Yipes, all this stuff about stretchy tapes syncing could please stop now. Here's why.
It's obvious that whatever analog multitracks have been found over the years have been digitized along the way to avoid further degradation from wear, time, and, yes, okay, I guess stretching. Therefore, any mixes done from them in 1993 or now would sync. The timing in digital audio multitracks doesn't drift.
We got enough mysteries without this fake one. 

A lost comic opportunity of epic proportions.
He should've done this duet with Mike Love. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

One problem I have with theories about Brian singing all the parts on any pre-16-track song is that surely, in most cases we'd have additional bounces to tape.  Which is of course possible, but not desirable for a producer if it can be avoided.  For instance, if Brian did a demo of WIBN with all the parts, at its thickest, WIBN has what 6 bgs and the lead?  If a lead is double tracked then you're already using 3 tracks of an 8-track, leaving 5 to play around with.

On IWFTD, some of the bgs are double-tracked as well, so there would have had to be internal bouncing to accommodate everything.  So I feel like there would probably be singers other than Brian on that.

I mean, he probably used Bruce on K.O.M.A. for the same reason, in that case, wanting double-tracked texture on a limited track situation--so he and Bruce sang both their parts on the same track.

Just something to have in consideration.

This is certainly a consideration, and I thought about it. Still, with eight tracks, minus one for the backing -- I'm thinking "Salt Lake City" here -- and four- or even five-part doubled harmony, the required bouncing wouldn't be too insane. Certainly not something you'd wanna do every day, obviously.

I've been bopped for this opinion in the past -- one therefore wonders why I'm bothering now -- but I still swear that the entire a cappella section of "Salt Lake City" is Brian. (Assume defensive crouch.)

I've always wondered how this song made Carnie feel when she heard it:
"When a man loves a woman, they make things like you my son,
Er, whoops. Think Brian wanted/expected a son, maybe?
I know he loves all his daughters but, Jeez: awk-ward.

This is all awesome information. Thanks, everyone.

Andrew,
Thanks. I've seen that video without thinking about its locale. I just watched it again.
Do we know anything about the control room?

I've started wondering more about the studio the Beach Boys had built in Brian's house.
Are there pictures of the studio anywhere? It seems I've seen a few session shots that might have been taken there, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any to post?
Also, has a list ever been made of the released songs that were actually recorded there? Up through when? "Surf's Up?" "Carl and the Passions?" Did they also record elsewhere while the studio was in service?
Do I remember correctly that it was dismantled for the move to Holland?

Oh, well, I've been trying to remain silent on this, but, as Popeye sez, "I can't stands it no more."
The bashing of ProTools and digital recording -- especially with today's sufficiently high sample rates -- is just plain ignorant. Stop, stop, stop. It hurts.
Digital recording technology, properly used, is, in fact more transparent than analog because there's no tape hiss over everything. If digital technology is abused, blame the abuser. The technology itself (very cute comparing it to nuclear weapons, btw) is absolutely innocent in this, as was the analog gear used to make crappy-sounding records in the 60s, of which there were plenty.
The loathsome over-compressing/squooshing/flattening/brickwalling (whatever you want to call it) is a (poor) judgement call on the part of the person doing the mastering, often at the behest of the producer/artist/record label. It has absolutely nothing to do with whether the equipment used is digital or old-school. In fact, lots of highly paid modern mastering engineers pride themselves on the vintage analog gear they use along with their digital equipment to ruin recordings.
The loudness wars are a real problem, but it has nothing to do with digital vs analog, a debate that I guess will never end since it's now been going on nearly 30 years. Sigh.

One of the nice things about PS is how it can support opposite emotional points of view like Ed's and mine. You're in love? "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Lonely? "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times." And on and on.
Awesome album. Ed, your story about your girlfriend writing on the "Caroline, No" single made me lol.
I'd forgotten about that single. Loving it as much as I did (intrigued by the solo credit, too), chalk it up as yet another reason PS didn't surprise me. I need to go check my crawlspace. Wonder if I still have it.

I was 14 when Pet Sounds came out. I'd been hooked on the BBs since All Summer Long, and had memorized Today,  Summer Days and Party. The BBs were a private thing of mine; no one else I knew got them, so it never occurred to me to judge PS pro or con. It was just the next BBs album, that's all. I would've had no one to share my opinion with anyway. I didn't find it stylistically shocking at all. There'd been the intro to "California Girls" and "Let Him Run Wild," to name a few foreshadowing moments, as well as "Please Let Me Wonder" and "Kiss Me Baby." I didn't find its sound surprising.
My first girlfriend had just broken up with me, and I was totally in sync with the album's mood. Mopey kid. I went away to a camp that summer that didn't allow radios or turntables, and PS ran through my head constantly, haunting me.
I didn't realize its revolutionary musical nature until later on as a college-age musician, when -- after a few listens to clear out the emotional associations -- it blew my mind all over again.

Hi,
I thought some of you might be interested in this. I've posted links to my music before here, gotten some nice responses, and made some friends. So...
I've just posted my new album, Sand Paintings, online at my website www.robbyberman.com.
The album's specifically about confronting middle age and mortality, and I hope others thinking about these things find it helpful. (It's actually a pretty catchy and fun album in spite of the subject matter. Maybe because of it, even.) While some the albums on my mind during recording were odd ones -- They Might Be Giants' Here Come the 1, 2, 3s, for example -- That Lucky Old Sun certainly bolstered my desire to simply create worthwhile music with real meaning and value beyond commercial considerations. Still, I'm just so steeped in the BBs that everyone tells me they hear Brian's influence all over everything. I can hear it in the title song pretty obviously, and there's a band section in "Sitting Still' that's straight out of the LA Light album-era sound.
I've done so miserably in the past at selling my music that this time I've decided I just want as many people to hear it as possible. So it's downloadable for free in a few different formats.
Enjoy!
Robby

I did this as an experiment a few years back. I can email it to anyone who wants to hear how they fit.

Aw, I think this is beautiful. Way better than the demo. The vocal's more heartfelt, the backup vox are more controlled, subtle, and supportive, and I like the strings. Dynamically it's less extreme than the demo, but that's more appropriate to the song. It breathes in and out emotionally in an almost magically organic, moving way.
I'm verklempt.

I'm replying to my own post. I just did a search, and the answer is clear: yes, I'm the last to figure this out. Frankie Lane did it, too. Sheesh.
Sorry to waste everyone's time.

Am I the last person here to realize that "That Lucky Old Sun" is an old Ray Charles song from his Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music album? Slow, slow, slow. I'd just assumed it was a new BW original.

http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/ritz/

I live in Woodstock, NY, which -- its infamous counter-cultural reputation aside -- is a beautiful, small mountaintop town. Every Christmas Eve, all traffic is blocked from the center of town, and a good chunk of the town's residents gather on the green to await Santa's arrival with toys for all of the town's kids. There's a brass band playing on the steps of the old Dutch Reformed church, and bittersweet magic in the air as old friends meet, often for the first time all year, as the spritis of those who are no longer with us hover nearby. Really an unbelievably classic, old-time scene.
I wrote and recorded a song about all this a few years back, and as luck would have it, all of the local radio stations are too cool to play something so nakedly heartfelt. So each Christmas passes by with my little love letter to Woodstock left unheard, except in my house.
While this song has nothing at all directly to do with Brian or the Boyz -- except in the inevitable influence sense -- I thought I'd share it with you so the poor thing doesn't suffer another lonely Christmas. You can hear it on my myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/robbyberman.
Have a great holiday, everyone!

myspace.com/robbyberman

This is kinda- off-topic but interesting. The song about Brian I wrote mentions fireflies, and I just found an article about how they do what they do.
In case you're interested: http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2OTc1OTk2

Hey, thanks for the kind comments; I'll pass them on to the band and singers.   
I'm glad you checked it out. And feel free to pick away here or privately. I'm game.

Hi,
I've just released a new album that includes a song about Brian called "Rainbows and Rain." It pictures him off alone in a forest, and talks about the super-natural power at his fingertips when he's making music, and the effect that must have on his spirit and soul when he comes back down to "reality."
You can check it out at http://www.myspace.com/robbyberman
Enjoy,
Robby
P.S. It's...er...not like you can't hear his influence in my other songs, too.