Mike Love's merit as a singer

[bluesno1fann]

I pretty much like all of the Mike vocals i've heard, including the later You're Still A Mystery (near the end of the song). The only one I dislike is the overly nasal Getcha Back. and I was glad David Marks sang it in concert.

Agreed with Getcha Back. I love that song, it's their best single in the last 30 or so years, but the one flaw is Mike's singing. Absolutely horrible, could have been a lot better. Someone else should have sang that, maybe Carl or Al or even Bruce!

[Sound of Free]

Apart from "Kiss Me Baby" which I think is one of Mike's all time best, I have to mention "That's Not Me" as a standout lead vocal. He does a really cool thing where he goes from the aggressive voice as the narrator to a sensitive voice when he sings a line like "What matters to me is what I could be to just one girl" and holds out the note on the word "girl". It's a terrific lead vocal, and it captures a range of emotions that a lot of people overlook in his style. It's how you deliver a classic vocal, essentially, and no amount of "coaching" as seen on shows like American Idol can teach a singer how to pull that off. And it sounded real rather than contrived or even put-on for effect.

That's Not Me, a terrific vocal on a melody that can be a real bitch to sing, and worth noting as a Mike highlight.

I'm right with you, Guitarfool. I think it's Mike best, as well. While you cited the end of the first verse, I always loved the second, "And every night as I lay there along I will dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam."

His bass was amazing, i.e. "All Dressed Up For School."

I know the board is pretty well split on this one, but I definitely prefer Mike on the "Wouldn't It Be Nice" bridge.

And one of the great things about Beach Boys records is when a member not signing lead will get a brief section of lead on a song. I always loved when Mike comes in with the "Found that it was in my head" part of "Breakaway."

[urbanite]

I thought Mike's lead vocals on TWGMTR were poor, probably a product of age.  He sounded gravelly.  I haven't been a fan of his sound as a lead vocalist for a long time because his voice changed.  His vocal on It's A Beautiful Day is of the type that I can't stand. 

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

I don't know whether this fits better here or in the "Unpopular Beach Boys Opinions" thread, but I love the version of "Vega-Tables" where Mike and Brian share the lead vocal, and prefer it to Al's lead on the same song.  Whatever Mike's opinion of the material may have been, his vocal expresses of the whimsy of the song very effectively.

[rab2591]

I thought Mike's lead vocals on TWGMTR were poor, probably a product of age.  He sounded gravelly. 

He sounds amazing on the recent 'California Girls' spoof. Perhaps autotune/production was to blame for the gravelly sound on his TWGMTR leads.

[SMiLE Brian]

This quote from Oldsurferdude is funny since both Mike and Frank Sinatra have won an ella award:

wanna stay on this board? It's easy-just don't say anything negative about the lovester. He is a wonderful man who has a great voice and and is a true artist. He will go down in history as one of the greatest entertainers of all time far surpassing Frank Sinatra in phrasing, voice and charisma. Really.

[Dancing Bear]

He is a wonderful man who has a great voice and and is a true artist. He will go down in history as one of the greatest entertainers of all time far surpassing Frank Sinatra in phrasing, voice and charisma. Really.

Nothing better than a lifetime ban to make the unenlighted see the light. May he spread the TRUTH all over youtube now. 

[mikeddonn]

Jacqui have a look at this thread! .

I also think Mike was great at singing the 'signature' leads on the hits but especially love the 'Meant For You' and 'All I Wanna Do' softer vocals.  The bass vocals are also amazing and I still think it's Mike on 'Wipe Out'!

[Kurosawa]

Listen to "Heroes and Villains" sometime and just pay attention to Mike's parts.  It's like an awesome song within another awesome song.

[Ron]

Mike's a great singer in my opinion.  For what he does, he's very good.  I like his swag on the early songs, like "409".  "Well... I saved my pennies, and I saved my dimes...." he sounds cool as sh*t, he sounds like he's James Dean on that song.

Then you flash forward to 2012, he's 71, and singing "Spring Vacation".  Same voice, sounds just as good 50 fucking years later.

Incredibly consistant. 

Like he's quick to point out his bass vocals are some of the most loved parts of the songs too.  Also liked mentioned in the original post, I love the songs where he dodges from lead to bass back and forth.  My favorite is probably "Little Deuce Coupe"Also I always thought he was really good on "Surfer Girl". 

It's really interesting how he did his job as well as Brian and Carl did their jobs, they had completely different voices but really added a lot to the songs in completely different ways. 

[Ron]

I like Mike's lead vocal - and his "bow bow's - on "Getcha Back". I don't think David's lead vocal comes close to Mike's, and I was disappointed that Mike gave it up in concert. When "Getcha Back" first came out, especially on the radio, and still today actually, it has that Beach Boys' sound as much for Mike's familiar voice as Brian's falsetto. That was Brian wasn't it?

It's my opinion that he sounds like that on Getcha Back because they wanted it to sound like that.  The production is really kind of snappy like everybody did in the 80's, and the song had that goofy video too, I think the whole idea behind the song was a guy who's kind of a nerd dreaming about this girl.  I think they intended Mike to sound kind of nerdy and geeky in the song, which he pulled off by singing it a bit nasally. 

I love the song, I think it's fantastic, I even like the video.  One of their best, and i'm not kidding. 

I'm 100% certain that's Brian singing the falsetto, too.

[urbanite]

I think Mike sounds like his age caught up with him on Spring Vacation.  His vocals were indispensable to the Beach Boys in the glory years, but the last 20 years or so, when it comes to recorded music, I'd much rather have Al Jardine singing lead.   

[Micha]

I pretty much like all of the Mike vocals i've heard, including the later You're Still A Mystery (near the end of the song). The only one I dislike is the overly nasal Getcha Back. and I was glad David Marks sang it in concert.

Agreed with Getcha Back. I love that song, it's their best single in the last 30 or so years, but the one flaw is Mike's singing. Absolutely horrible, could have been a lot better. Someone else should have sang that, maybe Carl or Al or even Bruce!

IIRC I read that Mike would have wanted a Dennis-like rough voice on it, which wasn't possible any more of course.

I love the version of "Vega-Tables" where Mike and Brian share the lead vocal, and prefer it to Al's lead on the same song.  Whatever Mike's opinion of the material may have been, his vocal expresses of the whimsy of the song very effectively.

I share this opinion. I like the lyrics better too.

I love the song, I think it's fantastic, I even like the video.  One of their best, and i'm not kidding. 

One of their best songs or one of their best videos?

[clack]

Yeah, a good lead singer and a great ensemble one.

He's talked about his frustration in having Brian chose other lyricists , but I've never heard Mike discuss losing his main lead singer status with the Boys as the 60's went on. Must have been awkward trying to project frontman/alpha male attitude while you're pushed into a background role without an instrument to play, reduced to clapping your hands a banging a tambourine, singing backup to the bass player or the lead guitarist -- who just happened to be 2 of the greatest singers of the rock era.

How can you be "lead singer" of a group that has Carl and Brian Wilson in it?

[zachrwolfe]

‍

[Ron]

I love the song, I think it's fantastic, I even like the video.  One of their best, and i'm not kidding. 

One of their best songs or one of their best videos?

Both! Definately one of the Beach Boy's best songs.  They didn't have many videos so of course it's one of the best videos. 

[CenturyDeprived]

I like Mike's lead vocal - and his "bow bow's - on "Getcha Back". I don't think David's lead vocal comes close to Mike's, and I was disappointed that Mike gave it up in concert. When "Getcha Back" first came out, especially on the radio, and still today actually, it has that Beach Boys' sound as much for Mike's familiar voice as Brian's falsetto. That was Brian wasn't it?

It's my opinion that he sounds like that on Getcha Back because they wanted it to sound like that.  The production is really kind of snappy like everybody did in the 80's, and the song had that goofy video too, I think the whole idea behind the song was a guy who's kind of a nerd dreaming about this girl.  I think they intended Mike to sound kind of nerdy and geeky in the song, which he pulled off by singing it a bit nasally. 

I love the song, I think it's fantastic, I even like the video.  One of their best, and i'm not kidding. 

I'm 100% certain that's Brian singing the falsetto, too.

With you and Sherrif on this one. I love the song, and I really wish Mike would've kept singing it through the tour instead of giving it to Dave, who didn't really do a good job at all. Mike's original vocal was perfect for the song. Dave's great and all, but he should have just stuck to the Dennis songs, which I think he is much better suited to.

Agreed. It's really odd, seeing how I've always liked Mike's vocal on "Getcha Back" (and so have most people, I think?), and likewise for Brian's vocal on "Let Him Run Wild" (I dig it, as do most fans), yet those two guys, seemingly inexplicably, decided to get all self-conscious about their own lead vocals on tracks which sounded good to begin with. 

There are other lesser quality (and more annoying) Mike lead vocals ("It's OK", anyone?) that would make more sense for him to feel self-conscious about, IMO.

[bluesno1fann]

He is a wonderful man who has a great voice and and is a true artist. He will go down in history as one of the greatest entertainers of all time far surpassing Frank Sinatra in phrasing, voice and charisma. Really.

Nothing better than a lifetime ban to make the unenlighted see the light. May he spread the TRUTH all over youtube now.  

I've got the feeling that if OSD did say that, he was either being sarcastic or making a joke. Still often see recent Myke Luhv comments by him on various BB's videos on YouTube, so...

[Andrew G. Doe]

Bruce emailed me yesterday concerning this thread, and gave me the OK to post his message here:

"I was curious to see if the Smile Board had anyone posting about Mike Love and his upcoming Ella Awards event and I was happily surprised that for the most part, the comments stayed extremely positive about Mike's singing ability on many of the treasured Beach Boys recordings.

Bruce"

[startBBtoday]

I pretty much like all of the Mike vocals i've heard, including the later You're Still A Mystery (near the end of the song). The only one I dislike is the overly nasal Getcha Back. and I was glad David Marks sang it in concert.

Agreed with Getcha Back. I love that song, it's their best single in the last 30 or so years, but the one flaw is Mike's singing. Absolutely horrible, could have been a lot better. Someone else should have sang that, maybe Carl or Al or even Bruce!

IIRC I read that Mike would have wanted a Dennis-like rough voice on it, which wasn't possible any more of course.

Springsteen-ish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQSn26zCXYQ) then?

Bruce actually had to speed up his vocals to get a poppier sound for Hungry Heart. I've never had a problem with Mike's vocals on Getcha Back, but perhaps The Beach Boys should have done the same.

[Shady]

Bruce emailed me yesterday concerning this thread, and gave me the OK to post his message here:

"I was curious to see if the Smile Board had anyone posting about Mike Love and his upcoming Ella Awards event and I was happily surprised that for the most part, the comments stayed extremely positive about Mike's singing ability on many of the treasured Beach Boys recordings.

Bruce"

That's nice.

Bruce should know only very few people on here dislike Mike. The rest of us love and thank him for all the wonderful music he has given us.

I really hope Mike felt that love during the 50th anniversary tour,

[bluesno1fann]

Bruce emailed me yesterday concerning this thread, and gave me the OK to post his message here:

"I was curious to see if the Smile Board had anyone posting about Mike Love and his upcoming Ella Awards event and I was happily surprised that for the most part, the comments stayed extremely positive about Mike's singing ability on many of the treasured Beach Boys recordings.

Bruce"

That's nice.

Bruce should know only very few people on here dislike Mike. The rest of us love and thank him for all the wonderful music he has given us.

I really hope Mike felt that love during the 50th anniversary tour,

I think the majority of the Myke-Bashers have either been banned or choose not to join up here.
In all honesty, Mike's my least favourite BB and his personality and all the stuff he's done in the past gives people a good reason to dislike him.
But I do agree that some of the Myke-Bashers go way too far, and that includes OSD.

[bachelorofbullets]

He was good at what he did, which was share melody with Brian and do great bass harmonies for all the beach boys.  It worked, nobody can deny that.

I liken him to David Lee Roth.  Neither was considered a great singer, but their style defined the music.   

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

Congrats to Mike.
He's simply one of the best. Well, to me at least.
The classic BB songs just couldn't work without him.

I was just listening to Mike's parts on Summer's Gone.
He does a magnificent job. Really emotional singing.

[Micha]

Surfin' USA, Fun, Fun, Fun, and I Get Around would suck with Frank Sinatra on lead!