What would the aborted '90s reunion album have looked like?

[coco1997]

We know a few of the songs that were worked on for this album (Soul Searching, You're Still A Mystery, Dancing the Night Away). But what other songs from this period could have worked as Beach Boys song and found their way onto the '90s reunion album? Has anyone ever mocked up a tracklist of this unreleased album?

[Wirestone]

God, I love this question. I think that looking at the Wilson-Paley song list can give you a pretty good idea. Something like "It's Not Easy Being Me" was probably intended as a BW solo track. But something like "Desert Drive" clearly has vocal lines for the Boys. I also think that such an album would clearly have spots for Al or Mike or Bruce features, along with Brian's material. So something like the following seems plausible to me --

SOUL SEARCHIN' (The Beach Boys, 1996)

Soul Searchin'
You're Still a Mystery
Dancin' the Night Away / Baywatch Nights
Desert Drive
My Mary Anne
Proud Mary (we know he worked on this with Don Was)
Chain Reaction of Love
Saturday Morning in the City
I'm Broke (maybe? or possibly another BW tune)
And I Always Will / Jenny Clover (Al Jardine spot)
Glow Crescent Glow (or some Mike Love song)

Realistically, these were the songs that were most done and that could have incorporated the '90s BB voices most successfully. At least to my ears!

[coco1997]

Nice song selections. Someone on the Endless Harmony forum proposed this one:

The Beach Boys - Somewhere Out in Malibu

1. Baywatch Nights (Dancing the Night Away) 
2. Soul Searchin' 
3. Unleash the Love (Mike mentioned in an interview in '95 that this was a song he had that Brian loved)   
4. Don't Fight the Sea
5. You're Still a Mystery
6. Waves of Love
7. Elbow '63
8. Chain Reaction of Love
9. Run Don't Walk
10. Desert Drive
11. Mary Anne
12. Proud Mary
13. Gettin' in Over My Head
14. In My Moondreams
15. Must Be a Miracle

[Ian]

While the album could have ended up like that due to politics….i would hope that they would have worked up a whole album on the level of She’s a Mystery and Soul Searching which I quite like-rather than just hastily throw together a bunch of old tracks like Still Cruising. Something very lazy about that concept-like oh we need an album let’s just slap together any stuff we have lying around-even if it has no unity of purpose at all.

[HeyJude]

If we're looking more at the idea of "what would have been the most likely album to actually be finished and released?", I think it would be pretty much an album's worth of the Paley material, possibly with some re-recording/rejiggering from Don Was. The "Still Cruisin' format of just cobbling tracks together from various members wouldn't have worked with the Paley material really (some would argue it didn't work on "Still Cruisin'" either!).

"Don't Fight the Sea" with a bunch of DX7s wouldn't have worked alongside that material. Same with any conceivable arrangement of "Unleash the Love", and any of the "Beckley Lamm Wilson" stuff if produced and arranged the way it was on that album.

One of the big frustrations with them and trying to do albums from a fan perspective is that, even in cases where you can see/understand why some members wouldn't like a certain format (e.g. maybe Mike doesn't like another album where he just sings on songs written by Brian and an outside writer), it wouldn't have ever been such a big deal if they had STAYED ACTIVE as recording artists. Some members aren't the biggest fan of the style of one album? No big deal, then the *next* album can be different.

In order to really do an album with a bunch of writers that sounded *cohesive*, they would have needed a producer that could A&R material and get it all sounding somewhat on the same page. I think a few "Summer in Paradise" type tracks, *with better production*, and then some Al tracks like what he had kicking around at the time, and some Carl "Beckley Lamm Wilson" type songs (again with better production), and then Brian coming in with some stuff and/or co-writes with Mike, they could have followed up a retro-ish Paley album with something that sounded like the mid-point between like "Still Cruisin'" and "Imagination" or something.

[coco1997]

Is that Mike singing towards the end of "Chain Reaction of Love"?

[Rocker]

Is that Mike singing towards the end of "Chain Reaction of Love"?

Every version that I know (which is one) only has Brian and who I guess is Andy Paley on vocals.
Interestingly, though, I remember reading that Mike took a liking to that song and even wanted to rewrite the lyrics/write new lyrics to it.

[HeyJude]

Mike is only on "Soul Searchin'", "You're Still a Mystery", and "Dancing the Night Away."

That end bit on "Chain Reaction..." certainly sounds like type of thing Mike could have sung had the band worked on more of the tracks. Indeed, it sounds like Andy Paley may have been purposefully or otherwise kind of doing a "Mike" on that bit. He did a similar thing on his bit on "Slightly American Music."

I do remember Mike being linked to possibly adding some lyrics and/or vocals to "Chain Reaction...", but I can't recall if Mike volunteered that or if Andy and/or Brian thought of it for Mike.

[coco1997]

Mike is only on "Soul Searchin'", "You're Still a Mystery", and "Dancing the Night Away."

That end bit on "Chain Reaction..." certainly sounds like type of thing Mike could have sung had the band worked on more of the tracks. Indeed, it sounds like Andy Paley may have been purposefully or otherwise kind of doing a "Mike" on that bit. He did a similar thing on his bit on "Slightly American Music."

I do remember Mike being linked to possibly adding some lyrics and/or vocals to "Chain Reaction...", but I can't recall if Mike volunteered that or if Andy and/or Brian thought of it for Mike.

Yeah, I figured it was Andy and it definitely sounds like's putting on a Mike affectation during that last part of the song.

[All Summer Long]

Hi everyone,

I really need to listen to more of these Wilson-Paley sessions songs.  I've listened to some on YouTube and/or Brian's official website, plus the band's versions of "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still A Mystery" (and "Some Sweet Day" from Brian's Playback solo compilation (which I had a CD copy of but lost, unfortunately, before listening to any of it, other than listening to "Some Sweet Day" and "Run James Run" online).  I wonder if "Some Sweet Day" and/or Brian's version of "This Could Be The Night" would have been considered for this album, but I'm assuming they'd need to add/replace some of the existing Brian or Brian & Andy harmonies with parts for Mike, Al, Carl, Bruce, and Matt Jardine. 

For a while, I saw "Unleash the Love" mentioned here but kept thinking of "Summer in Paradise".  I wonder if a re-recording of "Summer in Paradise" could have worked as a potential Mike solo writing spot and as one song where he would sing lead (with some lyric revisions to/rewrites of at least the second verse, though), since very few people would have heard it in the first place.

I don't know the stories behind these songs as much as I'd like, so I have some quick questions for if/whenever anybody has a moment to answer them.  First, would Mike have likely been the lead vocalist on "Desert Drive"?  Do we know if any of these songs in particular were slated as potential vocal spots for Al, or would Al have brought something of his own in, like "Wish" or "Waves of Love"? Did Bruce have any songs that he could have contributed for his typical post-1979 one lead per album?   Would Carl have probably brought in some of the Beckley-Lamm-Wilson songs?  Finally, regarding "Dancin' the Night Away", am I remembering correctly that Mike (and Brian?) had recorded some vocals for this and that Carl had recorded both vocals and guitar for it before it was abandoned?  Thank you all in advance!!