Talk:List of songs recorded by the Beach Boys

Intro statement
I must correct the statement that this is a complete list of songs released by the Beach Boys. It was not complete when I got here, and after I have added many it is still not complete. Abstrator 18:13, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Suggest reformatting of list
I don't want to tackle it, but I'd like to see the list changed to show the date of recording rather than the album. Either all albums containing song should be listed, or first album on which it appeared. There should be separate listings for different versions of songs. There should be a list for unreleased and bootleg recordings - as for songs from "Smile" sessions never included on albums, etc. I'd also suggest dividing the list into periods. If this is done, it would allow period in which Mike Love kept the name be a category, while including categories for solo recordings by other members. It particularly seems silly to disclude Brian's solo work just because he didn't keep the group name, while Mike's groups is no more "The Beach Boys" in reality than Brian's. Abstrator 06:57, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Subheaders proposal
I'd like to eventually add subheaders to the list, one for each letter of the alphabet. This has two immediate benefits: it would make editing/expanding less difficult, and it allow for the repetition of the field names (Song, Written By, et cetera.) Unless someone has objections, or a better idea, I will start on this project within the next three weeks. -- Mattbrundage 00:42, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Evidently you didn't get around to it yet, because I just started. On a related note, are song titles usually alphabetized by leading article (a, an, the) or is that excluded? &hArr; ChristTrekker 19:49, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Eventually, I was going to get around to it. Honest! To answer your question, I'd exclude the leading article from alphabetization. That's pretty much standard practice here. -- Mattbrundage 03:50, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
 * "A" is done; still need to do "the". &hArr; ChristTrekker 17:21, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
 * "The" is done. -- Mattbrundage 16:07, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

lead
I'd love to see this list include who sang lead vocals. &hArr; ChristTrekker 19:34, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * List of Beach Boys songs by singer -- Mattbrundage (talk) 18:55, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Multiple links to the same article
For a given article, it's standard wiki practice is to have only one or two links to the same article -- usually when that subject is first introduced. Duplicate links are usually shunned. Do you think it's a good idea to remove multiple wikilinks from this article? (and subsequently, the other Beach Boys-related song lists) A middle ground would be to reintroduce appropriate links for each letter of the alphabet. Thoughts? -- Mattbrundage 13:15, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Personally, I don't mind the redundant links. I find them helpful.  If I am reading a long article and it pops to mind that I really want to know what a "fleeber" is, I'll be thankful that "fleeber" is linked right there.  I don't want to have to hunt for it earlier in the page, or enter it in the search.  Granted, you can go overboard, especially when a paragraph or section is constantly referencing a term, but I think common sense should be applied here and not a hard-and-fast rule. &hArr; ChristTrekker 17:25, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Live Recordings section
Would anyone object if I: a) grouped all of the songs in the "old song" medley that was on the Endless Harmony Soundtrack together, instead of having them all listed separately? b) removed the performances that are just rehearsals? That would be the Heider sessions, and one of the Good Vibrations, I think.

Thanks! MookieZ 15:54, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
 * a. is fine, but I would object to b. -- Mattbrundage 17:48, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
 * a) done. Well not done yet, but in the next few minutes. Also, I just thought about the Cotton Fields/Heroes and Villains medley too, so I will also do that. b) Really? What do you think about marking them as rehearsals somehow. When I think 'live', I tend to think about an audience being present. Thanks again. MookieZ 19:18, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I was going with my gut feeling. Perhaps we could add "rehearsal: " before the song name -- in the same way that you've added "medley: ". Off the top of my head, one rehearsal I can think of is "Surfer Girl" from the Lei'd in Hawaii tapes. I forget which compilation this is from. Nice job, btw, on your recent edits. -- Mattbrundage 18:10, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but I think that you deserve the accolades for starting to tackle the recording dates... that's one tough job right there. That Surfer Girl is on the box set, I think. There are two other rehearsal/performances on the Endless Harmony Soundtrack, too. One's from Lei'd in Hawaii and one is from a soundcheck. I can't think of which ones they are off of the top of my head, though. I'll try to look them up, and also look for some more later today. MookieZ (talk) 14:49, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

This is what I have come up with: I've tried to mark these as rehearsals somehow, but I don't particularly like the way any of my tries looked, so I'm going to leave it be for now. MookieZ (talk) 16:16, 7 December 2007 (UTC)
 * From the Lei'd In Hawaii/Wally Heider session: Surfer Girl from the box set, and God Only Knows from the Endless Harmony Soundtrack.
 * From the soundcheck before Live In London: Good Vibrations from the Endless Harmony Soundtrack. I thought that there was a God Only Knows from this, but I couldn't find it anywhere.
 * From the soundcheck before the 8/25/67 Hawai'i show: Good Vibrations from Hawthorne, CA; and Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring from the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey twofer. These aren't listed on the article at all.
 * Oops, I was slightly wrong above. There are two live Surfer Girls on the box set. The second one is not from the Heider session, but from the soundcheck for the Hawaii concert. I marked that one, and the Good Vibrations London soundcheck as soundchecks. I added the two other Hawai'i soundchecks as such too. I swear that I had found another rehearsal somewhere, but I can't think of what it is now. Anyway, I removed the God Only Knows from the Wally Heider sessions... The way I see it, it was really just a recording session. If anyone disagrees, feel free to re-add the info. I also swear that I had found another released reheasal somewhere, but I have totally forgotten what it was. MookieZ (talk) 22:45, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Producers
The Producer section is almost done. If anyone knows who produced the following please add it to the article, or let us know here. I believe that is it. Thanks! MookieZ (talk) 22:55, 13 December 2007 (UTC) Update: 4 down, 1 to go. I assume that Karen was by Brian Wilson, but... MookieZ (talk) 17:55, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Chasin' the Sky
 * Karen
 * Our Team (probably The Beach Boys, but it seems to have been overlooked in the liner notes to the box set.)
 * Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)/Ol' Man River (I didn't see this in this album's liner notes... I think that Peter Carlin's book says that it is Brian Wilson producing, but I can't get to the book right now.)
 * Sea Cruise (probably Brian Wilson, judging by when/where it was recorded.)


 * "Karen" was neither written, produced nor played by The Beach Boys. They just provided the vocals.Andrew G. Doe (talk) 21:10, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Proposed merge
Since the editor who suggested the merge didn't start the discussion, I will:

Oppose: List of The Beach Boys songs is already 100+ KB and shouldn't be made any larger. If the List of Beach Boys songs by singer were already included in the larger list, it's likely that someone would propose that it be split off to reduce the size of the page, so it doesn't seem to make sense to merge the two now.-- Shelf Skewed  Talk  15:44, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Oppose for the same reasons. --Mattbrundage (talk) 23:50, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Oppose as above. I am not really sure that there needs to be a list of songs by lead singer anywhere. MookieZ (talk) 17:45, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Merge as sortable list, similar to List of The Beatles songs; note column for Lead Vocalist.TJRC (talk) 21:07, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Kenny & The Cadets
Clearly the songs Barbie and What Is A Young Girl Made Of? are NOT Beach Boys songs, so I think we should get rid of them? Sure they appeared on Beach Boys compilations but they weren't Beach Boys recordings by any stretch of the imagination. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.104.227.88 (talk) 17:33, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Perhaps. But I think it's safe to include Pendletones and Kenny & the Cadets recordings on this list. It's a gray area, but I think we should err on the side of including as much information as possible. Perhaps when Kenny & the Cadets have their own article, we can move these two entries over. -- Mattbrundage (talk) 14:14, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Too long?
I see that someone has added a "too long" notice to this article. And I kind of agree, but there is no way to really shorten it at all, except for splitting the live recordings section to List of live recordings by The Beach Boys or some such place. So... Does anyone think that that is a good idea? And would anyone mind if I took the notice off of this page in a day or two? MookieZ (talk) 19:23, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
 * It should be removed. It's not too long; it's as long as its subject requires. TJRC (talk) 19:20, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * OK, I removed it, since no one objected. MookieZ (talk) 13:41, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

What Software Was Used to Create List?
I'd like to download the list and manipulate it for a compilation CD I'm making. Is that possible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Philwells99 (talk • contribs) 20:44, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Software: MediaWiki. Possible? Yes. First, click "Printable version" on the left hand nav. Then, copy the table text and paste into a spreadsheet program such as Excel or OpenOffice Calc. From there, you can save it as a CSV or whatever. --Mattbrundage (talk) 20:26, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Why has this page changed?
It was decided at an AFD to not merge the list of Beach Boys songs by lead singer into this list, but here we are a year later and it looks like at was merged anyway. Why? Also, what happened to all the subheaders? They were a good idea, and I am disappointed to see that they're gone. IMO, we should go back to how this page looked in March 2009 or so.

Also, why isn't there any record of when the AFD for this page here? Isn't it normal to put a notice on the talk page? Santa Claus of the Future (talk) 14:02, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
 * So, no answers? I guess no one will mind if I change it back to how it was before all of these changes then. I'll revert back to a March 2009 version in a few days. Santa Claus of the Future (talk) 19:23, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The AfD you refer to above was for deletion of the article List of Beach Boys songs by singer; not a ruling on any proposed merger It did not address content of this article.  I'm pretty sure that your proposal to revert to a March 2009 version, reverting 80 edits made over 10 months, does not reflect a consensus. TJRC (talk) 21:56, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * If there was no ruling on a merger than why were people voting 'Merge' and 'Do not merge' there? Taking away the subheaders makes this page much harder to edit, and I'm not particularly against the lead singers being here, but whoever added them did not add them all, and some of the ones he did enter are wrong. Also, making this list sortable adds nothing, IMO. Chronological sorting would be cool, but that can't really be accomplished by either sorting by album (some years have more than one album (& it sorts albums alphabetically)) or by recording date (as many of the songs were recorded on more than one date and picking which (1st session? last session?) date to sort by is arbitrary).
 * Don't worry, I will not revert now that someone has addressed my concerns. (Unless consensus turns my way, which, I'll admit, isn't likely.) Santa Claus of the Future (talk) 05:24, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Location of live performances
I added the location of each live performance to the page. If anyone doesn't like it, feel free to remove it. Santa Claus of the Future (talk) 22:22, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Minor gripe
I'm sorry, but there's no way Bruce Johnston is the lead on "With a Little Help From My Friends." I've been told that's what the original cover or such said, but I've listened closely to the mp3 and it has to be either Brian or Dennis Wilson. I know it's a relatively minor point (a Beatles cover not released on any official Beach Boys album), and I know we can't change it based on my opinion, especially when the "official" source says otherwise. I'm merely saying, to this listener's ears, that little bit of info has to be incorrect. Any other big-time BBs fans here? If so, care to weigh in on this? MCM0313 (talk) 05:47, 7 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I interviewed Bruce in LA back in March 1985, less than two years after the track was belatedly released, and asked him about that. He confirmed it was him and explained it. When recording the bvs, they slowed the tape slightly so that when played back at the correct speed, they'd be higher in pitch (an old dodge to avoid singing high), but when the Rarities album was mastered, the engineer used the incorrect tape speed, hence Bruce sounded like he was stoned. Andrew G. Doe (talk) 12:27, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Okey-doke. That makes sense I guess. Thanks! MCM0313 (talk) 15:06, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Missing Songs
I've noticed most of the tracks from "That's Why God Made The Radio", all the tracks from "Live: The 50th Anniversary Tour" and all the previously unreleased songs and previously unreleased live tracks from "Made in California" is missing. Will someone update this page to add all of these songs? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.96.96.204 (talk) 08:13, 13 September 2013 (UTC)
 * No. Back when this page was split up so that each letter had its own section it was easy to add stuff. Now it's far too time consuming to bother with; I know I have better things to do. Santa Claus of the Future (talk) 20:02, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Needs Updating!
(2/26/15) I just added all the live songs from Made In California and the Beach Boys songs from the album The Big Beat 1963 to the list but this section is still missing all the "new" and Live songs from the four albums all on the list.


 * (2011) Live & Alternative Songs (Would also be nice to get a page on wikipedia dedicated to this important album.)
 * (2014) Keep an Eye on Summer – The Beach Boys Sessions 1964
 * (2014) Live in Sacramento 1964

not all songs from the Party! are listed — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.53.138.67 (talk) 19:47, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Suggestions

 * "Monkey's Uncle" should not be listed... The Boys do the backing vocals, sure, but it's credited to Annette only. If we start listing guest appearances, there are many more than this that need to be added.
 * "Bull Session", "Cassius", and "Recording Sesssions" should be listed as spoken word instead of group under lead vocals in my opinion. And if not, Earl Leaf really should be added to "Bull Session"

Santa Claus of the Future (talk) 14:40, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Suggestion about reformatting moved from article to talk page
This article was (until today) tagged with the copy edit template, annotated to recommend "reformatting per the superior List of songs recorded by the Beatles, removing superfluous/potentially inaccurate recording information and adding US/UK chart positions".

I have removed that "copy edit" template, since the activities of the Guild of Copy Editors do not include major article reformatting of this sort. There are a number of suggestions above of the same sort; some ambitious Beach Boys chronicler will come along at some point and find a prime opportunity to make the world a better place. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:34, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

Missing songs on list!
-Unreleased songs from The Smile sessions missing like teeter totter love and many more - (2011) Live & Alternative Songs (Would also be nice to get a page on wikipedia dedicated to this important album.) Songs are from a live convert from Syracue New Your besides for 409 - (2014) Keep an Eye on Summer – The Beach Boys Sessions 1964 - (2014) Live in Sacramento 1964

Beach Boys unreleased/bootlegged songs
Seeing as the numerous bootlegged and unreleased songs were recorded by the Beach Boys, can they be included in this list? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wheeln4444 (talk • contribs) 01:56, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

Nothing from after 2013?
Why aren't any of the previously unreleased songs released on compilations albums after 2013 included? None of the compilations albums released after Made in California (2013) are accounted for.ItsMichaelRay (talk) 22:42, 18 November 2021 (UTC)