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Author Topic: Why Didn't Dennis Have More Lead Vocals?  (Read 10084 times)
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« Reply #50 on: May 19, 2015, 09:16:48 PM »


If Mike had done more leads in his singing style on Meant For You, I think he'd be a bit more highly regarded, and be considered as a more well-rounded, diverse type of singer. It would be quite interesting to know if that MFY voice was a style that he was encouraged to try out by Brian, if Mike just wasn't given many opportunities to sing in that fashion, or if he personally didn't really feel like going in that direction more often because of an affinity for the old sound.  The more Mike amped up with the nasal "young Mike" sound on studio recordings into the late 70s/80s, the more it became weak sauce IMO, and sounded like he was trying too hard. Cool Head, Warm Heart is another Mike vocal that works quite well, since he just chills it out a bit.


Absolutely! And overall Mike's vocal intonation in concert today is far better than in the late 70s and the 80s when he was trying too hard to mimic his younger voice. He sounds great on so much of the earlier classic stuff, as well as stuff like Meant for You and Cool Head, Warm Heart.

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« Reply #51 on: May 19, 2015, 10:14:53 PM »


The answer to the topic question is pretty simple. Because his voice was rougher than the other guys. That doesn't mean it wasn't good. But the Beach Boys sound usually relied on sweetness, or at minimum smoothness. Dennis' voice was neither. However, as previously stated, Brian inserted Dennis' sandpaper texture into the harmonies and the result improved the Beach Boys sound, gave them some subtle balls, while the obvious things in the foreground remained smooth and sweet. But the Dennis husk was huge in the emotional impact of the harmonies, and it's very prevalent on most of their best songs. When it's not there the Beach Boys become more precise and less soulful, more perfect and less human. IMO Dennis was the secret weapon lurking within the Beach Boys stacks, and don't think for a minute that Brian didn't know it. It was hard to control, and probably frustrating, but when it worked it gave the Beach Boys a unique power they otherwise did not have.


Absolutely again! Dennis' contribution to the vocal stack is often unappreciated, but was a critical element in adding depth and character to the BBs sound. For me the pinnacle of his vocal contributions as a lead singer occurred during the period from the late 60s thru the mid seventies. While Surf's Up is the obvious closer to that album, I find it inexplicable that Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again didn't see release sometime in the seventies. I've heard a lot of conjecture as to the reasons WIBNTLA did not see the light of day for ages, but would love to hear known factual info as to why it took over 40 years for WIBNTLA to see official release.

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« Reply #52 on: May 20, 2015, 12:41:03 AM »

I think the reason the band members wouldn`t have fought for Dennis`s material in the same way they fought for Brian`s is obvious. They knew that including Brian`s songs could help them to shift records (and in the case of Surf`s Up it did). They knew that Dennis`s stuff would be unlikely to help them as, irrespective of quality, his songs generally appeared on albums that were commercial failures (I`ve said it before but even Al`s contributions did more to help the band`s sales than Dennis`s tunes).

If he wanted to take his bat and ball home then I certainly don`t consider the other band members to be in the wrong for not fighting over it.

In the early 1960s I think Brian made the right choices 99% of the time when deciding who should take the leads.

And if Dennis elected not to sing Sail on Sailor or some of his own material then that was up to him.
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retrokid67
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« Reply #53 on: May 20, 2015, 06:27:47 AM »

I think the reason the band members wouldn`t have fought for Dennis`s material in the same way they fought for Brian`s is obvious. They knew that including Brian`s songs could help them to shift records (and in the case of Surf`s Up it did). They knew that Dennis`s stuff would be unlikely to help them as, irrespective of quality, his songs generally appeared on albums that were commercial failures (I`ve said it before but even Al`s contributions did more to help the band`s sales than Dennis`s tunes).

If he wanted to take his bat and ball home then I certainly don`t consider the other band members to be in the wrong for not fighting over it.

In the early 1960s I think Brian made the right choices 99% of the time when deciding who should take the leads.

And if Dennis elected not to sing Sail on Sailor or some of his own material then that was up to him.


Doesn't the way they promote songs have to do with that too?  I've read comments saying that if Slip On Through had been promoted right, it probably would've made the charts.  Add Some Music To Your Day was successful, but did they ever perform that in concert?  You Are So Beautiful was co written by Dennis and people are still singing that song to this day and that shows that Dennis wasn't incapable of making a commercial song.  Has anyone ever done a cover of Surf's Up?
« Last Edit: May 20, 2015, 06:32:36 AM by retrokid67 » Logged

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« Reply #54 on: May 20, 2015, 06:58:22 AM »

Quoting myself on Brian's board:

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It's easy to speculate, but does anyone know why Dennis didn't sing more leads? He did such a great job on "This Car of Mine" and "Do You Wanna Dance".

Or maybe you'd like to speculate.
The impression I had, was that Murry kept Dennis "down" and might explain the small number of leads, since Murry ran the show for a long time.   But Dennis did a great job on the ones where he had a lead.  He might not have had confidence in his vocal skills, and not given the proper encouragement to sing a lead more often.  Dennis was not without vocal talent.  Wink
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