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An interesting collaboration. I'd like to know how much Roger McGuinn recorded with the Beach Boys. Ding Dang was a co-write, but as far as I remember, no vocals by Roger.

That leaves us with two tracks:

"Summer in Paradise" promo single, also available on an Uncut Magazine freebie CD.
"California Dreamin'", which I've got on a 2 CD Disky comp, Time Passages.

Any others?

Not exactly studio collaborations with the band per se, but...

Bruce played piano on three cuts from Roger's 1973 album self-titled album, and also sang backup on one of them, "Draggin'". The following year, Roger joined the BBs onstage in Michigan to sing that song (ironically, this was when Bruce was out of the band).

And, Roger and Wolfman Jack jammed with the band on "Rock And Roll Music" when they all appeared on the Midnight Special in '79.

COMMENT TO GoogaMoora:   Roger ask me to produce and engineer three songs for him, which I did. I just looked for the acetates so I could tell you the titles, but will need more time to find them. When I do I'll post the titles. Those, if I remember right, were recorded at Sunset Sound and none of the BB were involved. One title was really quite good as a commercial release, but never made it. Since Roger does not live far from me, I've often thought of visiting him with the acetates for old times sake, but never seem to find the time.

In those days, one of Bruce's girl friends was also very close to a girl friend of mine, who was also a friend of Roger's girl friend at that time. The girls got together at Roger's house and I met Roger that way. He has a science background, so we got along. I remember one night visiting Roger and looking at stars and the moon using his new telescope -- off the back deck overlooking Laurel canyon. This same arrangement (of girlfriends) also got me and Elton John together for a lively pool party (at his Malibu seaside home). I took my Dalmatian (Mr. Spock II) for a run on the beach. Later that day Elton played some of his songs on the piano while I sat next to him and listened. This was during his "high-heel" period. That also lead to engineering some vocal sessions for him, and some of those sessions were with Beach Boy voices. ~swd 

Great stories! Welcome back Mr. Desper!

Welcome back, Stephen Desper! Sorry about this late reply, I have been absent for a while. Looking forward to reading your stories from the business. - GoogaMooga

So Roger was never in the studio at the same time as the BB's, I take it - overdubs?

Great stories, Stephen. Thanks for sharing.

Awhile back, I read a lady's story about The Beach Boys having a group of several folks sing Happy Birthday to Roger McGuinn at Brother Studio. Not sure if this was some impromptu recording or if it wasn't even recorded, I tend to assume this would have been Brian's idea. Maybe around the time the two of them wrote Ding Dang?

COMMENT to GoogaMooga:  Although I knew or know both the BBs and Roger, and was around and about during these times, I never saw them all together. This does not mean they were never together, rather that I never noticed such a gathering. Since Bruce's girl friend and Roger's were best of friends, undoubtedly Bruce and Roger knew each other. However, I never recorded Roger singing with the guys, and don't remember recording BB vocals for use with any of Roger's projects. Since they were friends -- and singers -- I don't see any reason not to suspect that at some time or other, in some place or another these talented people's paths did cross. As CenturyDeprived stated in his post following, singing Happy Birthday to Roger at Brother Studios could have happened, but that was a later time. Brother Studios in Santa Monica was a more public place and could well have been utilized by Roger -- it's after my time, as was the writing collaboration between Roger & Brian.  ~swd

 

Thanks for clarifying, Stephen. Whatever may be, I think it was good to add Roger's vocals on the title song from "SIP". A bit like Dylan guesting on one version of "The Spirit of Rock'n'Roll".