The Smiley Smile Message Board

Thoughts on this underrated gem..?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbfl24DhU1w

It's Brian's most advanced excursion into vocal harmonies in a pop song. It modulates to the chorus anyway but after the bridge the verse modulates halfway as well! And that snare sound... To say nothing of the wistful harmonies in the tag. Like the minor chords in "All Summer Long" they seem to be saying it won't always be summer...

I don't know what goes for underrated in Brian and the Boys' canon but "GOTB" could never be overrated. An absolute masterpiece.   

I'm always shocked this never popped up on a live set list all these years.

Dennis' solo vocal is irresistible. Brian's arrangement is perfect.

And when you're in your 70s...this all sounds rather creepy...which might explain why Brian has let it go...and why Mike might still choose to include it in a 'set'.  One of them has SENSE in the 21st century.. 

I think Matt would end up singing it anyway...and might sound pretty spiffy on it too

I always felt it was too similar to Surfer Girl.

Girls on the Beach is like Surfer Girl on steroids. the harmonies, chord progression, and arrangement are much more sophisticated. when compared to SG, GOTB is really a great indicator of just how much Brian advanced in a short period of time. Denny's vocal on the bridge is the icing on the cake. what a cut.

Not at all. Girls on the Beach has so many unexpected turns in the chords and melody. Nobody else writes like this!

You're both right. Chords & melody is advanced in the later song. But if you sing its 1st 2 lines in each verse over the melody of "Surfer girl" & vice versa, you'll see they're equirhythmic.

Brian's arrangements and vox are outstanding on GOTB.

A good song. Terrible lyrics, but beautiful melody and harmonies.

This would definitely be a good candidate for Brian to do on his tour. Much like "Surfer Girl", there's no real "lead" vocal other than the bridge, so this would be a good one to showcase the entire group. Brian could certainly take Dennis's couple of lines on the bridge.

I sometimes wonder if a song like this doesn't get added because they don't want too many songs with that similar tempo/time signature, with "Surfer Girl" and "In My Room" (two songs they don't often leave out of shows) already filling that role. There's a pool of songs with this sort of tempo, like "The Warmth of the Sun", "Ballad of Ole Betsy", etc.

I've never cared for it, which is unfortunate because I recognise that Brian's virtuosity is fully on display here. Like others though, I've just never been able to get past its resemblance to Surfer Girl.

Surfer Girl, Girls On The Beach, Warmth of The Sun, Betsy, In My Room, etc? I'd take a hundred of 'em.  :bw

Always been one of my favorites for the past 50 years, as is the album it's on. Beautiful composition and arrangement. "Terrible lyrics?"  Huh?? It's a song about girls on the beach.  So, oddly enough, the lyrics are about girls on the beach.

I heard "GOTB" before I heard "Surfer Girl" so I don't have that problem. ;=)

At the high school dance, this was one where you held the girl close and danced nice and slow.

If it had actually been played at any high school dance.  I'm guessing not.

Guess again. Being a member of a group of BB fans in high school (class of 66) we made sure it was played at our weekly Friday night dances.

Cool 8)

Make that 200.

could be GOTB is one where Murry Wilson is standing in the control room shadows.  the songs not one of Brian's most adventurous of productions

i don't know about production but it's certainly one of Brian's most adventurous songs...

I wonder what the story was with the movie being named after the song. Was someone at the studio a fan of the song, and then the movie title was based on the song title? There must be some explanation.

It is an amazing melody with ridiculously innovative and trippy chord changes. And just imagine this song done a few years later with some psychedelic touches during the Smiley Smile era, with the Lei'd in Hawaii instrumentation.

GOTB has certainly been ignored by the band for far too long. Maybe it can become the next All I Wanna Do, where us fans champion it enough to the point that Brian's band takes notice and finally performs it live.

Well it starts with girls running on the beach. Then we see girls on the beach. Isn't it generic title anyway?