Why did Brian use the others so infrequently for leads?

[Sound of Free]

If Brian's "note" on Summer Days is correct, I can't understand why he didn't just go out to the camper and get Dennis. If I were Dennis and Brian told me later, "You were sleeping, Denny, so I sang it instead," I would have said, "Damn it, Brian, why didn't you wake me?"

[Pretty Funky]

Depends on what Dennis meant 'sleeping'!

[Cam Mott]

I'm betting the only reason things were the way they were is because that's how Brian heard them in his head. You know, unless someone was unavailable in their camper outside the studio or something.

[Ian]

Kind of a ridiculous thread.  Let's be honest the beach Boys capitol years recordings are vocally perfect as is. It doesn't get any better than brian singing don't worry baby, so why should I imagine someone else singing it.

[adamghost]

Couple of random comments:

I don't think Brian trusted Dennis on lead too much.  Consider that he gave Dennis a crack at "In The Back Of My Mind," one of Brian's very best compositions to that point, and Brian later commented that he thought Dennis basically ruined it because he couldn't nail the double-tracking.  I don't personally agree, but you can see Brian's point.  Dennis had great tone in the harmony stack, but his voice wasn't as flexible as the others', and his pitch and control were less reliable, too.  I'm not saying he sucked.  I'm saying he was, with respect to the overall band, the weak link at that point.  A simple lead vocal showcase here and there to capitalize on his appeal with the female audience, no problem.  But I don't think Brian ever gave Dennis a key vocal assignment after "In The Back Of My Mind," at least not until LOVE YOU.  Al characterizes Dennis' participation on PET SOUNDS as being "cameos."

Al claimed in a circa 1999 GOLDMINE interview that Brian started making a concerted effort to give the other guys lead vocals around 1965 because "it had become unbalanced."  It's relevant that this is around the time that Brian started to retire from the road (and also that the interview was given when Al was in a feud with Mike, so that may have colored his recollection).  If Brian wasn't onstage to do the leads, it made sense to start spreading it around....but...it seems that with the music getting more and more complex and personal, it was still easier for Brian to sing the bulk of the leads himself than trying to get the other guys to pull it off the way he heard it in his head.  So Brian probably wanted to give the other guys more leads, but time constraints were such that he couldn't.

I think the "branding" argument is a good one, and I think that's most of it.  I think simple expediency is the rest of the answer.  Any diversion from the norm in terms of the division of labor was extra work.

[runnersdialzero]

Not sure that Brian was so let down by Dennis as to intentionally exclude him from getting leads on subsequent albums. He was supposed to sing "You're So Good To Me", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and the big one, "Good Vibrations". A bunch of unfortunate incidents (sleeping through a session, illness) meant he didn't manage to get the leads. As great as these leads are, shoot, I bet Denny would've done just as well with them.

I'll get condemned to hayull for this, but picturing a solid Dennis lead on "Good Vibrations", he just might've done better than Carl who, to me, was still finding his voice when he did that lead.

[bluesno1fann]

At least, 6 songs is bigger than 1 (or 2?) lead by Bill Wyman.

Just one. But he sang all the leads on his solo albums