john stamos/full house/beach boys

[punkinhead]

alright, i dont know when stamos became a touring beach boy, assuming it was before full house was aired...and it seems like a subtitle approach to bring them back (the concert episode, later in a early season), the SIP poster in Jessie's bedroom, advertising for them on their radio station, etc...

so why didn't the beach boys do the theme song? it seemed appropriate

[XY]

because Stamos did it by himself

[punkinhead]

wow, i didnt even realize it was him

[Matt Howlett]

John Stamos sang the Full House theme song? Or did I misinterpret that?

Despite how easy it sometimes can be to dislike John Stamos, I have to give him props. Being the big Beach Boys fan that he is, he got to do the one thing that all of us want to do: play with the Beach Boys. Not only that, he also recorded with them, appeared in their music videos, and toured with them (and sometimes still does). He also was given a lead vocal, to sing the remake of "Forever", which suggests that he is a true Beach Boys fan, selecting a song from Sunflower. Sure the remake was definately a slice of processed cheese, but so was everything else recorded by the Beach Boys at the time period.

His presence in the Beach Boys touring band also added a spark to the slowly, dulling BB's concert scene. At least Mike Love could say during the concerts, "We got John Stamos from Full House on drums tonight!". Unknowingly, some people, including me when I was younger, would have thought that Stamos was there from the beginning.

Now that Carl is gone, Al is out, and Brian is doing his own thing, the Beach Boys need something to keep the concerts alive. Apart from the musc, which should be the main draw, I think if Stamos came back to tour with the BB's, they would see a bigger concert draw (this is in case that a "reunion" never happens).

Now as far as the Full House episode with the concert, that was definately my first intro to the Beach Boys, and later lured me into the fan that I am now.

By the way, does Brian get royalties from the Beach Boys concerts, even if he is not performing witht them?

[jabba2]

They might as well put Stamos on guitar since no other original members are with the band. He can take Al or Carls place. I always thought it was hilarious that Stamos was seen as the replacement for Dennis.

[DJF]

Ed Roach has a good story about the Stamos-Dennis connection (so to speak).  I guess Stamos always wanted to be Dennis Wilson, and the time he actually met Dennis at a party, let's say that Dennis was less than impressed!  Ed can tell it in more detail and better I am sure.

[Rocker]

Ed Roach has a good story about the Stamos-Dennis connection (so to speak).  I guess Stamos always wanted to be Dennis Wilson, and the time he actually met Dennis at a party, let's say that Dennis was less than impressed!  Ed can tell it in more detail and better I am sure.

Does he post on this board ?

[Pretty Funky]

Jabba2 wrote...
I always thought it was hilarious that Stamos was seen as the replacement for Dennis.

...didn't Stamos do the drums in the "Hot Fun In The Summertime" adult/child theme associated video? 

[GoofyJeff]

because Stamos did it by himself

He did?!?

I was a pretty big Full House fan back in the day (had a crush on Candace Cameron) and as I recall the theme was sung by some unknown that also did themes for other ABC shows of that vintage  (Family Matters, maybe Step By Step, etc)

Of course I've been wrong before, but I don't think I'm wrong about this.  Someone must have the DVDs and watch the end credits

[Sheriff John Stone]

John Stamos sang the Full House theme song? Or did I misinterpret that?

Despite how easy it sometimes can be to dislike John Stamos, I have to give him props. Being the big Beach Boys fan that he is, he got to do the one thing that all of us want to do: play with the Beach Boys. Not only that, he also recorded with them, appeared in their music videos, and toured with them (and sometimes still does). He also was given a lead vocal, to sing the remake of "Forever", which suggests that he is a true Beach Boys fan, selecting a song from Sunflower. Sure the remake was definately a slice of processed cheese, but so was everything else recorded by the Beach Boys at the time period.

His presence in the Beach Boys touring band also added a spark to the slowly, dulling BB's concert scene. At least Mike Love could say during the concerts, "We got John Stamos from Full House on drums tonight!". Unknowingly, some people, including me when I was younger, would have thought that Stamos was there from the beginning.

Now that Carl is gone, Al is out, and Brian is doing his own thing, the Beach Boys need something to keep the concerts alive. Apart from the musc, which should be the main draw, I think if Stamos came back to tour with the BB's, they would see a bigger concert draw (this is in case that a "reunion" never happens).

Now as far as the Full House episode with the concert, that was definately my first intro to the Beach Boys, and later lured me into the fan that I am now.

By the way, does Brian get royalties from the Beach Boys concerts, even if he is not performing witht them?

I agree with what you wrote, Matt. Stamos is an easy target, I guess. But I'm not going to criticize him. Any celebrity, especially a young hip one, who would stick his neck out and get the Beach Boys on his TV shows (remember they were also on the show he had with Jack Klugman) has guts. And, IMO, I didn't think the Beach Boys appearances were that bad.

He was also able to carry on a relationship with the guys off the stage. I think he got along with all the guys. I know he invited the group to his wedding, and I believe his first dance with his wife (now ex) was to "God Only Knows". And like it or dislike it, he put his heart and soul into the TV movie.

Another thing that works against him is the unfortunate time he came around to the Beach Boys. He will be associated with the "Kokomo" and Summer In Paradisde era. BTW, he directed the "Hot Fun In The Summertime" video. 

I never minded his concert appearances either, but I can see how he could make some of the Beach Boys uncomfortable. Compare John Stamos' movements and enthusiasm on stage, with those of Carl, Al, Bruce, and even Mike. Next to those guys, he did kind of attract attention, didn't he...

[MBE]

He tried to be cool but Dennis WAS cool. He is so obvious a Dennis imitator. He made even a classic like Forever kind of geeky. He is the Scot Biao of The Beach Boys world.  Please tell us the Dennis Stamos tale. Btw in 1988 Brian said on Stern he did like Stamos after Howard made fun of him. I wonder if Brian still likes him after the TV movie thing.

[Sheriff John Stone]

He made even a classic like Forever kind of geeky.

I never held Stamos accountable for the sound or quality of his versions of "Forever". Was he the producer (I really don't know)? Actually, I thought he elevated the status of "Forever". While I always thought "Forever" was a great track, it was just lingering as a song from Sunflower, basically unheard of outside of Beach Boys' fandom. After Stamos featured it, a lot of people "discovered" the song and The Beach Boys. And subsequently, Dennis. I give Stamos credit for featuring the song, especially since it wasn't a hit.

[HeyJude]

According to the "Summer in Paradise" liner notes, Terry Melcher produced everything on the album except "Forever", which is noted as "Produced by John Stamos/Gary Griffin/Lanny Cordola." So I suppose some of the blame for the production, if one chooses to place any blame, would lie with Stamos. Frankly, I don't think the sound quality on that song is any more offensive than anything else on that album. I guess there are credits for "drums" on the album, but most of it sounds like drum machines. The early instance of using ProTools on an Apple Macintosh is probably a prime example of why many artists back in the early 90's were still wary of that mode of recording and stuck to analog. Now, they make all sorts of peripherals for the computer-based recording to get it sound more and more like analog (sometimes somewhat successfully).

I'm actually not quite as hard on the album as many fans. The production is horrendous on the whole thing. Most of the songs are dreck, but there are a few that, despite questionable lyrics, are decent pop compositions (such as "Lahaina Aloha" and "Strange Things Happen").

As for Stamos, my thoughts on Stamos have always been mixed at best. I mean, it is really easy to poke fun at him given the cheesiness of "Full House" and the apparent lack of any "hit" vehicles since.

He did champion the group (although, I think the producers of "Full House" were probably open to putting the group on the show the first time more because of the then-current breakout success of "Kokomo" single than any string-pulling from Stamos). I think Stamos, given his affinity for a song like "Forever", probably had more interest in the non-surf/car/summer songs in the group's back catalog than some of the actual group members at that time.

On the downside, his 2000 TV miniseries (okay, I guess he was only one of several producers, right?) was overall not only not very good, but I felt it really did a disservice to telling the group's story. Setting aside the obvious inaccuracies and questionable nature of some but not all group members being some sort of "authenticity advisors", the whole thing about Brian calling Dennis "a clubber" and being dismissive of Dennis' talent may have been a good tool to set up Dennis' triumphant writing of "Forever" in the film, but it seemed to be the total opposite of how Brian really felt at the time. I believe some "insiders" even mentioned that Brian was really upset at seeing it portrayed that way in the movie. (Not to mention the fact that the movie makes no sense in portraying the group as surprised that Dennis could write a song when he did "Forever", considering he had already written and recorded a number of songs and put several of them on the previous two albums). I vaguely recall, though, that Stamos said in directly in an interview or it was indicated indirectly through an interview with somebody else that after the movie Stamos did make some comments in retrospect that he wasn't completely happy with how the movie came out. It seemed there were a number of people who at various points were on board helping the movie out in some fashion, and ended up not being big fans of the movie.

I caught a recent re-airing of the movie on VH1 Classic, and it was probably the first time I watched the thing since it originally aired, so the film is pretty fresh in my mind. VH1 Classic made the whole thing worse by having a group of people during commercial breaks sitting in a fake living room watching the movie comment on it. It was clear they all knew nothing about the group. One guy said his favorite Beach Boys song was "Surf City" (and he said this *after* the film depicted Jan & Dean recording the song and everybody getting mad at Brian for it), and his favorite song off of "Pet Sounds" was "Good Vibrations" (again, this was *after* the film portrayed the song being cut after the release of "Pet Sounds").

Anyway, back to Stamos. He gets pluses for being an apparent true fan of the band and, in some small way, helping to promote the band. He gets some negatives for continuing to brown-nose the current touring band (that's just my opinion of course), (his appearance with Mike and Bruce on a 2000 TV talkshow to promote the TV miniseries was particularly nauseating, with Stamos kneeling before Mike and Bruce and doing the "I'm not worthy" thing) and allowing the debacle that was "The Beach Boys - An American Family" to take place. His idolization of Dennis Wilson, that doesn't really put me off or impress me. I do hope someone can relate Ed Roach's story about Stamos trying to meet Dennis. I don't remember all the details, but I remember that it was a pretty funny story.

[MBE]

Ok choosing the song Forever was kind of cool but the video and episode just kind of made it look goofy. If it led one person to discover Dennis though then its ok.

[XY]

OK, sorry, the Full House theme song "Everywhere You Look" was written and performed by Jesse Frederick, not John Stamos.

[Rocker]

Except the title-track Stamos did write all the original music for that series...At least this is what I have been told

[JoeP]

I wasn't aware that there were any videos from SIP songs.. .

I know that Hot Fun was a single - were there any other singles?

Personally, I thought their version of Under the Boardwalk was good and I had heard it that summer on the satellite radio in the store where I worked.

The episode of FullHouse was I believe the first season as it was the fall of 88 when Kokomo was a hit.  I think that the season is out on DVD and I would like that momento, but I don't know if I can stomache having a whole season of that show...

[HeyJude]

I wasn't aware that there were any videos from SIP songs.. .

I know that Hot Fun was a single - were there any other singles?

Personally, I thought their version of Under the Boardwalk was good and I had heard it that summer on the satellite radio in the store where I worked.

The episode of FullHouse was I believe the first season as it was the fall of 88 when Kokomo was a hit.  I think that the season is out on DVD and I would like that momento, but I don't know if I can stomache having a whole season of that show...

Given that there were Beach Boys appearances in 4 different "Full House" episodes, perhaps a BB-themed single DVD release is in order. Of course, I'd probably have to order that online because I don't want to be seen in a story carrying a "Full House" item.

There were a few videos for the "SIP" album. Besides "Hot Fun...", there was a video for "Summer in Paradise", I believe it was a live version. They used live footage from Concord Pavilion in Concord, CA (although the audio is from some other live version, Wembley?).

There are all sorts of videos the BB's did that didn't seem to get much airplay, like "Problem Child", "Crocodile Rock", "Somewhere Near Japan", etc. Meanwhile, VH1 Classic still shows the "Kokomo" video all the time.

[punkinhead]

what's sad is when people my age (early 20s area), i'll talk to them about dennis wilson...and they'll say, who? and i'll have to go through the motions of, he wrote Forever, yes, that song uncle jessie sang on full house   

[Sheriff John Stone]

what's sad is when people my age (early 20s area), i'll talk to them about dennis wilson...and they'll say, who? and i'll have to go through the motions of, he wrote Forever, yes, that song uncle jessie sang on full house   

It ain't easy being a Beach Boys diehard in your early 20's , is it? It's almost like a dues paying period every true fan has to go through. How many tapes/CD's have you snuck into your friend's car stereo, or on the boom box during the family cookouts on Memorial Day and the 4th of July?

Back to Stamos' version of "Forever"... that high wailing vocal part from Carl Wilson near the end of the song is one of his greatest vocal parts - ever!

[Drawer L]

John Stamos sang the Full House theme song? Or did I misinterpret that?

Despite how easy it sometimes can be to dislike John Stamos, I have to give him props. Being the big Beach Boys fan that he is, he got to do the one thing that all of us want to do: play with the Beach Boys. Not only that, he also recorded with them, appeared in their music videos, and toured with them (and sometimes still does). He also was given a lead vocal, to sing the remake of "Forever", which suggests that he is a true Beach Boys fan, selecting a song from Sunflower. Sure the remake was definately a slice of processed cheese, but so was everything else recorded by the Beach Boys at the time period.

His presence in the Beach Boys touring band also added a spark to the slowly, dulling BB's concert scene. At least Mike Love could say during the concerts, "We got John Stamos from Full House on drums tonight!". Unknowingly, some people, including me when I was younger, would have thought that Stamos was there from the beginning.

Now that Carl is gone, Al is out, and Brian is doing his own thing, the Beach Boys need something to keep the concerts alive. Apart from the musc, which should be the main draw, I think if Stamos came back to tour with the BB's, they would see a bigger concert draw (this is in case that a "reunion" never happens).

Now as far as the Full House episode with the concert, that was definately my first intro to the Beach Boys, and later lured me into the fan that I am now.

By the way, does Brian get royalties from the Beach Boys concerts, even if he is not performing witht them?

Yes,as one of the partners in "Beach Boys,Inc." (or whatever it's called),Brian gets a percentage for use of the name.

[endofposts]

I never knew there was a video of "Forever" 'til I found it on YouTube by accident/mistake.  Since I don't own the album, it was the first I'd heard it.  Carl and the other guys also have cameos in the video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVxy1srqbGY&search=stamos

[GoodToMyBaby]

I never knew there was a video of "Forever" 'til I found it on YouTube by accident/mistake.  Since I don't own the album, it was the first I'd heard it.  Carl and the other guys also have cameos in the video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVxy1srqbGY&search=stamos

Kinda makes me sick.

[Don't Back Down]

they used it when Stamos was promoting the song in "Full House". not sure if the music video came before or after that episode.

[Sheriff John Stone]

I never knew there was a video of "Forever" 'til I found it on YouTube by accident/mistake.  Since I don't own the album, it was the first I'd heard it.  Carl and the other guys also have cameos in the video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVxy1srqbGY&search=stamos

Kinda makes me sick.

I enjoyed it. Thank you, forget marie, for sharing it.

I wouldn't have associated the song "Forever" with little babies, but....I didn't see Al in the video; was this that period when he was temporarily asked to leave. And seeing Carl again, damn...