Gimme Five: Song where the Beach Boys Sucked

[Awesoman]

There is a wealth of sh*tty Beach Boys songs out there; everything from the late 70's - onward is fair game.  So why did they pick "Busy Doin' Nothin'" as their worst song?  And "Smart Girls" technically isn't a Beach Boys song--even if it uses Beach Boys samples.  I will agree that "Summer of Love" deserves to be on there, as does the disco-fied "Here Comes The Night(mare)". 

[EgoHanger1966]

Kohkohmoe
Getcha Back
R&R Music
Some of Your Luhv
Still Cruisin'

Kokomo - doesn't suck.
Getcha Back - doesn't suck
R&R Music - ok, you got me.
Some of Your Love - doesn't suck
Still Crusin' - doesn't completely suck.

[runnersdialzero]

"Busy Doin' Nothin'" is like top five for me. Maybe top ten, at the absolute worst. A low point? A song that signalled the decline of the group? Pssshhhhh.

[NatureShowInStereo]

I would say all of the songs on that list are plausible to some degree, with the exception of Busy Doin Nothin. I fell in love with that song the first time I heard it. It hits the nail on the head for Brian at the time. It's not just a laundry list, it's a snapshot into the mind of a creative genius that's in turmoil.

[Banana]

Why not just pick five tracks off of Summer In Paradise and call it a day?  Other than that...I've always had a distaste for:

1) Student Demonstration Time
2) Chapel of Love
3) Living' With a Heartache
4) Oh Darlin'
5) That Same Time (Did you all know that at one time Gregorian Chants were a real big thing?)

[NHC]

I'd have to say everything on Smiley Smile except the two obvious ones.  The filler on Surfin' Safari is better than any of that. Sorry, I sidestepped that whole scene.

[startBBtoday]

I can't believe how many people hate Getcha Back and That Same Song. I love those tracks, especially That Same Song with the gospel choir and Brian pumping his fists.

[AndrewHickey]

I can't believe how many people hate Getcha Back and That Same Song. I love those tracks, especially That Same Song with the gospel choir and Brian pumping his fists.

Absolutely. Well, I don't 'love' Getcha Back, but if they do it at the shows I'm going to I'll sing along quite happily (and quietly enough not to spoil it for the people around me...). That Same Song is one of the four or five 15 Big Ones tracks I adore.

[drbeachboy]

Same with Chapel Of Love. I love that song, especially the 2nd verse with Mike following Brian after each line. The track itself is pretty cool, as well. Plus, only Brian could pull-off singing a female-lead type song.

[startBBtoday]

I can't believe how many people hate Getcha Back and That Same Song. I love those tracks, especially That Same Song with the gospel choir and Brian pumping his fists.

Absolutely. Well, I don't 'love' Getcha Back, but if they do it at the shows I'm going to I'll sing along quite happily (and quietly enough not to spoil it for the people around me...). That Same Song is one of the four or five 15 Big Ones tracks I adore.

I think my love for Getcha Back started out slightly ironically and now I just need to accept that I actually love it. I'm also a huge Springsteen fan, so I like the Beach Boys referencing the song that Bruce wrote that referenced the Beach Boys sound.

[rn57]

When that went up last week I read it and it struck me as hardly worth starting a thread about. I'd put BDN among my personal BB top 30 and ADITLOAT in my top 50.  There are worse 90s songs than SOL, like Under The Boardwalk. But as the writer of that piece says, SOL did result in Brian (and Carl as I recall) walking around the beach in a black leather jacket, so dock it some points for that.

[rn57]

And if you expand this to cover solo stuff....next to Bruce's disco Deirdre, HCTN '79 almost does sound like Disco Inferno.

[hypehat]

Everything I Touch Turns To Tears
Endless Harmony
Stamos Forever
Spring Vacation
Hey Little Tomboy

[Moon Dawg]

 1) Summer of Love
 2) Some of Your Love
 3) Hey Little Tomboy
 4) TM Song
 5) Surfin'  (SIP version)

[Zach95]

Everything I Touch Turns To Tears
Endless Harmony
Stamos Forever
Spring Vacation
Hey Little Tomboy

No not Spring Vacation!

[EgoHanger1966]

Everything I Touch Turns To Tears
Endless Harmony
Stamos Forever
Spring Vacation
Hey Little Tomboy

No not Spring Vacation!

Everything I Touch Turns To Tears
Endless Harmony
Stamos Forever
Spring Vacation
Hey Little Tomboy

No not Spring Vacation!

...and the last minute or so of Endless Harmony saves it from sucking.
How can a die-hard Beach Boys fan think Hey Little Tomboy sucks? I mean, I could understand if you didn't like them at all, and then heard THAT. But...

[oldsurferdude]

HLT was pathetic when it was released and still is. Wtf were they thinking? Not sure? Listen to PS, Sunflower, BBT a few times & let me know.

[Music Machine]

I don't get why the Beach Boys and Columbia Records deemed Tomboy fit for release but not Everybody Wants to Live, It's Trying to Say or Lines.

[hypehat]

Everything I Touch Turns To Tears
Endless Harmony
Stamos Forever
Spring Vacation
Hey Little Tomboy

No not Spring Vacation!

...and the last minute or so of Endless Harmony saves it from sucking.
How can a die-hard Beach Boys fan think Hey Little Tomboy sucks? I mean, I could understand if you didn't like them at all, and then heard THAT. But...

....The last minute of Endless Harmony is what MAKES it suck! "God Bless America", and all that. Yeah, sure, that little harmony bit at the very end is nice enough.

Hey Little Tomboy is appalling. Poorly produced, terribly sung by everybody - I hate the majority of the backing vox on MIU, the arranging's almost always terrible on the BW cuts - and it's a song about teaching young girls how to kiss sung by 30 year old dudes with big beards. Like, it's a decent argument for The Beach Boys being as insane as BW.

And, Spring Vacation. It offends me. The worst production of TWGMTR, the worst lyrics (and boy, what lyrics), and I just really hate the feel of it. It definitely sounds like a gospel tune rewritten as a song about how fucking great it is to be a Beach Boy, its really all you can say.

[Smilin Ed H]

There ae more than a few BB songs that suck, but not  ADITLOAT and not Busy Doin' Nothin'.

Summer of Love? Yup.  Smart Girls? Yup. Battle Hymn? Certainly. Hey Little Tomboy? Lyrically, of course. Plus a lot od stuff from the 80s and 90s, as someone mentioned earlier. Even Kokomo's not bad compared to some of those...

[Mike's Beard]

Of course the article ends with someone posting in the replies section the obligatory "The Beatles were better" comment.

[Banana]

Hey Little Tomboy is an odd track.  I guess it shows how desperate they were for material by the point it was released that they would drag this out of the archives (after it had been passed over so many times).  I can take the verse sung by Brian...because there is an almost childlike quality to his singing...but Mike just sounds CREEPY!  "I'm gonna teach you to ki-i-iss..."  Come on, man!  Student Demonstration Time is another clunker.  It just sounds like the band (i.e. Mike) desperatly trying to sound hip...though they were just a couple of years behind the times.  Consider that they could have chosen something like 4th of July instead of that track.  Oh Darlin' is pretty bad.  Way too sappy.  I could maybe (and I say maybe) handle the original version with Brian's rather rough sounding vocal...but Carl's smooth delivery pushes it into the sappy gunk territory...same with Livin' With a Heartache...which sounds like a track Kenny Rogers might have rejected.  A lot of people have slammed 15 Big Ones...and let's be honest...it's not a fully realized affair...but you have to put it into the correct context.  They pull Brian out of bed and tell him he's going to produce their next LP.  Considering the circumstances...he did a fair job.  There are some really nice things to be found if you look closely enough.

One more comment on Hey Little Tomboy...the Adult/Child version is 100 times creepier with the "banter" at the end...ewww..."shave your legs for the first time..."

[Nicko1234]

Hey Little Tomboy is an odd track.  I guess it shows how desperate they were for material by the point it was released that they would drag this out of the archives

I don`t think they were that desperate for material which is the oddest thing perhaps. They had been playing Country Pie in concert and Lady Lynda had been recorded. There was Our Team and all of the Adult/Child stuff so they had plenty to choose from.

[Music Machine]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udNHsk57f24

[Banana]

Hey Little Tomboy is an odd track.  I guess it shows how desperate they were for material by the point it was released that they would drag this out of the archives

I don`t think they were that desperate for material which is the oddest thing perhaps. They had been playing Country Pie in concert and Lady Lynda had been recorded. There was Our Team and all of the Adult/Child stuff so they had plenty to choose from.

Maybe desperate for semi-decent material???  It's a catchy tune...I just wish Brian had taken the lead on the entire song.  Mike just sounds creepy.  The Adult/Child version is even creepier with all of that banter towards the end...just sounds like a bunch of dirty old men leering at some young girl!