No new entries or edits - therefore there's no new recalculation. Next recalculation will be in Autumn 2024

I completely agree with you with this. Not only on your words on how under-appreciated (such a good word instead of underrated!) it is, but also your feelings about the outro. The outro didn't get its kind of "roaring" feeling to it on the remix (almost Phil Spector-ish?). It almost became an entirely different song there.

Listen to the boys loud and clear!

2021 RECALCULATIONS ARE DONE

User "waketheworld" and I was the only one's to add/edit their lists this year.
This made some small differences in the songs' Top 10, where 'Til I Die claimed the 4th place (which Wouldn't It Be Nice once had).

Feel still free to add/edit your own top 10 in the album and song calculation-threads! They're linked in the first post in this thread, and is pinned by the "poll" site here in SS.
(Kokomo STILL hasn't one single point!)

2021 Recalculations done!

No new adds/edits this year (waketheworld's list does not follow the guidelines, and I didn't edit my list).
Feel free to add/edit your list to the next-coming recalculation next year!

Now when the "new"/old Big Sur finally being officially released - I thought a bit about the Holland version of that song

I've always been wondering why there is this kind of in-and-out-varying sound quality on this song.
Listen around 0:52. Something happens with the sound-quality there, where is sound more muddled. The muddle-ness disappears, making the sound more "crisp" and "clean" again, and reappears throughout he song on and on.

I've heard there were some difficulties with the electricity when they moved all their american stuff to Europe, so I've always thought it might have to do something with that. However, this loss of quality isn't there (or atleast as obvious) on the rest of the songs on this album (as far as I know...)

Does somebody have any clues, stories or facts about why this happens in this song? Would be really happy to have some kind of sound (pun unintended) explanation to this.

There is so many feelings in my body! I'm so exited, it's much better than I ever would dream of!

2020 RECALCULATIONS ARE DONE! (A bit late  )

Even though new list contributions were far fewer this year, the differences were much bigger this year! I'm surprised that All I Wanna do fell so much

Logged on for the first time in aaaages.

 Thanks for all the nerdy stats and presentation (with handy hyperlinks)

As said earlier, it wouldn’t be my top 10 but if those were my desert island bb’s the I’d be stoked!

My album changes would be...

 1. Pet Sounds - 467 Points (-)
2. The SMiLE Sessions - 317 Points (-) 2. Brian Wilson presents SMiLE
3. Sunflower - 311 Points (-) 10. Thats why god made the radio
5. The Beach Boys Today! - 248 Points (-)
4. Wild Honey - 213 Points (+1)
8. Friends - 205 Points (-1)
9. Surf's Up - 202 Points (-)
3. The Beach Boys Love You - 160 Points (-)
9. Smiley Smile - 144 Points (-) 7. That lucky old Sun
6. Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) - 118 Points (-)

Hey, don't forget to put your list on the ranking process threads! They're still up 

2020 RECALCULATIONS ARE DONE! (Around 16 days late  :/)

And here's another ranking, from a friend of mine:

1. Let's Go Away for Awhile
2. Surf's Up (From the SMiLE Sessions)
3. Heroes and Villains (From the SMiLE Sessions)
4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulders)
5. Caroline No
6. Wind Chimes (From the SMiLE Sessions)
7. I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
8. 'Til I Die
9. Good Vibrations
10. I Get Around

Don't know if it's okay, just want to share his point of view.

I will allow it this time. If anyone has any complaints, please tell me in the discussion thread or in PM.

They did a really good version of Kokomo IMO. Can "Be Still" be considered to be a cover?

Other favourites are:
Just Once in My Life, I Was Made to Love Her, Walk on by, My Only Sunshine - Also Palisades Park when I'm really in that mood!

Hi!

Im sorry if this question has been raised several times earlier, without me noticing it. I've tried searching for it several times on google and on the several (reference) threads around here.
Anyhow:

How do we really know what they sing? Aren't there a lot of lyrics that we take for granted that they're singing?
For example: I've seen several times around, in many pages dedicated to lyrics, that many in All I Wanna Do's third verse put "Oh let these little words of love - Come romance and light your way"
instead of the more obvious "Oh let these little words of love - Become the lights and/[that] light your way" that is sung by me and my friends, and is heard in all of the live-versions I've/we've seen.

I also remember the question about the racial slur many tend(ed) to mishear in the first few sentences A Thing or Two, instead of "little girl" being raised earlier.

It seems like we're using common sence most of the times, which often do work. But sometimes, that backfires.
ARE there any official Beach Boys lyric-sources out there somewhere?

Hi!

Me and some other beach-boys fans were discussing Murry in a live-stream lately. It seems like we know a bit about his involvement in Sea of Tunes, his solo-album, and a bit about his death, but the other parts of his later life seemed to be a bit foggy for us.

Was he ever allowed to meet his grand-children? How was his latest years really? Traveled the boys home anything for the holidays?

Sorry in advance if this has been thoroughly discussed in a earlier thread, that I could find.

I agree with Wata. Sometimes, i find myself being really mad because of their wasted potential, other times I find myself screaming "...And the hoorses!" on Back Home. Maybe it was their destiny to have this clunker of an album. It's really charmy, and, who knows really, what would happen to the later beach boys if this album wouldn't have been at all.

 This album is a true proof that even at their lowest, you can find their best sassy and funny sides in it.

1.   Had to Phone Ya (My 14th most listened track ever according to my last.fm)
2.   Just Once In My Life (Goosebumps at the “every pot of gold…”-part. I LOVE their voices here)
3.   Back Home (yiheaaiiyeaiheyeahh… I love this!)
4.   It’s OK (I like the alternative version the most on MIC, the intro there really gets me going)
5.   TM Song (Underrated. Love Dennis here)
6.   Palisades Park (I gave that gurl a huuug, I the tunnul uf luuuve!!)
7.   Talk To Me (I always tend to imagine Carl In drag here when the song switches)
8.   Rock And Roll Music (Their biggest miss IMO. They could’ve just put out HtPY first instead!)
9.   Susie Cincinnati
10.   A Casual Look
11.   In The Still Of The Night
12.   Blueberry Hill (This was the reason I absolutely hated this album before. Now I can see how they made it intentionally bad. I find it ok now

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Not a big fan of the songs under this line

13.    That Same Song
14.    Chapel of Love
15.    Everyone's In Love With You

I’m unclear if you mean just terrible, or miss matched. If miss matched:
Til I die / goin to the beach
If you just want the worst of the worst: When Girls Get Together / Hey Little Tomboy

HAHAHAHAH, this is too much

Somebody already created the Beatles version of this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-BEATLES-Revolution-9-8-17-Wild-Honey-Pie-53-45/143578798119?hash=item216df69827:g:YXUAAOSw481dgCCq

Isn't these songs generally considered to be the best songs of WA, yet alone of their entire discography? I don't really understand your example.

In this list I combine the vibe I get what I both think of the song and how good it is an album closer.

EDIT: I think it would be great if we could move this post to the Poll-area...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Excellent album closers
1.   Funky pretty
2.   Just Once in My Life
3.   Cabinessence
4.   Surf’s Up
5.   Whistle in
6.   Caroline, No
7.   Cool, Cool Water
8.   Mama Says
9.   Shortenin’ Bread

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The “don’t-really-care-as-much-for”s and “whys”

10.   And Your Dreams Comes True
11.   Cuddle up (Seriously one of the most overrated songs that the boys have ever done. It’s cozy, it’s ok.
12.   Auld Lane Syne (I love Dennis voice over here)
13.   Bull Session (I LOVE the image that they see some space left on the LP, and fill it with some of the most filler-est wholesome filler)
14.   Male Ego
15.   Love is a Woman (WHY did they have to close this album out with THIS? I would love if they could’ve closed it up with the They’re Marchin Along demo)
16.   Don’t Back Down
17.   Barbara Ann (WHY?? Well. I do see why, but I tend to get so offput by this song. I love the boys’s party! Album otherwise)
18.   Boogie Woodie
19.   Endless Harmony
20.   Summer’s Gone
21.   Custom Machine
22.   Denny’s Drums
23.   Transcendental Meditation (Biggest WHY of ‘em all. I always have to jump out of my bed as soon I Hear the end of Diamond Head. Awful closer for an otherwise really -seriously- good album)
24.   Finders Keepers
25.   Forever
26.   Wind of Change
27.   The Shift

2: Just Once In My Life: this song is too good for this album. It’s to good for that decade. It’s just heartbreaking, especially right after the bridge, when Carl and Brian just belt out, “I CAN’T GIVE YOU THE WOooooooooooooooooooRLD!” This track is just perfect.

I TOTALLY agree! I get goosebumbs everytime at the "every pot of gold"

I put Love You in the same category as Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends because they’re strong examples of where The Beach Boys, especially Brian, were musically generally out of step with everyone else in pop music and were uniquely brilliant. One could argue that Love You is an even better example of this because it’s the biggest, most different oddball out of all.

Beautifully spoken Summer_Days

wrong post

I will never understand the cult of LY - a damaged artist cranking out a crude, Crayola textured album featuring the worst vocals every by the band.

<3 - My friend, you just wrote the reason!

This album is a celebration, a fantastic sarcastic show of an album.

Copying Bangs famous quote, from Wikipedia:
Lester Bangs said the Beach Boys were "a diseased bunch of mo'fos if ever there was one…But the miracle is that the Beach Boys have made that disease sound like the literal babyflesh pink of health…Maybe it’s just that unprickable and ingenuous wholesomeness that accounts not only for their charm, but for their beauty—a beauty so awesome that listening to them at their best is like being in some vast dream cathedral decorated with a thousand gleaming American pop culture icons."

[The "curtain closing" noise in Wake The World is just too perfectly placed to be mistake. I bet that Brian was searching for a sound to imitate the pulling of curtains.]

This one got asked in the random questions thread by me earlier... I copy some conclusions from there

In Wake The World, what is the sound that goes of at 0:24? It sounds a bit like when swords are drawn in movies, but I cant figure out what it is!

I asked that once, maybe in the early days of this board. As I recall, S. Desper said it was string noise. (I thought it sounded like something sliding across a music stand, e.g., a pen or pencil.) I still have my doubts.

This is what Reverend Joshua Sloane said about it 12 years ago: "To say that [BW] rushed recordings is false and too presumptuous for the info we have of the sessions. These sessions had engineers most of the time, an engineer wouldn't let obtrusive noises fly unless it was okay'd by the producer. The "curtain closing" noise in Wake The World is just too perfectly placed to be mistake. I bet that Brian was searching for a sound to imitate the pulling of curtains."

Source: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,1820.msg38083.html#msg38083

It makes perfect sense (to me anyway). Although perhaps it's more of a "curtain opening" noise.

As far as random noises and the notion of Brian "rushing" recordings, there was in the 60's a certain niche of recordings that deliberately left in studio noises, or suggested the feel of a live catch-all atmosphere on the records. It's a small niche that doesn't get discussed as much today as a sub-genre, but there were a bunch of hit records in the early 60's that were going for the vibe of capturing a house party or a frat party or whatever you want to call it. One of the biggest is of course Louie Louie, but there were also ones like Double Shot of My Baby's Love which sounds like a frat party singalong with random voices joining in to sing. It's a pretty cool sound. Definitely not clean and polished, but that was the vibe.

So factor that in when the topic of 'Beach Boys Party!' comes up, and it's a direct line of influence. Capture the vibe of a party singalong...Boom, there is the concept. But it was not a new concept.

Then factor in that Rubber Soul was released about a month after Party!, and on the US Capitol pressing that Brian would have heard, they put (against McCartney's wishes) a version of "I'm Looking Through You" that had McCartney blowing numerous takes before starting the actual tune...I can see where McCartney would be upset, but maybe to Brian's ears it lent more to his impression that the whole album was "a gas", as in the listener got to hear this audio verite kind of vibe where Paul had several false starts on a song. It felt perhaps more human, more real to leave that kind of thing in there rather than trim it. Whether Capitol did it without the band's approval is one thing, but Brian and others hearing that on a Beatles record could have sparked some inspiration.

And that's where I think some of the more stray sounds that showed up on Pet Sounds were left on Pet Sounds. We can argue all day about whether those sounds were an aesthetic choice, a matter-of-fact owing to the limitations of the technology, or Brian being sloppy and rushing a mix, but those found sounds and audio verite vibe does add something to the overall feel of those tracks. It inspired other artists to do the same thing.

You really, and I mean REALLY hear it come out on Smiley Smile, almost to a fault...yet, it had that same vibe as all those frat-house records from the early 60's, only with different methods of inebriation. 

I think the subjects that you're bringing up from this question is really interesting. Wether the noise is intentional or not, I'm certain it's intentional. If you're listening closely, you can hear how they're "getting ready" for the sound the second before it comes. The explanation of curtains closing is the most reasonable one

Favorite: The Beach Boys Love You

Least Favorite: There's a lot I haven't listened to (for a reason). I would say Stars&Stripes or SIP.

Overrated: 20/20

Underrated: The Beach Boys' Party! (With 15 big ones as a close contender)

Brian:
Little Children
Melt Away
Rio Grande
(They all take me to a special place)


Dennis:
Sound of free
Dreamer
(I really really REALLY prefer what he made and released with The Beach Boys)


Mike:
Reason For the Season

Hi!

On our Swedish facebook fan-page, two of us have recognized two times when the younger Brian sounded like or reminded of his older voice.

In Hawaii -67, he sounded -exactly- like he does nowadays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtZCnThN2tQ&fbclid=IwAR348x-EEcZ2Eip1-ikLjcypeoycMAZJ2kvR20_mNY4CBrtSxn9zL_3098A
(In just the first seven words: "I've been in this town so long")

Do you guys know any other examples?

I always thought that´s Al singing H&V??

According to sudsutcliffe:
"[...]trip to Hawaii in 1967, the last time Brian performed live for several years and the only occasion where he sang 'Heroes And Villains' in concert with his [immaculate] voice."

The other example that was made in our group was their cover of "There's No Other Like My Baby"

You'll hear it at 0:46

There's that one point in "He Come Down" where he has some of that 15 Big Ones rasp. Does that count as  his"early Brian voice" period, since that's already from the early '70s?

Hi! "Old Brian Voice" on his younger recordings

On our Swedish facebook fan-page, two of us have recognized two times when the younger Brian sounded like or reminded of his older voice.

In Hawaii -67, he sounded -exactly- like he does nowadays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtZCnThN2tQ&fbclid=IwAR348x-EEcZ2Eip1-ikLjcypeoycMAZJ2kvR20_mNY4CBrtSxn9zL_3098A
(In just the first seven words: "I've been in this town so long")

Do you guys know any other examples?

I love threads like this.

I do hear what you're referring to on this recording. It's kinda of eerie.

I'm pretty sure I have a few other examples tucked away in my memories, but the only one that comes to mind at the moment is the "Don't Talk" a capella unused intro (wall of Brians) sounding relatively similar to the wall of Brians on "One For The Boys".  Maybe that's an easy one just because it's wordless, and not specific vocal phrasings which changed a lot over the years with his voice on actual sung words.

I'll try to think of other examples because I know I have a few.

Are you guys able to pinpoint exactly where this occurs? This sounds exiting

Hi!

On our Swedish facebook fan-page, two of us have recognized two times when the younger Brian sounded like or reminded of his older voice.

In Hawaii -67, he sounded -exactly- like he does nowadays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtZCnThN2tQ&fbclid=IwAR348x-EEcZ2Eip1-ikLjcypeoycMAZJ2kvR20_mNY4CBrtSxn9zL_3098A
(In just the first seven words: "I've been in this town so long")

Do you guys know any other examples?

The results of 2019's recalculation are here!