The Beach Boys "Wouldn't It Be Nice" Isolated Vocals

"Wouldn't It Be Nice" is the opening track of The Beach Boys triumphant Pet Sounds, an album that many think is the group's best ever. The song's basic track was cut in 21 takes by the famous studio band The Wrecking Crew at Gold Star Studio in Hollywood as leader Brain Wilson tried to capture some of the famous Phil Spector "Wall of Sound."

The vocals were cut over two sessions at the long defunct Columbia Recording Studios, also in Hollywood, with the ever-meticulous Wilson demanding take after take from the band to reach his vision. Here's the isolated vocals from the final product, and a list of things to listen for.

1. Like most songs of the era, the lead vocal is doubled. The difference is how tight the doubling is, which was unusually precise for the time.

2. The background vocals are also doubled and spread slightly left and right. Sometimes, the harmony stacking is a little different on each side as well.

3. As with most Beach Boy songs, there's lots of long reverb on the vocals.

4. What's unusual for most pop harmony vocals is the use of the low bass voice, which is used so well during the bridge.

5. Listen through to the end where you can hear a little snippet of discussion after the take.

6. All of the outtakes from the sessions for Pet Sounds are available in an album called The Pet Sounds Sessions.

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The Wrecking Crew Director Denny Tedesco On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

The Wrecking Crew was one of the greatest group of studio musicians ever assembled. During the 60s and 70s, they played on just about every hit record, television show and movie that came out of Los Angeles, including hits by Phil Spector, The Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, Cher, Simon and Garfunkel and many more.

Denny Tedesco is the director of the film The Wrecking Crew that documents the group's rise and fall. His father was the famed studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, a main member of the crew.

I'm very pleased to have Denny as my guest on this week's Inner Circle Podcast to talk about the group and the film (which I encourage anyone involved in music to see).

In the intro I'll discuss the new AMP act that will make sure that producers and engineers get paid for streaming, and the latest on technologies that will help your workflow, like Thunderbolt 3 and the next step beyond touchscreens.

Remember that you can find the podcast at BobbyOInnerCircle.com, or either on iTunes or Stitcher.

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The Ronettes "Baby I Love You" Isolated Vocals

Here's a real treat. It's the isolated vocal track from The Ronette's 1963 hit "Baby, I Love You," an excellent example of the Phil Spector "wall of sound." The song featured The Wrecking Crew on the backing track, and background vocals that included Cher and The Blossoms (with Darlene Love). Here are some things to check out.

1. The track is swimming in reverb, but that was the Spector sound. Gold Star Recording had a unique live chamber that had a frequency response that was just right for packing on a lot of verb without getting in the way.

2. Everything was recorded on the same track. This was probably done on a two track tape machine with the instruments all recorded on one track, which left the second track open for vocal overdubs. That's why you hear the lead vocal, background vocals and claps, which were all recorded at the same time.

3. The track is panned to the left, which probably means that the music was panned to the right. In the early days of stereo, there was no standards and no one really had any idea how to pan things (believe it or not). Not only that, pan pots didn't exist yet, so the engineer only had the ability to pan hard left, hard right or in the center.

4. Check out the claps, which you don't hear well in the full mix. The song starts with them, they come back during the instrumental breakdown and then do double time on the outro.

5. Listen to the end to hear Phil Spector.

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