Brian Wilson Contemporaneous Covers in the 1960s

[Teasing the Korean]

When you look at post-Beatles jazz and pop albums, it is interesting to see the contemporaneous songwriters who are getting covered the most frequently.

At or near the top of the heap, you find Lennon & McCartney, Bacharach & David, and Tom Jobim.

Maybe a notch below them, you find Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini, Tony Hatch, and Jimmy Webb.

And a notch or two below them, you find various Brasilian songwriters, including Edu Lobo, Roberto Menescal, Marcos Valle, Carlos Lyra, Luis Bonfa, and Baden Powell.

Also Ennio Morricone, mainly "Funny World."

There are probably others I am forgetting.

Collectively, these songwriters created the songbook for the international jet set aesthetic.  Their songs in general share interesting melodic and harmonic components.

So my question is this:

Where does Brian Wilson fit into this group, and why was he not covered more?  He was covered seldom enough that the few existing versions really stick out in my mind - Gary McFarland covering "God Only Knows," Hugh Masekela covering "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," and a few others.

Do you think The Beach Boys' early surf/hot rod image created a mental stumbling block for artists and A&R guys?

I would be interested to hear from the Brits on this board.  The Beach Boys' artistic leap forward coincides with their rise in UK popularity, and their decline in US popularity.  Maybe they were covered more in the UK during this time than in the US?

What do you think?

Edited March 13, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[Rabshakeh]

Why are the Beatles and Ennio Morricone international jet set aesthetic?

[JSngry]

24 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Do you think The Beach Boys' early surf/hot rod image created a mental stumbling block for artists and A&R guys?

I think it created a mental stumbling block for everybody except Brian. Especially the group itself 

[Teasing the Korean]

13 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Why are the Beatles and Ennio Morricone international jet set aesthetic?

Because they were covered by Claudine Longet and Astrud Gilberto.  There you go.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[danasgoodstuff]

Anti-gearhead prejudice.  Ironically Jeff Beck actually is a gearhead and Brian Wilson and Bruce Springsteen aren't.

[JSngry]

Those songs were often hard. The lyrics were culturally specific honest. Who can you see covering, much less wanting to cover "God Only Knows" which is aat least as much of a record/composition as it is a pop song (Andy Williams did, and it's a bit of a clueless mess) or "The Warmth Of The Sun"...can you see a "world weary" personality sing a song that begins with "what good is the night..."?

The Hollyridge Strings had a clue, though, as they often did. Capitol, baby...

 

 

 

[JSngry]

 

[sgcim]

My big band writing thing over the lock down went into covering things by rock cats in the 60s who were also jazz dudes. So I wound up writing charts on bands and people like Tandyn Almer, Bob Bruno, Ian McDonald (KC),If, Judee Sill (the female Brian Wilson), The Free Design, and Nick Drake. One thing by Nasciamento, too

Four Yanks and three Brits. They have to lend themselves to improvisation. Brian Wilson just didn't write anything that went that way. Most pop and rock writers didn't. Just like Sondheim.

I could have went to The Beatles, or something fagatronic like that, but it's been done before. One thing you can say about the 35 or so charts i wrote over COVID time is that they've never been done by a big band before, or they've never been done the way I did them if they were done by a BB.

[Teasing the Korean]

7 hours ago, sgcim said:

Four Yanks and three Brits. They have to lend themselves to improvisation. Brian Wilson just didn't write anything that went that way.

I think "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)" could work very well in a jazz context.  

[JSngry]

https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/44072/versions

[Teasing the Korean]

20 minutes ago, JSngry said:

https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/44072/versions

Interesting!

This speaks to my question about The Beach Boys being bigger in the UK than in the US during this time.

Edited March 14, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

https://secondhandsongs.com/work/2427/versions#nav-entity

Covers of "God Only Knows"...people seem to struggle to come to terms with the whole of that song...

There is an "interesting" cover by a German(?) band called The Jay Five, who appear to have a bit of a cult following these days?

And Andy Williams...his version on Columbia is just...bad. But to his credit (I guess…) he worked it out and did it live in such a way that he could phrase it with his accompaniment. But still...people fuck up that song a whole lot. It's one of those harder-than-you-might-think things.

[Teasing the Korean]

17 minutes ago, JSngry said:

https://secondhandsongs.com/work/2427/versions#nav-entity

Covers of "God Only Knows"...people seem to struggle to come to terms with the whole of that song...

There is an "interesting" cover by a German(?) band called The Jay Five, who appear to have a bit of a cult following these days?

And Andy Williams...his version on Columbia is just...bad. But to his credit (I guess…) he worked it out and did it live in such a way that he could phrase it with his accompaniment. But still...people fuck up that song a whole lot. It's one of those harder-than-you-might-think things.

Here it is by Andy's ex.  The arrangement largely misses Brian's distinctive use of the third, fifth, or seventh in the bass note.  It is pretty bad, primarily because of the arrangement.   The ending is kind of nice, with the chorus of Claudines.

 

And here is Carl performing it in 1992 at what appears to be a Japanese steak house!

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[felser]

This is a much better album than you think it is.

[JSngry]

"God Only Know" is not better than I think it is...

 

[Dan Gould]

No one should ever, and I mean, freaking ever record "God Only Knows".

The original recording is sheer perfection, and as shown by the steakhouse video above, Carl Wilson is the first, last and only person to do it justice.

Edited March 14, 2022 by Dan Gould

[Teasing the Korean]

33 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

No one should ever, and I mean, freaking ever record "God Only Knows".

The original recording is sheer perfection, and as shown by the steakhouse video above, Carl Wilson is the first, last and only person to do it justice.

I tend to agree with you here, but I am quite fond of Gary McFarland's version, especially the counter-melody on the "God only knows" refrain.  Then again, I am a total Gary McFarland freak.

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[danasgoodstuff]

12 hours ago, sgcim said:

I could have went to The Beatles, or something fagatronic like that,

Huh?

[JSngry]

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fagatronics

I know...

[sgcim]

2 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

Huh?

It's been done a zillion times already.

[danasgoodstuff]

3 hours ago, sgcim said:

It's been done a zillion times already.

I get that, it was the terminology that threw me.

Edited March 15, 2022 by danasgoodstuff

[mikeweil]

19 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I tend to agree with you here, but I am quite fond of Gary McFarland's version, especially the counter-melody on the "God only knows" refrain.  Then again, I am a total Gary McFarland freak.

Mc Farland was so great at writing counter melodies to pop tunes!

[Teasing the Korean]

On 3/15/2022 at 9:22 AM, mikeweil said:

Mc Farland was so great at writing counter melodies to pop tunes!

And improving the melodies!  I can never again hear the Beatles' "And I Love Her" because it lacks those extra three notes that Gary added to the end of the second phrase!