Worst Beach Boys Song on All Summer Long - Part 17 in an Ongoing Series

You mean "Carl's Big Chance"? Haven't heard this album in years.

Lots of great songs here. Carl's Big Chance is filler but inoffensive. Worst for me are Do You Remember? and Drive-In, both kinda stupid. Voted Drive-In.

Where does the Mike Love factor come into play on this album?

everywhere - all of the songs are credited to Brian Wilson/Mike Love

well, not exactly - Hushabye is Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman and We'll Run Away is written with Gary Usher (Carl's Big Chance also co-written by Carl duh). The lone solo Brian Wilson composition is "Girls on the Beach"

everywhere - all of the songs are credited to Brian Wilson/Mike Love

Of course, a lot more songs are credited to Brian Wilson/Mike Love these days than were at the time, since Mike won his court case.

I will have to listen to this again to decide (hey Drive-In could easily be worse than Carl's Big Chance, I don't remember). All the songs I actually do remember are uniformly great

Carl's Big Chance always makes me smile picturing the 17-year-old playing that solo.

But it is filler that doesn't do much musically so I wouldn't be surprised to see it win here.

I vaguely remember Do You Remember as being quite annoying. This is a weird album, I find it patchy with some complete toss (Drive In, DYR?) separated by brilliant bits (most of the singles and We'll Run Away).

I like how "Don't Back Down" was originally mistakenly listed as"Don't Break Down"....

the last third of this album or so starts to drag - Do You Remember is very by the numbers, Girls on the Beach is like a Surfer Girl retread with a weaker melody, Drive-In is fucking stupid but at least its catchy and has a good backing track,. Don't Back Down is good though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

its funny to see the vote counts swell and retract over the course of their discography - clearly the most popular stuff (at least around here) is the early 70s Reprise material

I think it's musically the most interesting, that's for sure

Don't worry about the plot
It'll do very well

Mike Love heading to the drive-in to see a double bill of L'eclisse and Vivre sa vie

This is the BBs album I've most neglected up till the 1985 S/T.

It must have been considered groundbreaking at the time. The arrangements are much more complicated and expanded but it's eclipsed by what came next with Today!, Summer Days and of course Pet Sounds.

I Get Around, All Summer Long, Wendy, Girls On The Beach are all top-tier Beach Boys, but they're all prominently featured on Greatest Hits comps. What's left are some fine ballads (Hushabye, We'll Run Away); some middling-to-poor car songs that feel like leftovers from Little Deuce Coupe (Little Honda, Drive-In, Don't back Down); and some very obvious filler/low effort content that brings the experience crashing down (Carl's Big Chance, Do You Remember, Our Favorite Recording Sessions).

It makes for an extremely uneven listen despite some real highlights, so probably my second-least favourite of their early album apart from Little Deuce Coupe

I Get Around, All Summer Long

My favorite opening two tracks of any BBs album.

The title track shoulda been the first track IMO. A great scene-setter

middling-to-poor car songs that feel like leftovers from Little Deuce Coupe (Little Honda

i was going to post this anyway ... but it was only today, while re-listening to this record, that i realized "Little Honda" is about a motorcycle. which, duh. i must not have been listening very closely

this is how i'd break it down

Great:

Girls on the Beach
Wendy
We'll Run Away
Hushabye
All Summer Long

Good:

I Get Around
Don't Back Down
Carl's Big Chance

Not great but still fun:

Do You Remember?
Drive-In
Little Honda

eh, actually, maybe "Do You Remember?" deserves to be banished along with "Our Favorite Recording Sessions"

"Do You Remember?" hasn't aged well as the context has receded from memory, but I get why they included it - the British Invasion taking over owed so much to the first major wave of rock artists, many of whom (for various reasons) were treated like expired goods, and "Do You Remember?" was a well-intended tribute and a bit of a forceful reminder about who was still around even if they were jailed or social pariahs. Pretty corny musically, but it helps paint a clear context for the LP, which in itself was the Beach Boys stepping up to the challenge of the Beatles.