Your favorite/hardest BB song to sing

[Runaways]

SO i know we all love singing the beach boys, whether we can or not.  Whats your favorite song to sing? (in the car? shower?)  and what do you think is the hardest?

Personally, i used to have a pretty weak range.  But after countless days/nights of singing loudly in my car, my voice has steadily improved over the past couple years.  and it used to piss me off that i couldn't sing "wouldn't it be nice" right.  but happily (as of like a month ago), i can now!  quite easily.

So i'd say that's my favorite, and one of the hardest just cause of how high in your chest you have to sing it.  But then "surf's up" also takes that cake.  I'd also put "we'll run away" as a difficult song just for how quickly it switches from chest to falsetto then back again. 

and even if you can't sing, who cares, keep doing it, can't describe how happy i am when i start hitting notes i couldn't before.

[DSamore]

Please Let Me Wonder and Ballad of Ole' Betsy

[Jay]

I'd say the hardest one to sing is Feel Flows, just because the words are almost impossible to remember. There are also a lot of "tongue twisters" in it.

[grillo]

We'll Run Away is super hard to sing without going all falsetto  (especially the bridge) and that's why I've been trying for the last 25 years to nail it. Still, I fail...
 Wouldn't it be nice is also great for really stretching out those vocal chords (even brian has to shout it on the record!).

[shelter]

Favorite: God Only Knows or Forever
Hardest: Surf's Up

[Fall Breaks]

One of the tougher for me is "Don't Worry Baby". The 'she' in "but she looks in my eyes" is "outside" of the chord so I tend to miss it sometimes (ok, almost every time).

Favorite: "Darlin'", at least on the days when my voice doesn't break on "to let you know what you meant for me".

Oh, and also "Shortenin' Bread"! I do a killer bass vocal! 

[Stegibo]

I often tend to sing Mike's parts as I can't reach the high notes very well.
"I'm picking up Good Vibrations, she's giving me excitations"

[Mike's Beard]

Me too. I can't sing high at all so I often focus on Mike's parts when singing along. I'm getting pretty good at it if I may say so. I can also do a fair rendition of Dennis's 'husky' vocals esp his parts on "Baby Blue". I can't really sing but I can impersonate other singers if that makes sense.

[kwan_dk]

We're a couple of guys who get together frequently to harmonize on BB songs and have found 'I Can Hear Music' to be a song we always return to. It's really cool to lock into all the harmonies that underline the lead.

After singing quite a few of the more challenging songs we got a little cocky and thought we'd try out 'Our Prayer', just for fun. Hah, we were fools!   A few tries later we had to give up after reaching only about 15-20 seconds into it. So otherworldly complex and really makes you realize how sharp Brian & the guys were.

If you're interested in hearing our own stuff, have a listen here:

http://www.myspace.com/surfschooldropouts

[Andrew G. Doe]

Of the songs I've sung, live, to an audience (mostly as part of a four/five piece):

Most fun - Sail On, Sailor or Trader
Easiest - Solar System
Most satisfying - Forever
Complete bitch - California Dreaming
Least advisable - Goin' South
Most screamingly obscure - Bells Of Madness

[Myk Luhv]

I can't sing at all, but I'll be damned if I don't try to sing every part of a five- or six-person vocal blend! (I don't subject anyone else to it, however, unless they ask.) "Ding Dang" is obviously the winner here though on all counts, sorry y'all.

[hypehat]

Shortenin' Bread, obvs. It's also pretty much the first thing i go for every time i set down at a piano too.... 

[Runaways]

One of the tougher for me is "Don't Worry Baby". The 'she' in "but she looks in my eyes" is "outside" of the chord so I tend to miss it sometimes (ok, almost every time).

for this song "everything will turn out alright" is the tough, particularly the "everything", just cause it's in that high chest, JUST below falsetto area.  

We'll Run Away is super hard to sing without going all falsetto  (especially the bridge) and that's why I've been trying for the last 25 years to nail it. Still, I fail...
 Wouldn't it be nice is also great for really stretching out those vocal chords (even brian has to shout it on the record!).

gosh i love doing that bridge on we'll run away.  it's one of those where you can't tighten your vocals on like WIBN, especially on "if our LOVE is that much stronger", you just have to let it loose and completely open up.  hard but fun. 

[Paulos]

I love singing along to the Boys and have a fairly good voice but when I get to falsetto parts I stop because for some reason I cannot sing falsetto to save my life. I tried singing the words to In The Back Of My Mind over the backing track that a fellow Smiley Smiler kindly sent me and it was incredibly difficult, I was all over the place! I also find that sometimes I'll be singing along to a harmony part in say, Surfer Girl and I'll completely lose my place and start singing the wrong part and just sounding woefull off-key.

[oldsurferdude]

Sang lead on Forever and Surfer Girl in my old band. My falsetto is better now than it used to be.

[tpesky]

Wouldn't It Be Nice is a real son of a gun to sing.  I used to be able to sing higher, but recently found myself not able to hit them. Don't Worry Baby was another tough one even when I could sing higher.  I Can Hear Music is one I just could never get the right tone.
I tend to grab Mike's parts too, as someone else mentioned as I think they are the easiest. I enjoy singing Sloop John B and California Girls the most.

[adamghost]

Wouldn't It Be Nice is a good one.  I'd pick that because I can sing it pretty well now, so it's kind of fun and triumphant to do, but I didn't used to be able to.  And yeah, it is a bitch to sing.

One of the hardest vocal parts on a Beach Boys record is the closing falsetto on "California Girls," and also the ending of "Catch A Wave."  Grab your nuts, everyone.

"God Only Knows" is wonderful to sing.  It isn't terribly difficult range-wise, but it requires good pitch because of all the medlodic shifts.

[Chris Brown]

"Wouldn't It Be Nice" is a pain in the you-know-what to sing.  I've got a pretty good range (about 3 octaves), but that lead is right at my breaking point, and I really have to shout it out, which makes it hard to stay in tune.  Singing the harmonies to that one is a blast though.

"Wonderful" is pretty tough as well, just due to all the leaps and the fact that I try singing it like Brian with no discernable break in my voice.  No easy feat.

I agree with you guys who have mentioned "We'll Run Away" as well.  I can hold it together pretty well until the bridge, but it gets somewhat strained after that.

I actually do okay with "Don't Worry Baby," oddly enough.  It's funny, I recorded a version of it when I was 18 and sang the lead really well, but I had to jump into falsetto a lot more then than I do now.  When I sing it these days I can use a good strong head voice like Brian, even though I'm not as good as he was at making it sound seamless.

My favorite to sing is probably "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" (it's hard to choose just one).  I can really let loose on the lead, and there are so many parts in the chorus to sing along to it's dizzying. 

[Don_Zabu]

I can sing a lot of songs beautifully, but for some reason, Beach Boys songs are my Kryptonite. I just can't sing them very well.

[tpesky]

This thread certainly makes me respect/appreciate Al and Carl, they had to sing most of these challenging songs in concert and made them seem easy.

[pancakerecords]

Trying to disassemble and identify each of the harmony parts in "'til I Die" is pretty challenging.  Singing them all is even harder.

[Eric Aniversario]

Even before I read any of the posts in this thread, when I read the title, I immediately thought "Hard song to sing? Wouldn't It Be Nice!"  That song, as much as I love it, rarely, if ever makes any of my car mix compilations.  The Live In London version is much easier to sing along with.

Favorites to sing: These have changed over the years, but Hushabye, Lonely Sea, Please Let Me Wonder, The Trader, Sail On Sailor, Surf's Up, It's About Time, Disney Girls, Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down, Still Cruisin, Keepin The SUmmer Alive, It's OK, All This Is That, I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, Sail Away (OCA), One More Night Alone, Givin You Up,  Full Sail, Lady Lynda, Love Surrounds Me, What Love Can Do, all come to mind as songs I've really gotten into at one point or another. 

[Runaways]

I can sing a lot of songs beautifully, but for some reason, Beach Boys songs are my Kryptonite. I just can't sing them very well.

yeah, i actually feel like singing beach boys has taught me how to sing more than anything.  You learn a lot of control trying to sing them, there's so much subtle stuff going on. 

[Wrightfan]

Shortenin' Bread, obvs. It's also pretty much the first thing i go for every time i set down at a piano too.... 

Brian, I didn't know you posted here!

[hypehat]

Eh, it's not like you guys haven't been warned - People always say the 'powers that be' post here, you just don't know how high up