Why is Al Jardine known as the 4th voice of the Beach Boys?

[cablegeddon]

What is it about him and/or his voice that puts him so far down below Mike Love, Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson?

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Wait a minute. Al sings more songs than Dennis?

[cablegeddon]

Wait a second!

[Aegir]

What is it about him and/or his voice that puts him so far down below Mike Love, Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson?

Mike, Brian and Carl just have more leads, or at least, they sing on the more popular songs. I think. does someone want to make a list?

[adamghost]

I think the thing about Al is he really only rose to prominence as a vocalist in the band after Brian left.  He sang a lot prominently in the live show, but in the main, he was covering Brian's parts, e.g. "Heroes and Villains," "Help Me Rhonda," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Barbara Ann" and so on.  Before that, he really only had one hit lead:  "Help Me Rhonda."  This is somewhat true of Carl too except that Carl had a spate of late-period lead vocals that were at least mid-level hits:  "Good Vibrations," "God Only Knows," "Darlin'," "I Can Hear Music," and so forth. So even though Carl and Al didn't really sing lead much prior to PET SOUNDS, Carl was featured vocalist on many if not most of the hits after that.

So yeah, I would argue that as prominent vocalist, that was mostly in the live show.  On record, Al didn't have very many hit leads, or even leads on prominent songs.  Even going up through the present day, I can only think of a couple...off the top of my head "Come Go With Me," "Lady Lynda", then you're into die-hard fan territory.  Carl, Mike and even Brian have more prominent lead vocals even on the later stuff.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

What is it about him and/or his voice that puts him so far down below Mike Love, Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson?

Mike, Brian and Carl just have more leads, or at least, they sing on the more popular songs. I think. does someone want to make a list?

Ahem. I will accept this as a joke.

[AndrewHickey]

I think the thing about Al is he really only rose to prominence as a vocalist in the band after Brian left.  He sang a lot prominently in the live show, but in the main, he was covering Brian's parts, e.g. "Heroes and Villains," "Help Me Rhonda," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Barbara Ann" and so on.  Before that, he really only had one hit lead:  "Help Me Rhonda."  This is somewhat true of Carl too except that Carl had a spate of late-period lead vocals that were at least mid-level hits:  "Good Vibrations," "God Only Knows," "Darlin'," "I Can Hear Music," and so forth. So even though Carl and Al didn't really sing lead much prior to PET SOUNDS, Carl was featured vocalist on many if not most of the hits after that.

So yeah, I would argue that as prominent vocalist, that was mostly in the live show.  On record, Al didn't have very many hit leads, or even leads on prominent songs.  Even going up through the present day, I can only think of a couple...off the top of my head "Come Go With Me," "Lady Lynda", then you're into die-hard fan territory.  Carl, Mike and even Brian have more prominent lead vocals even on the later stuff.

Oddly, this wasn't the case in the UK, because of the different period in which the band were successful.Then I Kissed Her, Breakaway, Cottonfields and Lady Lynda were all among the band's biggest hits over here.

[Summertime Blooz]

It's funny since I'm such a big BBs fan  but i don't think I can even tell when Al is singing instead of Brian. It seems like he just doesn't have his own identity or identifiable sound (for me at least) within the group. Brian's voice is the high one, Mike's voice is the nasal one, Carl's voice is the pretty one, Dennis' voice is the rough one. What is Al's then?

[AndrewHickey]

It's funny since I'm such a big BBs fan  but i don't think I can even tell when Al is singing instead of Brian. It seems like he just doesn't have his own identity or identifiable sound (for me at least) within the group. Brian's voice is the high one, Mike's voice is the nasal one, Carl's voice is the pretty one, Dennis' voice is the rough one. What is Al's then?

.

Al's is the powerful one. Al has more bottom end to his vocals, while still being able to hit high notes, and has a much stronger voice than any of the others.

[Zach95]

I love Al's voice.  Though I often confuse it with Brian's back when Brian was in his prime.  Al was a really powerful singer, and his vocal abilities were right on par with the rest of the band's.   That's one of many things I love about the Beach Boys, and particularly one thing no other groups really have. Vocal Diversity.  With six different guys singing six different leads and sometimes different leads on a single song, there's just a diversity there that no one can match.

[Autotune]

Appart from his crystal-clear leads, his rich, edgy voice is essential to what we identify as a Beach Boys blend. He does blend beautifully within the family mix (the fact that many people don't know if it's Al or Bri attests to this), but also adds character with its own distinctive grit. I think one of the key problems for the group's sound in a certain era was when Alan started singing a higher part in the harmony stack, the harmony sound -that can be traced up to the recent DIA- was missing for some time.

[Awesoman]

What is it about him and/or his voice that puts him so far down below Mike Love, Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson?

...huh? 

[Magic Transistor Radio]

It's amazing to listen to I Know There's an Answer and Be Here in the Morning. It's hard to tell when its Al and Brian, unless you've listened a million times.

Its common knowledge that Al sings Help Me Rhonda and Brian sings Wouldn't it Be Nice, but if you know nothing about the BBs, it could easily be the same singer!

[Aegir]

What is it about him and/or his voice that puts him so far down below Mike Love, Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson?

Mike, Brian and Carl just have more leads, or at least, they sing on the more popular songs. I think. does someone want to make a list?

Ahem. I will accept this as a joke.

Why? I didn't mean it to be funny. I don't get it.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

What is it about him and/or his voice that puts him so far down below Mike Love, Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson?

Mike, Brian and Carl just have more leads, or at least, they sing on the more popular songs. I think. does someone want to make a list?

Ahem. I will accept this as a joke.

Why? I didn't mean it to be funny. I don't get it.

Well, in an era where posters are constantly critiqued for not using the search function, I found it funny that you should propose making a list for who sang what when one doesn't even need to employ the search function for that. Rather, you can look at the thread that is always near the top of the General On Topic Discussions page titled The Definitive Vocal Credits List.

[Aegir]

that's a list of who sang on everything. not a list of Carl-lead hits vs. Brian-lead hits vs. Mike-lead hits vs. Al-lead hits. it'll still take a decent amount of copy+pasting.

[runnersdialzero]

The only super well-known hit to feature Al on lead is "Rhonda", while Brian and Mike (especially Mike) likely have as many as a dozen each to their name, with Carl singing on a handful of their biggest hits, too.

Al? There's "Rhonda", and, if you really want to take as stretch, maybe "Cotton Fields" (didn't it do well in the UK? Or somewhere?), but... yeah.

Brian? "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Don't Worry Baby", "Sloop John B", "I Get Around" chorus, "Barbara Ann", "In My Room", "Surfer Girl", "California Girls" chorus, "Heroes And Villains" (albeit with an indistinguishable Al in the chorus), etc.

Mike? "Surfin' USA", "California Girls", "Fun Fun Fun", "Kokomo", "Good Vibrations" chorus, "I Get Around", "Dance Dance Dance", "Little Saint Nick", "Surfin' Safari", "Do It Again", "Be True To Your School", etc.

Carl? "Good Vibrations", "God Only Knows", "I Can Hear Music"

Al? "Help Me Rhonda" and... yeaahhh :\

[Myk Luhv]

I bet Bruce is still less well known than Al to casual Beach Boys listeners. And his songs are worse too!

[Eric Aniversario]

"Then I Kissed Her" was a hit in some countries, as was "Cotton Fields",  "Lady Lynda" and "Come Go With Me".  But more than his lead vocals, I think Al's part in the harmony blend is a super important element.  Most early songs would not have sounded the same without him.

[runnersdialzero]

"Then I Kissed Her" was a hit in some countries, as was "Cotton Fields",  "Lady Lynda" and "Come Go With Me".  But more than his lead vocals, I think Al's part in the harmony blend is a super important element.  Most early songs would not have sounded the same without him.

"Then I Kissed Her" is a decent example, but the others? Ask any casual music fan and they're not likely at all to know either song or even "Then I Kissed Her" or "Cotton Fields" except maybe a handful of people in a few select countries.

Not in any way trying to slight Al's voice - I love his voice, truly, just saying that he didn't have nearly as many leads on hits as Mike or Brian.

[Aegir]

The only super well-known hit to feature Al on lead is "Rhonda", while Brian and Mike (especially Mike) likely have as many as a dozen each to their name, with Carl singing on a handful of their biggest hits, too.

Al? There's "Rhonda", and, if you really want to take as stretch, maybe "Cotton Fields" (didn't it do well in the UK? Or somewhere?), but... yeah.

Brian? "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Don't Worry Baby", "Sloop John B", "I Get Around" chorus, "Barbara Ann", "In My Room", "Surfer Girl", "California Girls" chorus, "Heroes And Villains" (albeit with an indistinguishable Al in the chorus), etc.

Mike? "Surfin' USA", "California Girls", "Fun Fun Fun", "Kokomo", "Good Vibrations" chorus, "I Get Around", "Dance Dance Dance", "Little Saint Nick", "Surfin' Safari", "Do It Again", "Be True To Your School", etc.

Carl? "Good Vibrations", "God Only Knows", "I Can Hear Music"

Al? "Help Me Rhonda" and... yeaahhh :\

There you go. that's why Al is the 4th voice. although I've never heard that term before this thread.

[The Shift]

Ironically, these days he has the best preserved voice of the lot. Hope he gets a good number of leads on this upcoming tour.

[Nicko1234]

"Then I Kissed Her" is a decent example, but the others? Ask any casual music fan and they're not likely at all to know either song or even "Then I Kissed Her" or "Cotton Fields" except maybe a handful of people in a few select countries.

Sorry but it is comments like that which gets Americans the reputation they have (I know not everybody in America is like this by a long way).

A handful of people in a few select countries? It was a massive hit in Australia, South Africa, the U.K. and other parts of Europe. As it's included on every best of released by the band in the U.K. (and presumably in many other territories) I think it's fair to say that every British Beach Boys fan knows it.

America is not the world my friend.

[NHC]

Was this a question about how many leads he was given, or more along the lines of where he stood in the harmony mix? 

[adamghost]

I think it's (as the Brits might say) a "fair cop" to point out that Al's standing as a hit vocalist is much higher overseas than it is stateside.  I confess that point hadn't occurred to me, and it's a good one.

I do think in general, though, it goes to who sang the most of the hits and dominated the group.  Up 'til 66, it's Brian and Mike.  '66 and beyond, it's Carl and Mike. 

Carl's position is interesting in that there are far fewer hits to go around in the later period, but his presence as the "go to" vocalist post-PET SOUNDS is so pervasive that he's become retroactively one of "the" voices of the Beach Boys, even though he wasn't on that many hits overall, and he was barely present as a lead vocalist before then.  Kinda interesting how perceptions can shift over time.  For example, "Forever" is now NEARLY regarded as a hit by the BBs in the sense that a lot of people got to know it over time, due in no small part to Uncle Jesse's efforts.  And I think that's kind of cool, personally.  Likewise, "Sail On Sailor" has gone from being a semi-obscure half-hit to something that can be played in a BBs hits set by a tribute band and people will get into it and recognize it.  A third example would be David Marks' rising status, due in no small part to Stebbins' book and efforts laying out the case for him.  Hell, the Beach Boys whole status has shifted radically since I can recall being humiliated as a youngster in 1980 by advocating for the Beach Boys as artists and my teacher looking at me whitheringly and saying with dripping condecension:  "I don't think the Beach Boys were ever meant to be a deep group."

I kind of like how over time, the "big picture" grows more complete even to the casual observer.