🚢Yacht Pop Anchors #3, Beach Boys Edition: Elton John, Ringo Starr, Styx, Eric Carmen...and, Brian
Inspired by, featuring, guesting...whether it's Brian Wilson, or a couple other Beach Boys, this Yacht Pop anchors on the shores of Melodious Island, with a glorious stopover on Harmony Cay.
In this Beach Boys/Brian Wilson-inspired Yacht Pop Anchors, four artists, who are all stars firmly planted in the classic rock firmament, honor the head Beach Boy, create music inspired by him, or actually host him in the studio!
It’s far from all-inclusive, but it’s a start. I wanted to include Jackie DeShannon’s sublime “Boat to Sail” from 1975, and her New Arrangement album (featuring Brian and then-wife, Marilyn, on background vocals), but if I didn’t cut it there, knowing me, this would’ve morphed into a gorgeous, but unwieldy several-dozen-song Playlist!
Styx, “Fooling Yourself (Palm of Your Hands),” 2003 (with Brian Wilson)
They do their durndest, but even PopDose can’t help but throw up their collective hands at this truly wondrous slab of vocal bliss: “It only lasts for 39 seconds, and I have no idea how or why it came to pass, but the Dennis-DeYoung-less incarnation of the band managed to corral Brian to sing on what’s basically just a quick run-through of the chorus to their classic Tommy Shaw track from ’77 [“Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)”]. Frankly, I kind of wish they’d done a full version of it, because it’s a pretty awesome reinvention of the song.” I couldn’t have said it better.
On power pop: “A few la-la’s and hand claps won’t kill you.”—Greg Shaw, the ‘70s
Eric Carmen, “She Did It,” 1977
(Inclusion here thanks to a reminder by
of Substack’s Too Much TV Newsletter)Former Raspberries singer/guitarist/songwriter, Eric Carmen, was featured in the second “Yacht Pop Anchors,” here:
Released in August 1977, “She Did It” was the first and biggest hit on his second solo LP for Arista Records, the self-produced Boats Against the Current. It reached #23 on the Billboard Hot 100, #15 on the Cashbox Top 100, and #11 in Canada:
While Carmen performed the song on the Season 6, Episode 5 Midnight Special on October 14, 1977, this is not it. Instead, this is a synched performance from “U.S. TV,” not able to be viewed on a site away from YouTube, but you may click here to see it.
It has been hailed by some as “the best Beach Boys song Brian Wilson never wrote.” Back-up vocals (and hand claps! Many pop songs and most power pop require ‘em!) for “She Did It” were provided by fellow Beach Boy, Bruce Johnston and Brian, along with longtime Beach Boys background singer, Joe Chemay, and equally seasoned L.A. session singer, Curt Boettcher (aka Becher), who was given a lengthy FR&B spotlight:
The Beach Boys’ 1968 hit, “Do It Again” (with hand claps! See?) is credited by Carmen as being the initial inspiration for the song because of the vocalized “did-it”s (aka “dit-it”s) in the chorus:
“She Did It” also features a guitar solo by Andrew Gold, and drumming by Toto’s Jeff Porcaro. Carmen has stated that “She Did It” was in turn a source of inspiration for another song, the 1982 Hall & Oates #9 U.S. hit, “Did It In a Minute,” from their Private Eyes album (according to Songfacts). Carmen was touring with the duo at the time their song became a hit.
It was written by Daryl Hall along with his girlfriend, Sara Allen (the Sara of “Sara Smile”), and her sister, Janna Allen. Hall to Songfacts: “I was in the car with Janna, and she said, ‘I got this idea for a chorus,’ and she sang that chorus. That’s how it all started. And I said, ‘That's great.’ We got out of the car, I went to a keyboard, and I put the chords to it. I worked on a verse, and then Sara and I sat and wrote the lyrics together for the verse. So it was sort of a three-way collaboration on that song.”
Elton John, “Since God Invented Girls,” 1988
From Elton’s 1988 Reg Strikes Back album, Bernie Taupin’s lyrics mention Brian Wilson, and a couple of Beach Boys provide backing vocals for the Elton-penned melody: Longtime Beach Boys touring band singer, Adrian Baker, longtime Beach Boys Bruce Johnston and Carl Wilson, with Elton joining in.
The album was recorded by Bill Price, and produced by Chris Thomas, the two gentlemen at the board for the lone official Warner Bros. (Virgin Records/UK) Sex Pistols album in 1977, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. Read a first-hand account about one of that band’s half-dozen American tour dates, here:
Session players on “Since God Invented Girls”: Charlie Morgan, drums, David Paton (Pilot, Alan Parsons Project) on bass, plus some of Elton’s “old” original bandmates: Davey Johnstone on guitar, with Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson on backing vocals.
Dee and Nigel, Elton’s original studio and concert rhythm section (1970-1975) provide only backing vocals here, but FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE’s own Stephen Michael Schwartz hired them for the 1975 sessions for his second RCA Records album.
Dee and Nigel were just coming off being fired by Elton upon the August 1974 completion of his Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album (released in May 1975), and Stephen’s sessions were likely their first post-Elton gig, and they were happy to get the work! See exclusive, never-before-published, in-studio photos from Stephen’s personal collection, and read about the sessions, in his own words, here:
From 2001, and the “All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson” at Radio City Music Hall, Elton joins Brian in a stellar “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (with members of Brian’s back-up band, a handful of Wondermints, and The Beach Boys’ “touring vice-principal,” Jeffrey Foskett on vocals and guitar):
Ringo Starr, “In A Heartbeat” (w/Brian Wilson), 1992
The in-studio credits say it all on this one, and tell you all you need to know: This is a stunning song crafted by the redoubtable decades-long hitmaker, Dianne Warren. The arrangement is killer, with production by veteran Don Was, and magical background vocals arranged by pop and soul keyboardist/arranger, Brian O’Doherty.
His job was made easier simply due to the pop glitterati who appeared on this track from Ringo’s Time Takes Time 1992 album:
Backing Vocals –Brian Wilson, pop singer/songwriter, the late Andrew Gold, The Knack’s late singer/songwriter/guitarist, Doug Fieger, and Jellyfish-ers Andy Sturmer and Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. (left to right, below):
Bass – James “Hutch” Hutchinson; Drums, Percussion – Ringo Starr; Guitar – former Cretones frontman/songwriter/session player, Mark Goldenberg and veteran session player, Michael Landau; Hammond B-3 Organ and Harmonium – Benmont Tench, from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers; Keyboards – Jamie Muhoberac and Robbie Buchanan (Buchanan played in Stephen Michael Schwartz’s 1975 touring band; Stephen tells FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE the story in his own words, here:
Stephen Michael Schwartz Plans 1975 Tour; Enter David Foster-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW PT. 3
“In a Heartbeat” starts off simply enough, with some strumming and a defining guitar figure. Ringo sings (double-tracking a harmony, possibly himself), followed by a bass line that leads into our first chorus of all-stars (Fieger, Gold, and the Jellyfishes, most likely).
They deliver “when you need someone” and “when you’re all alone” in the right places, and after a sudden and familiar Spector beat-riff circa ‘63, the choristers move from “when you need a hand to hold” into a Beach Boys harmony burst, with our first appearance of the instantly-recognizable Brian, delivering our old familiar “dit-dit”s, with what can only be described as mastery. Rarely have nonsense syllables carried so much warmth and gravitas…or accompanying goosebumps.
It’s the early ‘90s (at the precise middle of Brian’s now-60-year career), and a Beatle and a Beach Boy are in the studio at the same time, surrounded by a bunch of kids whose own careers were all shaped, to that moment, by these two Capitol monuments and their respective pop-cultural pillars from separate continents.
Despite high hopes for Time Takes Time (released on Private Music Records, worldwide), it failed to chart in the U.S. and UK. It was released only on vinyl in Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and Spain, with English-speaking countries forced to settle for CD as the lone available format.
“I thought it was brilliant. But, people didn’t seem to want to go for it.”—Ringo, on the Time Takes Time album, from the July 2001 Mojo.
Great list, especially since I am a huge Beach Boys fan. Although I consider "Sunflower" maybe my favorite album of theirs next to "Pet Sounds," so I obviously have eclectic tastes.
Here's my selection for the oddest song with a vague Beach Boys connection. After Bachman-Turner Overdrive broke up, Randy Bachman formed Iron Horse, which released two albums.
"What's Your Hurry Darlin'" was the lead-off single from the second album and it was co-written by Bachman and Beach Boy Carl Wilson. My recollection is that Wilson might have contributed some background vocals, but I could be wrong.
A really cool song, very much a synthesis of BTO and some BB vocals, as odd as that sounds.