Bruce's recordings of "Disney Girls"
Jan 26, 2019 15:53:28 GMT -5
Fall Breaks, g00dvibrations, and 2 more like this
Post by Jim on Jan 26, 2019 15:53:28 GMT -5
Hey there everyone. Recently I finally acquired myself a copy of the compilation California Music & Disney Girls. For those not in the know, it's a collection of (all?) material from Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher's Equinox record label from the '70s. Anyways I mostly got it to have a hard copy of things like Bruce's original "Ten Years' Harmony" (later recorded in a new version as The Beach Boys' "Endless Harmony"), Brian's 1975 production of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and Bruce's....shall we say...interesting..."cover" of "Don't Worry Baby."
But the thing which caught my eye was Bruce's 1975 recording of "Disney Girls" that was released as the b-side of Papa Doo Run Run's "Be True to Your School." As far as I could tell, there is nobody from that glorified cover band on the tune, yet somehow it got released under their name. I wonder why Bruce did this. Was it contractual? If he couldn't release it under his name, why not as California Music as a lot of the label's other things were.
I also thought that the Papa Doo Run Run "Disney Girls" b-side was also the same version that was released on Bruce's Going Public album. But nope, definitely not. Now seeing as there is probably exactly four people interested in the minutia of Bruce Johnston recordings, I'm not expecting this to get any replies, I still found this whole thing a bit odd. Why all the recordings of this song within so many years, not to mention the cover versions of the song by other artists that I'm pretty sure he produced. I presume he did the version he released on Going Public to "reclaim" it from The Beach Boys, just as he recorded "I Write the Songs" to remind those paying attention that it was he and not Barry Manilow who wrote that one. Ha. But regardless, why the version released as the "Be True to Your School" b-side? I don't get it. And oddly, it might be my favorite version of the song, more than the version on Surf's Up or the version on Going Public.
Lastly, before receiving my copy of California Music & Disney Girls, I also purchased Bruce and Terry's Rare Masters album, featuring stuff like the only known digital versions of things like The Kustom Kings "In My '40 Ford" and The Vettes "Little Ford Ragtop" along with somewhat less rare things like Bob Sled & the Toboggans "Here We Go" which is about surfer boys going skiing. And then also stuff like the The Sidewalk Surfers tune (you guessed it...) "Skateboad." Thank you Bruce for all this unintentional hilarity all these years later. Yep. These are real songs and real "band" names. And I am a truly nuts Beach Boys fan who feels the need to find this stuff.
As I said earlier, this is probably interesting to .00001 of Beach Boys fans and therefore most people will laugh at this post. But ah well!
But the thing which caught my eye was Bruce's 1975 recording of "Disney Girls" that was released as the b-side of Papa Doo Run Run's "Be True to Your School." As far as I could tell, there is nobody from that glorified cover band on the tune, yet somehow it got released under their name. I wonder why Bruce did this. Was it contractual? If he couldn't release it under his name, why not as California Music as a lot of the label's other things were.
I also thought that the Papa Doo Run Run "Disney Girls" b-side was also the same version that was released on Bruce's Going Public album. But nope, definitely not. Now seeing as there is probably exactly four people interested in the minutia of Bruce Johnston recordings, I'm not expecting this to get any replies, I still found this whole thing a bit odd. Why all the recordings of this song within so many years, not to mention the cover versions of the song by other artists that I'm pretty sure he produced. I presume he did the version he released on Going Public to "reclaim" it from The Beach Boys, just as he recorded "I Write the Songs" to remind those paying attention that it was he and not Barry Manilow who wrote that one. Ha. But regardless, why the version released as the "Be True to Your School" b-side? I don't get it. And oddly, it might be my favorite version of the song, more than the version on Surf's Up or the version on Going Public.
Lastly, before receiving my copy of California Music & Disney Girls, I also purchased Bruce and Terry's Rare Masters album, featuring stuff like the only known digital versions of things like The Kustom Kings "In My '40 Ford" and The Vettes "Little Ford Ragtop" along with somewhat less rare things like Bob Sled & the Toboggans "Here We Go" which is about surfer boys going skiing. And then also stuff like the The Sidewalk Surfers tune (you guessed it...) "Skateboad." Thank you Bruce for all this unintentional hilarity all these years later. Yep. These are real songs and real "band" names. And I am a truly nuts Beach Boys fan who feels the need to find this stuff.
As I said earlier, this is probably interesting to .00001 of Beach Boys fans and therefore most people will laugh at this post. But ah well!
