it's representative of everything the Beach Boys do? Why do we care? We know the band is capable of turning out a massive party hit one minute, switch gears and do a cool arrangement of traditional music the next, then switch gears again and release a groundbreaking psychedelic pop single. They're just that good!  Like what you like. If you like Barbara Ann, cool! If you don't, that's cool too. In my world, good music is whatever brings you joy.

I can tell you this: when my group sings Barbara Ann, we're guaranteed to get the crowd involved. They enjoy it and it's all good.

I reject the repetitiveness and nonsense syllables as being a negative. Those are staples of popular music.

It ain't art music. It's the song SJS's would-be romantic partner was wooed by. The latter is more important than the former, to steal and wildly paraphrase a thought Linda Ronstadt shared in the IJWMFTT doc.

Not when it's literally the entire song and sounds like a goat trying to attract a mate.

What, too good to goat-f***?

How did this thread go from Barbara Ann to fucking goats?

It's just too bad that the Boys didn't do a cover of Surfer Bird for the Party album.  That could have supplanted B.A. as the single.  How would you like them apples?  I too actually prefer the "long" version of the song, especially the big over the top finale, which strikes me as pretty funny.  (ok, I'm easily amused).

Actually, I think Hully Gully would have made a nice follow up single to Barbara Ann.  Heck, maybe the Boys could have destroyed the impending Age of Aquarius and ended the war in Viet Nam with that one two punch!

Better yet, B.A. followed up with Hully Gully, followed up with Surfer Bird!  Take that, Beatles!

Favorite Barbara Ann memory.....driving in a car with my parents in the early 80's outside of Tucumcari NM.  The local AM jock played the long version of B.A., including the ba bah black sheep have you any wool part, and my mother smiling over that part of the song.  O do think that may have been the one and only time I ever heard that version on the radio.

Also on that trip, I heard "Living with a Heartache" on some AM station from a little town in Colorado.  I call that song "Living with an Ear Ache".  Probably one of their most duff tracks ever!

Well, they did do a cover of Surfin' Bird on Party. Well...kinda anyway. It's called Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow.

There are songs you hear on the radio you like at first. But after hearing it 300 times, you are happy to never hesrit again. "Afternoon Delight" comes to mind.

That song is what devil music sounds like.

Or Pisces brothers. >:D

Pisces Brothers is just inept; Afternoon Delight is so contrived and calculated it could run for president.

Barbara Ann is bad but not as bad as  some songs by other acts that have been big hits to some and ear poison to others.

BA BA BA BA BA Banana!

As a non-career politician outsider. Or a maverick.  ;D

I always sing it as bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-black sheep"

"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver is another song I hope to never hear again.

There's enough stuff I can't stand but the one song that makes me gag at the very thought of it is Chuck Berry's lone US #1 "My Ding-A-Ling". That song is so wrong on every imaginable level! (http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/32.gif)

Good one John! I heard that one live a couple years after it charted. Chuck had the guys and girls of the audience singing different parts. Happy to never hear it again.

In 2010, Billboard named "Afternoon Delight" the 20th sexiest song of all time.

HUh. That really was the low point of going to a Chuck concert back in the day. Nowadays just seeing Chuck actually play some real guitar riffs is a thrill

If you hap-happen to be one of those folks that think that really is the 20th sexiest song, you better get your butt over to this site pronto:  

http://www.trustify.info/check

It's like Barbara Ann, some artists do all the big hits. Chuck did um all when I saw him. Johnny B Goode,  duck walk and all. I thiink it was 1973.

I think most bands have a 'BA' in their catalog. Whenever I hear the Beatles 'Obladi Oblada' its like fingernails on a blackboard. :p

Or Dont Stop Believing by Journey. Good song, but after hearing it at EVERY school dance, wedding, club...I can't stand it anymore

Which means absolutely nothing at all. See my comments on the Rolling Stone thread. Lists like that are pandering, pretentious bullshit. End of story. Mark it zero; next frame.

For me, it's Yellow Submarine.

It's off key. 


The original is also off key. 

The whole thing's sung in a weak falsetto instead of Brian's strong falsetto.  Nothing worse than a weak, thin falsetto, it sounds like an amplified whisper.

The original is even weaker. 

It's in key.

It's also in key...

Also in key


Completely In Key


Fantastically in key song


Even John's in key

Chuck stole 'Toy Bell' from the Bees...and Fats Domino's buddy Dave Bartholemew...and he turned it into something kind of 'icky'.  Old man drooling 'icky'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5IorPq8k2Q

 People didn't do THAT to Chuck's songs.  The Beach Boys didn't do it to Barbara Ann either.  But Dean Torrence doesn't help the sound much at all.  He kind of sounded like a ding-a-ling...and generally I very much enjoyed most of Jan and Dean's post [as opposed to pre]  Surf City material.  Drag City, in fact, is an all-time fave.

I have an aunt named Barbara Annette.  She prefers to be called Annette.

Er...  Anyway...

I like the song.  Simple, repetitive, spontaneous, light hearted.  Fun little ditty that everyone can get in on, nothing particularly heavy, definitely nothing particularly serious.  I don't listen to the Party! album all that often, so it retains it's freshness for me.  It reminds me of all the times I sat next to my sister, listening to her BB tape.  Perhaps I like it even more ever since learning that Dean's on it as an uncredited guest star... I like it when artists are able to sneak things past the powers that be.

I LOVE Papa-Omm-Mow-Mow.

I don't mind Barbara Ann, I enjoy hearing Dean on it because I love J&D.

I think Chicks dig it.  Mostly. 

Also the few chicks I've known, that knew about "My Ding A Ling" by Chuck Berry, thought that was his best song. 

Chick logic

Yeah, it's off key. But, that just adds to the pseudo-spontaneous party vibe they were going for, IMO. I actually wish Dean had sung some other part in Barbara Ann because his falsetto is harsh and strident compared to Brian's. But, it's a fun song, anyway. Sounds like a bunch of friends goofing off at a party, which was the whole point.

Dean may have been the one who suggested it, Brian was the one who decided to do it, and Brian was the one who produced it. And Brian was the one who decided to do it in his solo shows.

It may be hard for some people to accept, but Brian Wilson likes Barbara Ann. Yes, the man who gave us In My Room, Let Him Run Wild, God Only Knows, I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, Caroline No, Surf's Up, Till I Die, et. al, LIKES Barbara Ann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZylusEw-68&t=85m20s

I've never understood the accusation levelled at doo wop songs that they're off key! All the best doo wop is off key----it adds a special "edge" to the proceedings. "Little Star" by The Elegants starts and ends woefully off key but boy does it work----shivers-down-the-spinesville. 

I dunno... I don't really have dog ears for that type of thing so it usually doesn't bother me.  I love Doo Wop, listen to it all the time to be honest.  I was listening to the 50's channel on XM on the way to work for instance; they played "The Boy from new York City" if that counts.

anyways, for whatever reason Barbara Ann has always sounded wayyyyyy off to me.  Little Star sounds great. 

I don't hate the song, and obviously neither does Brian. In the US the song was a huge, huge hit: #2 on Billboard, #1 on Cashbox. That's higher than many other hits performed at the various factions' concerts, including "California Girls" and "Fun, Fun, Fun." Sad to say, but to not include it would be a huge, glaring omission. You would expect for an artist to perform the biggest hits at some point.

Having said that, I wish to all things holy that they would actually perform it THE WAY IT IS ON THE RECORD. Unplugged. I mentioned that to Probyn recently (along with "Cool, Cool Water," "Rio Grande," and "That Same Song"), but all he could do was smile and say that it'd have to be approved by "the powers that be."

You've cat to be kitten me. It's one of his best songs in entire catalog. The fact that he made the audience clap during it makes it cooler in my book. It's very catchy. And Barbara Ann. The crowd likes it because, obviously, it's simple to singalong to. What's more fun than sing silly words? Creative minds can change the names to smb. they know, f.ex. Betty Lou > Gary Q. etc.

it's simple, catchy, fun. nothing wrong with that. the thing I like least about it is that it's a cover tune and it's one of their best-known songs and biggest hits. the Beach Boys are so much more than Barbara Ann, and some folks still don't get that.

it would be like the Beatles being just as well-known for Rock-n-Roll Music or Matchbox as they are for Strawberry Fields or Let It Be.

it's telling that it was such a success for the Boys in 1965/66. I don't think the Beatles could have gotten away with it, but I do feel like there is a substantial segment of Beach Boy fans who prefer the simpler, teenybopper stuff. they like their Beach Boys singing about surfing and fun, fun, fun. not dropping acid and writing symphonies to God. and that's fine. clearly, there's room for it all.

RR, how would you list these Chuck Berry songs in order of quality? I'm curious:

Carol
Johnny B. Goode
Maybelline
Memphis Tennessee
My Ding-A-Ling
Rock And Roll Music
Roll Over Beethoven
School Day
Sweet Little Sixteen

Don't they?  Seriously, we're talking about a band that can put out a two-CD set and still not have run out of hit songs that people can sing along with.  I figure at this point, after the sheer number of their own songs that everyone knows, from Fun Fun Fun and I Get Around to Good Vibrations and God Only Knows even before you get into the lesser-known fan faves, begrudging them their hit covers because you're afraid they'll cheapen their reputation just seems silly.


Same there.  You'd begrudge them Twist And Shout?

Cheers,
Jon Blum

I'm not begrudging either band at all.

but Barbara Ann is one their highest-charting singles and is therefore more well-known than many of the other titles you listed. and the fact remains that one of their most ambitious singles, The Little Girl I Once Knew was a flop compared to Barbara Ann which is probably their least ambitious... and they were released within a month of each other. whether that was caused by radio playing one song more than the other, or the record company promoting one over the other, or the public simply preferring one to the other (probably a combination of the 3) that is the way it went down. the lightweight cover beat out the innovative original.

Twist and Shout was released nearly 3 years earlier. I don't think it would have done nearly as well in late '65/early '66. for whatever reason, the Beatles were expected to keep moving forward and the Beach Boys were not... at least in my opinion. Good Vibrations being the one notable exception.

I was like five seats down from you and I didn't get that vibe at all.  ;D

Anyone who thinks it should be removed from ANY setlist of a Beach Boys related concert should think again (especially a certain board member who never fails EVERY TIME IT IS MENTIONED FOR THE SONG'S BANISHMENT FROM CONCERTS - yeesh, get over it). People come to hear the hits, mostly. It was one of their biggest hits. It's not art, but it's fun. Sing along, have a good time, The Beach Boys make you feel good.

Haha well if that's the general concensus I may need to get my hearing checked, after that encore it wouldn't be such a bad idea anyways :lol

Idk, that was one thing that I distinctly remember from that show. Again, not saying people weren't clapping and singing along with it, just that it wasn't as enthusiastic as the other songs during the encore. Just an observation, and apparently a flawed one at that ;D

Capitol's northeast promotion guy started pushing "Barbara Ann" because the two-bar pause in "Little Girl" was throwing listeners off. That's a long pause on the radio.

Why Barbara Ann get this much hate is beyond me, there's a much worse single by the Beach Boys that got all the way to No. 1! It's about some fictitious island or something.. ;D

I've always marveled at that too, that was live in London, I don't know if they tweaked the level of that (i suppose they probably did),... but it sounds like literally everybody in the show is singing along (except that guy in the front row).  There's no other instruments, just Chuck and his guitar, and he's got literally the entire crowd singing along. 

Masterful entertainer....



By the way, in my store I have this one really weird room near the bathrooms, it's kind of like a room you step into, before you go into the bathrooms.  I didn't know what to refer to it as, so I always just refer to it as the "Vestibule"... in nod to this song...

I always guessed it was the second time that night he had performed it.

Marvel no longer. It was recorded in Coventry. The Locoarno Ballroom, to be precise.

Yeah... for some reason, most of the Beatles White Album is like that for me.

There's some bad ju-ju in that White Album.  Stay away, I tells ya!  :old

Yeah, every band has a Barbara Ann in their catalogue but please don't compare it to 'obladi oblada', it's not that bad.

 ;D

I don't mind hearing Barbara Ann at a BB/BW show.  But I thank my lucky stars that Ob-blah-blah-blah-blah was left off McCartney's setlist both times I saw him. 

Well said KDS.  I think singing Barbara Ann is like singing a nursery rhyme or any other simple song.  It's very unpretentious.  One cannot attach any meaning to it -- or feel as if they have some greater point to make.

Yet someone walking along the street singing Obladi Oblada -- you'd have to wonder.  I would any way.  Why?  What are they singing that for?  To me, it's likely that they're thinking they're original or interesting or God-forbid -- "intelligent."

Eck.

Oh, Bean Bag, I love Oh bla-di, Oh, bla-da! It's goofy, but, with all the Beatles' intensity, it's a place for them, and us, not to take ourselves so seriously. Same with Barbara Ann!

This is "only a movie."   :lol

At least Barbara Ann was a cover.  Paul McCartney wrote Oblahdee Obladuh. 

Point is..."life goes on..."

And I like Yellow Submarine, too!

Their "light" and fun!  ;)

I enjoy The Beatles' lighter moments too:

Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Yellow Submarine
Why Don't We Do It in the Road
Only a Northern Song
Savoy Truffle
Octapus's Garden
etc

I can't say I hate OBD OBD, but I rate it wayyyyy down on my Beatles song list.  And I definitely prefer Barbara Ann to it. 

Nothing wrong with that!  And to further contradict myself -- "silly songs" are often the best!

But I do stumble through the White Album.  Even though I like it, I tend to fight it!  Weird.  I know.  Maybe because there's a war within them?  Just thinking out loud here (and derailing the thread).  But I've always a detected a tinge of intellectualism in much of the Beatles... and mixing in with their dopey sing-along whimsical side -- the White Album is where it kind of gurgles its way to the fore.  Abbey Road -- is where it mixes perfectly.  White Album, however, is a war!  A war!!  :-D

Maxwell's Silver Hammer, I love.

I probably like about 85% of whats on the White Album.  Its really the only Beatles album that I never listen to in its entirety (with the obvious exception of the Yellow Submarine soundtrack).  It's got something rare on Beatles albums - filler.  That's why I'm always a little miffed when I see The White Album on greatest album lists.