The Smiley Smile Message Board

Anybody agree? Disagree? Btw, I read just now in Wiki that the song's been used as recent as 2018 in Netflix film "Set It Up". Anybody seen it? Is it BBs version? Let's hope it is. :grouphug Great Al lead :3d, it's really frankly *BBs* song.

I wonder now - is there any BBs song with imperative title?  "Do It Again", what else?

Celebrate the News
Break Away could be taken as imperative but isn’t in the lyrics.
Make It Good
Cuddle Up
Never Learn Not to Love
Wake the World

Think About The Days

Al is fantastic on this lead.  This has always been a great song to hear performed live throughout the years as well.

Is anyone else besides Al actually singing on the Beach Boys version?  I always assumed Al did all the vocals on it...

From the track sheets, and from Al's recollections, the other guys do indeed sing on it, but it's obviously mostly Al in the mix, especially in the intro, which sounds to be ALL Al.
One of the "You never give me a chance" bits sounds like Al, the other like Mike. Multiple background parts are listed on the track sheet as being Al (including multiple doubled intro parts), but there are some tracks designated as just "background" parts, which could be the whole group, and Mike is also listed by name on a track.

Be Here in the Morning
Talk to Me (if we allow covers)
Johnny B Goode (if we allow covers + wordplay)

Be Still
Add Some Music To Your Day
Hold On, Dear Brother
Don't Talk

Regarding BB cover versions, I think as time has gone by, I'm more at ease with just bluntly stating that in the case of amazing bands like the Beach Boys or the Beatles, when they covered a song, they usually made it their own and their versions became the best versions (I'm not including the latter-day covers on things like the SIP album; I'm mainly talking about 60s and to some degree the 70s).

It's always interesting to hear the original versions, and credit is obviously always due to the original writers. And usually, the original (or older) versions the BBs or Beatles were listening to were good records, good enough to catch their ears.

But Brian (and the Beatles in their case) were able to concentrate the best aspects of older songs they were covering, and then bring their unmatched pop/rock sensibilities, making their versions often the definitive versions.

Both the BB's version and the original by the Del-Vikings are great recordings, but since you asked, I prefer the original recording.

For me, the BB's version comes across as somewhat perfunctory and mechanical, while the Del-Vikings version is infused with a greater sense of joyous exuberance.

take a load off your feet
tell me why

Come Go With Me by the Del Vikings was one of those oldies radio format standards for years, as well as potentially hundreds of oldies record/tape/CD compilation sets. It was one of the defining records of that era, when people not as invested in the history think "doo wop". I've heard it many, many times...it never gets old, however it did get somewhat common...if that makes sense.

BUT - When I heard the backstory of that record, it changed it into something truly special. I've related the story before (and credit to whoever I heard it from, and it may be online too), but here is one of my favorite rock and roll radio tales of all time.

DJ Alan Freed...yep, that Alan Freed...the guy who is credited with coining the term Rock And Roll, the Moondog himself...

...Freed used to play these R&B and doo-wop records before there was rock and roll as a format or a genre. Above all the scandal and hype, Freed truly loved his fans, listeners, the music, and the artists whose records he was spinning in those early days. He'd be live in the booth actually putting the needle on the records (a lost art), and listening to them through his studio monitors.

What Freed would do is have his microphone "open" (turned on and up) during the instrumental breaks, in this style usually honking sax solos. He'd be so into the music, he'd start whooping and yelling things like "Go Go Go!" and "Yeah!" and clapping along to the beat. He also kept a phonebook on his DJ desk, which he would bang his hand down on that book creating a thumping beat. It was truly live radio, and exciting as hell back in those days.

So when his fans would go buy the records Freed would spin on his show, some of them would be disappointed that there was no yelling, whooping, banging, clapping, or people yelling "go go go!" on the records' instrumental breaks. They'd wonder if it was the same record they heard Alan spin.

So when you hear that sax solo on the Del Vikings' "Come Go With Me", with all the yelling and clapping and such...that was the Del Vikings doing exactly what Alan Freed had done on countless live broadcasts. It gave the record an added jolt, a joyous live feel like there was a party going on in the studio...and that was exactly what Freed sounded like on hundreds of hours of broadcasts now lost to history.

Knowing that, and hearing it, it changed my take on that record. I love it. I love hearing it because of that element.

The BB's version? Doesn't work for me. It's good, Al is solid as usual...but it's sterile. Especially compared to the original.

Catch a Wave

Great story! And one I'd never heard before. Yes, those whoops and "go, go, go, go's" in the bridge really add a lot to the joyous feel of the Del-vikings recording.

I'd love to hear an aircheck of Alan Freed in his early days whooping and yelling during instrumental breaks. Do you know if any exist?

Also loved it when Wolfman Jack would sing along, make crazy sounds, and/or add prerecorded wolf howls when certain records were playing. Good chance he was influenced by Freed in that regard.

You are just now figuring that out? Been on a vacation?

Yes - Some exist! I have more audio *somewhere* in my collection...no clue where...but thanks to YouTube and the kind folks who shared this stuff, the exact audio of Freed you're looking for is available. Early Freed, late night broadcast from April 1954, and within the first 5 minutes you hear Freed whooping and yelling "go go go", "yeah yeah", etc. Just like the Del Vikings did on their record a few years later.

I'll go a bit further with an A/B, again courtesy YouTube. The record Freed spins is a hyper-charged sax instrumental called "The Whip" by Gil Bernal, which was an early Leiber-Stoller song (at that time the label read "Stoller-Leiber") cut in '54 in Los Angeles. The original Bernal release had no sounds except the band. When you hear Freed spinning it, he's going nuts with his mic open.

The second A/B is a Roy Milton record called "Make Me Know It", also cut in early '54 in Los Angeles. When you hear the Freed broadcast, again you'll hear all the "yeahs" and "go gos" and Freed's other comments from his open mic.

It's awesome radio. A bygone era.

Anyway here are the clips;

Alan Freed, late night WJW broadcast in Cleveland April 1954: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqKRYJS60Rc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqKRYJS60Rc)

Among the first records Freed spins around 1:25 on the aircheck, Gil Bernal "The Whip" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcnHx1fce-o (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcnHx1fce-o)

And Roy Milton "Make Me Know It" heard at 7:10 on the aircheck,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z58sOFDAW3A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z58sOFDAW3A)

Note the difference between how they sounded on Freed's broadcast (minus the usual pitch/speed issues due to the aircheck recording) and how the actual records sounded without Freed's comments and yelling. No wonder some listeners may have thought they bought the wrong disc...even though Freed also gave the label name too on the records he played!   ;D

More off-topic, but I'm on an Alan Freed kick...and I think this audio is awesome.

Someone streamed some Alan Freed airchecks from 1953, better quality too, and I don't have to go searching to find it in my own archives.  ;D

Click on this link, and it's Freed doing the Moondog Rock and Roll Party, late-night in Cleveland 1953. Go to 9:20 and listen to Freed playing the original Drifters' "Money Honey" which of course Elvis would score a hit with a few years later. Then Freed spins a record by Big Bertha Henderson called "Rock Daddy Rock".

You'll hear Freed's mic open for the entire Drifters record, as he sings along AND you hear him banging his hand to the beat on that phone book. Much more clear than the YouTube tapes. On the Big Bertha record, the mic is off for the first part of the song, then he opens it up and starts thumping on that phone book, and singing "Rock Bertha rock, rock Odessa rock..." with the record. Followed by another "Moondog" intro/talk-up complete with the howling...and yes, it does sound a lot like what Wolfman Jack would later do as his own trademark.

PS - The sponsor Freed keeps hawking was "Erin Brew 10-02" beer, a local Cleveland brewery. Pop a cap, put two bottles next to the radio, and party with the Moondog.  ;)

Link (Money Honey at 9:20): http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/wjw-freed-53.mp3 (http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/wjw-freed-53.mp3)

Craig, thanks so much for the links. Absolutely great stuff! So cool to listen to these early-mid fifties broadcasts and imagine how it must have been to be a teenager listening to Freed. I'm in the middle of listening to Money Honey right now with Freed's vocal intonations on top amping up the level of excitement.

(Too early on the West Coast right now for a modern day equivalent of an Erin Brew 10-02, but I'll listen again this evening with a craft brew in hand.)

I'm glad to see thread created by me to bring interesting discussion to the table. :3d I shall respectfully agree to disagree with guitarfool & Mr. Machine. I dislike Del-Vikings version. That said, truth be told, I wouldn't say the song, its melody, is better than just good. It's nice to hear, yet many songs BBs picked to sing would be better than the subject. But, anyway, thank you to create interesting discussion which guitarfool began & CM replied back which continued as short dialog.

Thanks for that.  According to the irrefutable Wikipedia, Carl and Mike are also in the vocal mix.  However to these ears, the harmonies sound like an army of Als. 

That edit was mine. I thought Mike was one of the bass parts on the bridge, or I read that online somewhere. I dont remember why I put Carl -- either I read it somewhere or maybe I was thinking of Peggy Sue and mixing the two together (probably the latter).