The Smiley Smile Message Board

Not sure if this has been discussed before but Jim Peterik recorded his own version of "TWGMTR" a few years ago.  I had forgotten he co-wrote it.  It's different, I suppose.  Stripped down considerably.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=_hkg24JjVCc&feature=share

Now we know what the song would have sounded like if Bruce had produced and performed it (not so much the singing, but the arrangement and production).

What I'd really like to hear is the demo that Peterik, Thomas, and Brian (etc.) recorded for the song back in 1998, and/or the other demos they recorded for the song in the intervening years.

You can see how much of that song lives in the harmony arrangement — nearly all of it.

Interesting. I had never noticed before how the voicing of the chorus harmony  (I - Vm) recalls John Barry's "You Only Live Twice"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_w4DVgvVHs

I guess that Billy Strange was not the only Wrecking Crew member there...

Interesting to hear what he considers the melody of the chorus to be when there are no other voices to round it out. Not at all what sticks out as melody on BB's 50th.

Or the theme from "Midnight Cowboy". Or the Danny Kirwan/Fleetwood Mac instrumental "Sunny Side Of Heaven".

True. With the Midnight Cowboy theme you have John Barry recycling himself.

...and creating two of the greatest soundtrack theme songs of the last 60 years in the process!

Blur also paid kind of a neat homage to those sounds and that similar line cliche/melody on the Parklife album with "To The End", especially in the string arrangement.

There's something indeed deceivingly complex and slightly weird about the melody and harmony structure of "That's Why God Made the Radio." I think that's part of why, while the 50th anniversary tour and band were impeccable, truly arguably the best sounding since the mid-70s, they often sounded nearly off-the-rails when they performed "That's Why God Made the Radio" back in 2012.

It has like multiple parts singing in unison, and then at certain points each of those groups doing harmony. Like much of the TWGMTR album, it has this weird thing going on where there is not a single, distinct lead vocal track. It's a lot of doubling and overlapping, and a lot of processing to mush multiple voices together into sort-of one voice. I swear at points it's like somehow hearing 1 1/2 voices.

They polished it up quite nicely for the studio track, but in concert, it always sounded weirdly messy compared to just about everything else on those shows.

this live 2012 version of the song was performed quite well
https://youtu.be/WmHr8XpcFpQ

With this discussion of That's Why God Made the Radio's melody, I gotta say I always thought it was more indebted to Silhouettes by The Rays in the same way Don't Worry shows influence from Don't You Care by the Buckinghams or It's Just A Matter Of Time with In the Still of the Night.

Nice to hear the song stripped down. Some great chord changes in that song. Good intelligent pop writing.

There were some horrendous live versions by the boys in 2012 but the one posted above is decent though Jeff sounds a bit off at times.

One Hundred Percent! Always felt the same!

Don't You Care was released in 1967 I believe and Don't Worry Baby in 1964.

I've said this somewhere else (i.e. another thread), but the verses have something from "Your Summer Dream"



Wow. Big fan of Blur (also really like the French version with Francoise Hardy) and I've never made that connection. Of course, some years later, Robbie Williams did a most obvious sample of "You Only Live Twice" for his "Millenium"

Not Don't Worry Baby, but Don't Worry from No Pier Pressure.

🤭  Whoops! I need to work on my reading comprehension. 

Yeah this was never really a song that begged to be played live.  Works much better in the studio.

I don't know if I really like Peterik's version because as someone else  already pointed out, this song succeeds as a vocal showpiece instead of a stripped down introspective tune.  But still an interesting listen. 

Man. That song really is a mess of chords isn't it?  :lol