The Smiley Smile Message Board

I just heard Disturbed's version of Simon & Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence, I hate it.

But Van Halen had a hit with the Kinks' "You Really Got Me", Limp Bizkit covered The Whos "Behind Blue Eyes" and Metallica covered Bob Seger's "Turn The Page".

Which band could cover a Beach Boys song and make it a hit? Or at least get some substantial air play from it.

I agree that Disturbed's version of SOS is bad (and I liked their versions of Tears for Fears Shout and Genesis's Land of Confusion). 

I like a cover of just about any BB hit by a popular band would get airplay.  Covers are an easy way for a band to get on the radio. 

There's a band called Ghost that I think would do a great job with a BB song.  I was thinking Cabinessence, but I don't think that song is popular enough to get airplay.  Perhaps H & V or Sloop John B.

I think Holland's version of "Big Sur" would be a good country song.

Whenever I hear somebody cover a Beach Boys song, I always wish I were listening to the original.

To your question, though, what do you mean by updated? If it means a re-record, no thanks. Chicago started doing that a few years ago (I think for copyright reasons), and the re-records suck.

I'm totally cool with new mixes or tweaks/additions to original recordings, though.  I'd love to see a revamped version of "This Whole World" with the following additions and changes:

1. Re-recorded backing track.
2. Fix the hiss and brittle sound of Brian's falsetto ooh's on the bridge. Augment that part with new vocals from (Matt?) if necessary.
3. Somehow add a "star light, star bright" section that appeared in the American Spring version. Maybe have Al record that?
4. Finish the track with the extended outro from the a capella version from MiC.

A weird hybrid reworking of "This Whole World" incorporating the "Spring" parts and whatnot would no doubt be interesting for superfans.

I don't think such a Frankenstein creation would be a hit single, though.

Yeah, I thought about that once I re-read the thread title. :) 'Twould be a hit for me, though.  My favorite Beach Boys song, but also maddening to listen to due to the poor production (see my point about hiss and brittle).

I think the OP's referring to covers, not remakes, which I agree are extremely lame (Surfin 1992 anyone???)

If a fairly popular group (by today's standards) recorded a cover of a Beach Boys song, like in the examples I gave. Not a note-for-note cover, but they put their own spin on the song.  I was thinking more in the rock/pop genre. No rap or hip/hop.

Ideally, it would be post 1965 and should not include solo stuff or anything from TWGMTR. The Beach Boys have a HUGE catalog, yet I have a very difficult time trying to imagine another group covering anything they have done, and making it a hit.

Plenty of well-known artists have covered Beach Boys songs, but never approach the originals.

 

I think if the song were to get airplay, it would have to be a well known BB song.  A contemporary rock group covering At My Window, for example, probably wouldn't garner any attention.  However, I could forsee somebody rocking up Sail On Sailor or Heroes and Villains and having a radio hit. 

I bet Foster the People could do a really great cover of All I Wanna Do.

Not that I want that to happen, because I think it's perfect as it is. But I think they'd do a nice cover and it would be interesting to hear.

I already think that song sounds super current. I've played it for friends a few times who aren't familiar with the BB's 70's catalogue, and they're always like "whoa... that could easily be on the radio right now".

Caroline No.

'I Just Wasn't Made For These Times' because I think the feeling is pretty universal, plus it's a relatively little known song to the world.

Taylor Swift could do a cover of 'Teeter Totter Love' and it'd be a hit

^  lmao !!

I've been thinking about all the BB covers I've heard, and really the only one I can stomach is She and Him's cover of "God Only Knows." And even with that one, I still wish I was hearing the original.  

Which reminds me of the version the BBC did a couple years ago.  I dug the instrumentation and the video production, but detested the vocals (except Brian's parts).  Wish I could find that instrumental. No thanks on the version with the vocals.

Yeah I don't think I've ever heard a good Beach Boys cover besides this guys 'Caroline, No'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_6bpunKQA4
But it's not like he sings or anything

What about David Lee Roth's version of California Girls? Not better than the original, but pretty fun though. Of course I haven't heard it since the 80s, and I'm basing my opinion 100% on the fact that the last time I heard it I was like 12 and hadn't really developed a "taste" in music yet.

It may be fun, but it's not fun fun fun. Which is the difference between the Beach Boys and everyone else (and between Fun Fun Fun and all their other songs).

;D

No BB songs that I can really think of.  They are basically culturally irrelevant in this day and age, it pains me to say, except perhaps among the Geritol crowd.  Maybe "Wipeout", but that is a stretch to call that a BB's song even that would not be successful based upon surf music or Beach Boys bona fides...

It's still a solid version.  I just heard it not that long ago. 

This is from the "Here Today! The Songs of Brian Wilson" compilation from two years ago.

Louis Phillipe and Dean Broderick

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

A "hit"?
C'mon. We're smarter than that, guys.

Reality check: The music business as of January 2017 is a sham in terms of "singles" and the old notion of a hit song. Albums are different, perhaps more fair in the tabulation of actual sales and download numbers reflecting in the charts, but a hit single? Beyonce could release 3 minutes of her kid throwing a tantrum set to an 808 drumbeat and a bass loop, and it would be a fucking top ten with the way airplay and sales are so badly misread and used to chart songs today.

Hold on..."no thanks" to a re-record, yet you want a re-recorded backing track for This Whole World? How does that line up logically, not to mention aesthetically if you're replacing the entire (terrific IMO) groove and heartbeat of the record itself?

Foo Fighters "Sound of Free" would be a hit!  In addition to the car and surf songs my band covered the following songs live:

It's About Time
Sound of Free
Breakaway
Good Vibrations
Sloop John B

The Foos or Green Day or someone similar could make those 'hits'.  River Song would be another.

I really like They Might Be Giants' version of "Caroline No". I was very impressed with that cover

don't recall any other BB cover that I like as much though, although "Little Pad" from one of those tribute albums I thought was interesting. Forgot what the band was that did it though. I think its on "Smiling Pets"

River Song and Forever are dying to be "hits".. Its a shame they never got the wide recognition they deserve (other than Uncle Jesse 30 years ago with "Forever")

Kanye West could do 'I Only Know' with Kim Kardashian's buttcheeks doing the background vocals and it'd be a smash

 :lol

Not a hit and not new but my favorite cover was Frank Black "Hang on to Your Ego"

Great cover.  I always love figuring out which of the alternative/punk musicians that I loved in my youth, were deep Brian Wilson fans.  Sometimes you can go back and listen to their early work and it becomes obvious.  Matthew Sweet was one of those for me.
https://youtu.be/gCiMN88JY1g
https://youtu.be/AZ9RQJ26E7w

Yes, Frank was moving in the right direction--punkier and more rocked out. "Mess of Help" could be brought right into such a region--Michael Carpenter shows some flashes of it in his cover from awhile back. It's how to handle the fact that the track has the extra riff section in front of the middle-8 that would keep it from registering with audiences that need to hear the chorus more often these days. That extra meander is one of the things that got in the way of the song back in the day, in addition to not enough punch for the rhythm guitar--and, of course, the fact that "Mess of Help" coming in on the heels of "Surf's Up," which was given a really good ride by FM disk jockeys and reset the audience receptivity in a totally different direction, was a classic WTF? moment in May 1972.

The right re-arrangement for modern radio, with a singer taking Carpenter's direction but singing the living sh*t out of it (as he only does in the last verse...), with just enough "pretty" left in with more orthodox backing vocals, would have a fighting chance to light up the post-modern pinball machine. But the "She don't know..." part has got to have more oomph first time around, and still get bigger and badder at the end a la the original. You need to kick ass on both the verses and the middle-8/tag to keep a flow in their river...Carpenter kicks it in the former, but he's just not quite there on the latter (though I like his high voices in the tag, adds a register that is taken up by the high fiddle part in the original). His AOR guitar solo is also going in the right direction, just needs more flash.

Maybe Nate Ruess could do a version of Hold On Dear Brother.  I thought he did a great job with Brian on Soundstage, and was bummed they left it off the CD.

I love Louis Philippe's stuff. Here's his version of 'Guess I'm Dumb' from one of his earliest albums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7RD1f4-_4U&index=3&list=PLJ0LdtdIAOsiEFWgfl2SrImbFVM9jcCLD

It seems that Surfin' USA is a hit every time they rerelease it.  Go ahead and top 100 for sure to 20 probabaly!!!