'Do It Again' vs. 'It's OK' - Which Is Better?

[Mike's Beard]

"Do It Again" all the way! Just love that intro. Got a groove to it. Despite being about surfing I'd say apart from Brian's pounding old school piano playing it sounds very little like the early stuff. The excursion's into "Pet Sounds", "Good Vibrations", "Smile" etc had changed the band musically so that when they tried a retro thing they got a cool weird hybrid sound. I know what 99% of people would choose but I find it very hard to pick out of "Do it Again", "Good Vibrations" and (believe it or not) "Cottonfields" what my favourite BB's single of all time is. "It's OK" by comparison is just an OK song on an OK (at best) album.

[TdHabib]

Both of these are big favorites of mine...but I pick "Do it Again." If "Again" lacked (as it often did live) the falsetto line, it would go to "It's OK" all the way. The recordings of both of these songs are tops.

[kirt]

"It's OK" is a 70's BB classic.

"Do It Again" is a BB classic, period.

And that makes all the difference to me.

 Exactly!

[Pretty Funky]

If I use my playlist over 30 years it is DIA by 1000 - 1.

Intro, vocals, instuments all perfect IMO. Even the intro's background 'chatter' fits.

'Its OK' is just that!

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

"It's OK" is a 70's BB classic.

"Do It Again" is a BB classic, period.

And that makes all the difference to me.

For some reason I imagined this post sung to the tune of "All This is That".  Damn I'm a BB geek...

[SurfRiderHawaii]

I always thought "It's OK" was just too short.  By the time I'm  just into it, it ends.

Really? I always thought it was one verse and chorus too long for its own good.

As for the question, I really find it tough to answer, basically because of everything that's been said in the thread already.

Whoa - It's only 2 mins 15 secs as is.  Pull out a verse and chorus and you've got an itunes sample.

[DSamore]

"It's OK" overall is only forgivable due to the fact that it is indeed BB. Mike is atrocious on it.

[Runaways]

Do It Again for sure.  a stereo remix would do wonders for it i think.

[MBE]

It's OK is a fun song, by their mid seventies standards it's amazing. I like Mike's vocals and the way the song chugs along. As much as I do like it I can't put in the same catagory as Do It Again.

Do It Again has it all. It's a look back at the old days but with a very sharp 1968 feel to it. The Beach Boys were still in their prime when Do It Again was cut and this really makes a difference especally in the harmonies.

[runnersdialzero]

I always thought "It's OK" was just too short.  By the time I'm  just into it, it ends.

Really? I always thought it was one verse and chorus too long for its own good.

As for the question, I really find it tough to answer, basically because of everything that's been said in the thread already.

Whoa - It's only 2 mins 15 secs as is.  Pull out a verse and chorus and you've got an itunes sample.

Some songs can be two minutes but be too long, and some songs can be ten minutes and seem to fly by, know what I mean?

That'd only make it maybe 1:45 or so, really - not too short, to me.

[tomstuart]

Do It Again vs It's OK?? Why not start a thread God Only Knows vs Winds of Change?

Don't get me wrong, i quite like It's OK. Compared to most of the other 15 BO material it's great, it's pretty catchy but not insanely so, and the fade is nice. But Do It Again is infinitely better - amazing production, wildly inventive (that fantastic pounding opening, the constant changes in tone throughout, the SMiLE fx at the fade), much better lyrics; just an all round far superior song.

[The Heartical Don]

Do It Again vs It's OK?? Why not start a thread God Only Knows vs Winds of Change?

Don't get me wrong, i quite like It's OK. Compared to most of the other 15 BO material it's great, it's pretty catchy but not insanely so, and the fade is nice. But Do It Again is infinitely better - amazing production, wildly inventive (that fantastic pounding opening, the constant changes in tone throughout, the SMiLE fx at the fade), much better lyrics; just an all round far superior song.

Well, I see similarities. Simple 4/4 (2/4) beats, summery feelings, melancholia (OK I nicked this from allmusic.com) and so on. And I like both of them a lot.

Next: God Only Knows vs. Winds of Change. (I must confess that I like WOC a whole lot. It has a fantastic melody. Sadly, it's under/overproduced, depending on the way one sees it; and it has undeservedly gotten a trashcan status thanks to the writings of people like Dave Marsh. Nonsense. With different lyrics and better arranging, it would have been awesome.

[Foster's Freeze]

I always thought "It's OK" was just too short.  By the time I'm  just into it, it ends.

Agree with AGD - "DIA" is a BB classic.

+1

Love them both but with "It's O.K." I want more. 

I' refer to this feeling as the "Ding Dang" syndrome.

[The Heartical Don]

I always thought "It's OK" was just too short.  By the time I'm  just into it, it ends.

Agree with AGD - "DIA" is a BB classic.

+1

Love them both but with "It's O.K." I want more. 

I' refer to this feeling as the "Ding Dang" syndrome.

...a.k.a. the 'Meant For You' trauma.

[matt-zeus]

I've never liked 'Do it again' and i've always liked 'It's OK'!

[Fall Breaks]

I always thought "It's OK" was just too short.  By the time I'm  just into it, it ends.

Agree with AGD - "DIA" is a BB classic.

+1

Love them both but with "It's O.K." I want more. 

I' refer to this feeling as the "Ding Dang" syndrome.

...a.k.a. the 'Meant For You' trauma.

Isn't that the same as the "I Went To Sleep" disorder? 

[phirnis]

Never thought of the songs' shortness as much of a problem. I've even particularly enjoyed the shorter pieces because they made me want to listen all over again, which is great. I'd rather listen to such an achingly short BB/BW tune ten times in a row instead of immersing myself in a 20-minutes piece of progressive rock and being a nervous wreck afterwards. There's more substance to "Meant for You" than to the whole of "Tales from Topographic Oceans" I believe.

[Eric Aniversario]

Do It Again is in my top 3 BB tunes of all time!

It's OK is probably in my top 20, if not top 10! 

I love them both!  The studio versions, and they are 2 of my favorite songs to hear live...

I also like Keepin The Summer Alive in the same way that I like these 2 songs...it probably makes my top 50.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Never thought of the songs' shortness as much of a problem. I've even particularly enjoyed the shorter pieces because they made me want to listen all over again, which is great.

I think you hit on a point - a very underrated point - as to one of the reasons (there are several, of course) for the success and timelessness of BW/BB music, which are the relatively short lengths of the songs.

[Bean Bag]

I'm going with....

It's Ok


Great Dennis fade out.  I actually did a mix, where it came out twice as long.  That song is so flunkin' good.  I've played it back-to-back-to-back-to-back, cranked...in total, head-banging bliss many times.  "Lookin' down the hood of a    funky-ride!"

[Reverend Rock]

I'm hopelessly nostalgic about 1976.  It's the year I met my beloved wife of now almost 32 years.  So it's very hard for me to be objective about this.  And anyway, I think both songs are fabulous summer-rockers. 

But trying to be as objective as possible, I'll give a slight edge to "Do It Again"...mainly for that amazing, Pet Sounds-esque middle section.

[Awesoman]

"Do It Again" is the better song of the two in my opinion.

Although "It's OK" is a fine song in and of itself.

[donald]

Do it Again is easily the best.      I especially like the early rough cut with the choppy surf-rock guitar sound.

On first hearing back in the day, Its OK served as a nice retro number as a follow up to ES, but it seemed a little forced or contrived.  DIA always seemed a natural.  Right up there with  I can hear music from the same release.

But to be fair, it is really a cup of tea thing   

[drbeachboy]

I have to go with Do It Again. I say this especially due to Mike's vocals. He is just too nasal on It's OK, and if you listen to the slightly sped up 45 version, it makes him even more nasally. I do enjoy the fade by Dennis, though. Nice touch!

[brother john]

Do It Again is one the Beach Boys last great songs, and has poignancy and beauty and involves genuine creativity.  It's OK is just moronic juvenillia. Kokomo is better. Surely no-one on the board seriously thinks there is any comparison between these two songs?