"Help Me Rhonda" Vocal Session

Here's an outtake from the vocal session for The Beach Boy's "Help Me Rhonda," that's interesting for a number of reasons:

1. You can hear the sophistication of their harmonies. There sure was a lot for them to remember.

2. You can hear how flat they are in the beginning of the session and how they get better as it goes along.

3. Murry Wilson (Brian, Carl and Dennis' father and early producer) giving them several "pep talks." You can already hear the resistance to his suggestions, leading to frustration all around.

My favorite quote (right at the end): "You guys are coasting. Chuck and I used to make one hit after another in 30 minutes. You guys take 5 hours to do it." To which Brian replies, "Times have changed."

It's long, but a good listen.

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The Wrecking Crew Movie

I've written about the Wrecking Crew movie before, but it really needs to be brought up again because it's such an important historical document as well as a totally fun watch. For those of you who don't know, the Wrecking Crew was a group of Los Angeles studio musicians during the 60's and 70's that played on so many of the hits of the time that's it's hard to believe they all came from just one group of people.

The group played on almost every style of recording, including television theme songs, film scores, advertising jingles and almost every genre of music, with artists that included The Monkees, Bing Crosby, Nancy Sinatra, Bobby Vee, The Partridge Family, The Mamas & the Papas, The Carpenters, John Denver, Simon & Garfunkel and many more.

They helped Phil Spector create his famous "Wall of Sound," and realized Brian Wilson's vision for Beach Boy hits like "Good Vibrations", "California Girls", the acclaimed album Pet Sounds, and the original recordings for Smile.

Unfortunately, despite widespread praise, the excellent film about the band can still only be seen in private showings and film festivals since producer Denny Tedesco (the son of the late Wrecking Crew guitar player Tommy Tedesco) can't find a distributor. Why? Because the Crew played on so many hits that the licensing fees to get them in the movie would be enormous, and that scares them away. Of course, the fees aren't that much for a major studio tentpole movie, but that's not what this documentary is.

The movie is exceptional whether you're in the music business or not. Hopefully you'll get a chance to see it on the big screen or a DVD soon. If not, be on the lookout at your local film festival. You won't be disappointed.

Below is the trailer for the film. You can find out more on the Wrecking Crew movie website, and you can check out some excellent outtakes from the movie as well.

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The Making Of The Beach Boy's "Sloop John B"

Here's a spectacular video that highlights the making of The Beach Boy's 1965 hit "Sloop John B." This was never one of my favorite Beach Boy's song but I have a newfound appreciation for both it's instrumental and vocal intricacies after watching this very well-done video.

As always, BB producer Brian Wilson has a number of doublings and counter-lines going in the background of the music and the vocals, and we can hear them all here. Even if you're not a BB fan, it's worth watch to see just how intricate music could be made even 45 years ago, back in the days when 4 track ruled.

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The Making Of "God Only Knows"

In staying with the Beach Boy theme for this week, here are two videos regarding the making of their hit "God Only Knows." Once again, this is a terrific piece of musical history that can teach us a lot about how great records were made back in the days of limited technological resources.

The first video is the vocal track without the music. Listen to:

1) How spot on the doubled lead vocals are. Remember, this was in the days before cut and paste.

2) The background harmony vocals are just gorgeous, especially the round-robin at the end at about 2:00.

3) The reverb sound is awesome. It's the famous Capitol Records chamber and it's so clean and smooth. Luckily, it's still in use today and still in great demand.

The second video is "the making of" for the song similar to the one posted yesterday. It doesn't feature a complete take, which is why I put the vocal one first.

4) Once again Brian is in full command. He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it from a great group of musicians (the famous "Wrecking Crew"). There's a great film about the Wrecking Crew. You can find out more on the film's official website.

5) And once again, all the musicians are playing at once in a relatively small room. Gold Star was another studio noted for it's superlative reverb chamber, which many think was more responsible for Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" than he was. Unfortunately it closed in 1984. The studio is now the site of a mini-mall at the corner of Santa Monica and Vine Street in Hollywood.

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The Making Of "Wouldn't It Be Nice"

This is a fascinating piece of history that I recently found about the making of the 1966 Beach Boy's hit "Wouldn't It Be Nice." It's illustrates a number of things:

1) How much in control Brian Wilson is of the entire production. He was the writer, arranger and producer of the song so he knows exactly what he wants and he's very direct in getting it from his players, who were the cream of the crop of Hollywood studio musicians.

2) The song was done on a 4 track tape recorder at the now defunct Gold Star studios in Hollywood. That means that the entire band had to play at once in the relatively small studio area. Gold Star was originally a small demo studio that came to prominence thanks to Phil Spector and his many hits. It's still the same today - when a studio is hot, everyone wants to use it (same with the musicians).

3) Like many other Brian Wilson productions, there are 3 basses on the song. The genius is that they all rarely play at the same time, with the Fender bass played in the verses and the upright during the B sections and bridge. The 6 string bass is actually a baritone guitar that used to double some of the lines.

4) Hang in there until 6:10 when we get to hear the famous Beach Boy vocal harmony overdubs as they were being recorded at Capitol Records studios. These guys were so good!!

5) Notice the small tuning inconsistencies in the guitars and horns. This doesn't seem to bother Brian at all but it would never fly today, nor would some of the small timing errors.

6) Also notice the loud click every time that Brian hits the talkback switch. This was a problem on a lot of early consoles that used to annoy the heck out of anyone out in the studio or wearing phones. It was cause by chattering analog relay switches that weren't tamed until a digital alternative came on the market in the 80's.

Considering that this was just some audio out-takes, the video that goes along with it is extremely well done and keeps your interest through the entire piece. It's an awesome piece of musical history that really shows how a hit was made way back when.

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