The Smiley Smile Message Board

Since Mike just turned 80, thought it would be interesting to see what everybody thinks are his top leads, bass vocals and songwriting credits (can be lyrics or music, your call) in his career. What comes to mind?

That's Not Me, Here Today and Kokomo - all bangers.

Vocal-wise, All I Wanna Do, Big Sur, Meant For You - all incredible. Lyrics-wise, Good Vibrations, The Warmth of the Sun, Kiss Me Baby, Only With You. Lots of good stuff.

I've always liked his bass vocals at the end of Surfin' Safari "yeah me, with me..."

So much stuff BUT his vocal on California Girls is just superb/perfect (lead and bass)
Do dissect his bass vocals on Our Prayer, they are near on impossible (we do it in our band, yes I do the bass vox and never get it right  >:()

So many great Mike bass vocals from the late '60s and early '70s that you really only notice by focusing on them. "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" is one that comes to mind.

Some of my favorite Mike vocals:

Surfin' USA, Little Deuce Coupe, Good to My Baby, Kiss Me Baby, California Girls, Aren't You Glad, Meant for You, Do It Again, Big Sur

In terms of lyrics, I love all the fun-in-the-sun stuff and Wild Honey is incredibly consistent too. Also, his work with Brian on Today! doesn't get enough credit.

I Get Around, Kiss me Baby, Big Sur.

"California Girls", hands-down. Mike's contributions hit on all cylinders on that record, lyrics, performance, and delivery. It's one of those records that has the "magic" you can't define but you know it when you hear it, plus it starts immediately with one of the most majestic intros ever recorded in popular music and never lets up.

Ah 1965, the halcyon time when art and commerce were one in the BBs story.... :hat

Lead vocals: California Girls definitely. All I Wanna Do is a very close second.
Bass vocals: the tag on Til I Die
Lyrics: The Warmth Of The Sun, Please Let Me Wonder

Lead vocals: Little Honda, I get around, California Girls, Here Today, All I wanna do, Big Sur (4/4), Airplane.
Bass parts: Their hearts were full of Spring; Fun, fun, fun; Here comes the night, breakaway, funky pretty.
Lyrics: Good Vibrations, The warmth of the sun, I’m waiting for the day, All this is that.

Bass vocals: Don't Worry Baby, Catch a Wave - I always sing along to these when I hear those songs. Great stuff!

Mike was/is such a great singer. So, let's see... "California Girls" obviously. Great, great lead vocals. A lot of the early Surf and Car songs present fantastic Mike leads. "Shut down", "Surfin' USA", "Fun, fun, fun" just to name a few. "Big Sur" shows his softer tone very well and is a very good song besides that. "All this is that" sounds like he's standing right beside you and whispers something in your ear. It gives you the chills, but in a good way, because of how he is able to control his voice. There are just too many great Mike moments that it's hard to come up with a representative list. One album I would like to point out (but basically the whole group is doing a fantastic job on it) is the '64 Christmas album. Be it the standards like "Santa Claus is coming to Town" or the originals like "Merry Christmas, Baby". Especially the later is one of the very best examples of how dynamic Mike's singing could be. It takes the song to another place. He's channeling Ronnie Spector, it seems. At that point he was the only Beach Boy (possibly apart from Brian, but I'm not sure about even that) who could do that. His singing is full of power and personality. Just mindblowing.

Mike may not have been 100 percent onboard for Pet Sounds, but he sang his heart out on it. That's Not Me and Here Today are great, and as much as I love Brian and his voice, I prefer WIBN with Mike singing the bridge, not Brian.

His bass vocal is great on a lot of songs, but All Dressed Up for School may be the best. For a lead vocal "snippet," I always liked his part on Breakaway.

For lyrics, Good Vibrations is great, and of course I have to go with Sound of Free. :-)

For sure, Bro, and it all worked very well when Brian was in charge of the whole thing and the others did what they were told to do.  :bw  After a while, not so much. ::)

Definitely all dressed up for school. Surprised no one did that. He kills the bass vocals and the tag.

Mike does sound great on it.

Is Brian even on that song vocally? It blew my mind completely when I found out that Al Jardine was the one singing falsetto on it. Even though once you recognize that it's Al, you could never unhear Al on it.