User:MookieZ/Sunflower

History

After their last album, 20/20, Dennis Wilson was the first Beach Boy to head back into the recording studio, producing five tracks in the first two months of 1969: "Forever", "San Miguel", "Got To Know The Woman", "What Can The Matter Be?", and "Celebrate The News". Bruce Johnston's "Deirdre" was also recorded during these sessions. In early March the entire band went into the studio to record "Loop De Loop" and "All I Wanna Do", and also finish up Dennis's "Forever".^[1]

On April 12th, The Beach Boys sued Capitol Records for unpaid royalties and unpaid production fees. The amount sued for is over two million dollars. This is the second time that they have sued Capitol, and it may have contributed to a lack of promotion by Capitol of The Beach Boys final releases for them.

They then turned their attention to "Break Away", written by Brian Wilson and his father Murry, who used the pseudonym Reggie Dunbar. It was the last single that they would release for Capitol and was not a hit in the U.S. It did do well overseas though, peaking at #6 in the UK. "Celebrate The News" was the b-side, and neither song was released on a Beach Boys album.

After they were done recording Break Away, the band went on a tour of Europe. When they got back, they recorded two more Dennis Wilson songs, "Slip On Through" and "I'm Going Your Way". Next on the agenda was a rerecording of "Cotton Fields",^[1] a Huddie Ledbetter song that was released on The Beach Boys previous album, 20/20. Al Jardine took the production chores on this new version.

The Fading Rock Group Revival

After the new "Cotton Fields" was finished, they started to try to put an album together which would fulfill their contract with Capitol. It had working titles of Reverberation and The Fading Rock Group Revival. A master tape was put together with these songs^[2]:

track sequence unknown

"The Lord's Prayer" was the B-side to their 1963 single "Little Saint Nick", and was remixed to be in Duophonic sound on this album. This album was never released, and it is unknown if Capitol rejected the album or if the Beach Boys never submitted it. The Beach Boys fulfilled their contract with Live in London.

A new record label

After giving Live in London to Capitol, the band began to work seriously on a new album. In October and November of 1969, they started recording "Walkin'", "Games Two Can Play", "Add Some Music To Your Day", "When Girls Get Together", "Soulful Old Man Sunshine", "Raspberries, Strawberries", "This Whole World", and "Tears In The Morning". They also continued work on Dennis's "Slip On Through".

On November 18, The Beach Boys signed with Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. They had been close to signing with Deutche-Gramophone, but that deal fell through at the last moment. Van Dyke Parks, who was working for Reprise at the time, suggested to president Mo Ostin that he should offer them a contract, and after hearing some of the newer material, Ostin agreed

Add Some Music sessions

After signing their new contracts, The Beach Boys redoubled their efforts in the studio, finishing up "Tears In The Morning" and "Add Some Music To Your Day", the latter of which was going to serve as the title of the new album. In addition, they recorded nine new songs: "Susie Cincinnati", "Fallin' In Love", "Carnival", I Just Got My Pay", "Take A Load Off Your Feet", "Good Time", The Beatles' "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Back Home", and "Our Sweet Love".

Add Some Music To Your Day

After the final session (on February 2nd, to add car sound effects to "Susie Cincinnati"), they started to assemble the album, and released the lead single, "Add Some Music To Your Day". Reprise was so excited about the single that they convinced retailers to carry more copies of it then they ever had for any other Reprise single. Unfortunately for the band, the single (with the b-side "Susie Cincinnati") did not sell as well as they had hoped, only reaching #64 on the Billboard top 100 chart.

After the Reprise single failed, Capitol Records released their last Beach Boys single, Cotton Fields. It failed to chart in the US, but was a big hit overseas, including making at to #2 in the UK.

Before leaving for a tour of Australia and New Zealand, they finished putting the album together and submitted it to the label. Entitled Add Some Music, it consisted of these tracks^[2]:

It was rejected. After listening to the album, and after the failure of the lead single, Mo Ostin suggested that they come up with a few stronger tracks or their days at Reprise Records would be short-lived. The band was unhappy, but went into the studio one last time.

Final Sunflower sessions

The Beach Boys recorded the last two Sunflower songs in July of 1970. The first, recorded at the behest of Lenny Waronker, a producer at Warner Bros. Records, was Cool, Cool Water. Part of that song dated back to the Smile sessions. The other song that they recorded was It's About Time, a rocker that briefly became a concert staple for them.

After recording 50 songs, and going through three different album titles, The Beach Boys' Sunflower was finally released in August of 1970.

The songs that didn't make it

The sessions that led to Sunflower provided a lot of material for future Beach Boys albums and compilations.

"Break Away" and "Celebrate The News" were released as a single, and reissued on the Friends/20/20 twofer. "Loop de Loop" and "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" were unreleased until 1998's Endless Harmony soundtrack. "San Miguel" was released on the 1970's compilation Ten Years Of Harmony. After "Cotton Fields" became a big European hit, it was added to Sunflower overseas. In the US, it wouldn't be released on an album until the box set came out. Dennis Wilson released "Fallin' In Love" as the b-side to his European single "Sound Of Free" in December of 1970.

"Games Two Can Play" and "I Just Got My Pay" were also on the box set. "When Girls Get Together" was on the 1980 album Keepin' the Summer Alive. "Raspberries, Strawberries" was a working title for "At My Window", which was on the Sunflower album. "Susie Cincinnati" was the b-side to the ill-fated "Add Some Music To Your Day" single, then was released in 1976 on 15 Big Ones. "Take A Load Off Your Feet" was on the next album, Surf's Up. "Back Home" stayed in the vaults until it, like "Susie Cincinnati", made it to the line-up of 15 Big Ones.

"What Can The Matter Be?", "Walkin'", "Carnival", and "You Never Give Me Your Money" have never been released.

References

[doe69-1] ttp://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/gigs69.html

[doeunreleased-2] ttp://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/unreleased.html

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