Andy Williams Show Pre-Recorded Tracks

Help Me, Rhonda
(Andy Williams Show Version)

(Brian Wilson – Mike Love)

Music: Brian Wilson
Lyrics: Mike Love, Brian Wilson
Arrangement: Brian Wilson

Producer: Brian Wilson
Engineer: Bowen David

Personnel:
Carl Wilson – electric 12-string guitar [Rickenbacker 360/12]
Al Jardine – electric guitar [Fender Stratocaster]
Brian Wilson – electric bass [Fender Precision]
Dennis Wilson – drums [Camco White Moire]
Ron Swallow – tambourine

Recorded to 1/2″ 3-track:
October 20, 1965 / Western Recorders – Studio 2 (track)

Mixed to 1/4″ mono:
October 20, 1965 / Western Recorders – Studio 2
(TV recording to track: October 22, 1965 / N.B.C. TV Studio, Burbank – Studio 4)

Unreleased

 

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California Girls
(Andy Williams Show Version)

(Brian Wilson – Mike Love)

Music: Brian Wilson
Lyrics: Mike Love, Brian Wilson
Arrangement: Brian Wilson

Producer: Brian Wilson
Engineer: Bowen David

Personnel:
Carl Wilson – electric 12-string guitar [Rickenbacker 360/12]
Al Jardine – electric guitar [Fender Stratocaster]
Brian Wilson – electric bass [Fender Precision]
Dennis Wilson – drums [Camco White Moire]

Recorded to 1/2″ 3-track:
October 20, 1965 / Western Recorders – Studio 2 (track)

Mixed to 1/4″ mono:
October 20, 1965 / Western Recorders – Studio 2
(TV recording to track: October 22, 1965 / N.B.C. TV Studio, Burbank – Studio 4)

Unreleased

 

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When bands made live-in-studio TV variety show appearances in the 1960s (and in other decades), it was fairly rote practice for the performers to mime with their instruments while singing to pre-recorded backing tracks. These would typically come from the actual records, or at times from quick instrumentals taped at the television studio before appearing on camera. Extending to all corners of his life, Brian Wilson didn’t often go about things in the usual ways.

In May 1965, the Beach Boys were booked to perform current single “Help Me, Rhonda” and Four Freshmen live cover staple “Graduation Day” for an Ed Sullivan Show appearance that ended up canceled at the last minute. But in the run-up, responding to the call, Brian (who by then had been off the road for several months) used the opportunity to record a new studio production of “Graduation Day” at Western Recorders that the Boys would lip sync during the broadcast; it had a clean studio sheen, reverb, double-tracked vocals, the whole shebang. On the session tape, band members can be heard complaining about Brian’s sticky perfectionism for a recording that didn’t really matter, or need to exist at all for their practical purposes. But it sounded great!

A version of that modus operandi came to repeat itself later in the year when the group accepted an invitation to appear on an episode of NBC’s The Andy Williams Show, to be recorded Friday, October 22, 1965 and broadcast Monday, February 14, 1966. With Bruce Johnston still essentially a “secret” member of the Beach Boys to the wider public, Brian agreed to come with them on this occasion.

Four performances were lined up for the Beach Boys’ nine minute slot of the hour program: “California Girls,” a short version to back their introduction; “Help Me, Rhonda,” in full; “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring,” the a cappella showcase; and “Little Honda,” rewritten into the sponsorship-avoidant “Little Cycle” and duetted between Mike Love and Andy Williams.

“Hearts” didn’t need a backing track. A “Little Honda” track would be pulled from the original studio recording – keyboards are featured there, but it generally does sound enough like a compact rock ‘n’ roll band to fly under the radar. Somewhere in the planning stages, Brian must have gotten the notion that their little four-piece couldn’t pull the wool over anyone’s ears in pretending to play the lavish studio productions of “Help Me, Rhonda” and “California Girls” on a soundstage, so the wheels got to turning.

On Wednesday, October 20, 1965, two days before the TV taping, Brian, Dennis, Carl, Al, and road manager Ron Swallow checked into Western Recorders to lay down new TV-compatible studio versions of “Help Me, Rhonda” and “California Girls.” Rather than their usual crew and room, the band worked with engineer Henry Bowen David in the larger (medium-sized) Studio 2 – a space that had seen much “live” action in recent weeks due to the Party! album sessions.

Some discussion on tape clarifies that the original plan here was to record “live” backing tracks (as in, all instruments together), and then overdub a guitar solo (to “Rhonda”) and vocals (to both) while at Western. The second part of that didn’t end up happening, so the Boys wound up doing all of their singing in front of the live studio audience – just smiling awkwardly for 11 bars while a guitar solo doesn’t happen. A simple job then, right? Lay down some basic tracks, forget the overdubs, familiar songs, throwaway stuff for a muffled backdrop on a one-time TV joint.

Well, unfortunately for the others, Stalin of the Studio decided to show up to work that day, and he also hadn’t been practicing his bass playing of late. Brian cracked the whip through 24 (at least) takes of “Help Me, Rhonda,” before putting down 21 takes of the abridged “California Girls” followed by pickups and a tape splice! Bowen David meticulously documented the whole process. This was a real session.

One gets the impression that Brian mostly just did this because he liked taking a chance to play around with his songs in new settings. And he couldn’t bear to surrender control – not a guy who had much time or understanding for natural live performance. What we hear is quite fascinating, because it’s almost like tapping into a parallel universe where the Beach Boys themselves handled those tracks for Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), in say, the style of “You’re So Good to Me” and “Then I Kissed Her.” They aren’t quite the same, because those productions did involve overdubs, but the approach feels close.

Brian played his P-bass direct into the board with a pick (and it’s always worth noting when he isn’t thumbing it) while producing from the control room; sat next to him, lead/rhythm guitarist Carl also plugged his 12-string Rickenbacker direct, though that’s not the axe he ended up bringing to the show. Out in the studio, second rhythm guitarist Al strummed his white Stratocaster, Denny whacked Camco drums, and roadie Ron Swallow shook a tambourine, as he did on a plethora of other 1965 studio tracks (notably, neither Ron nor tambourine are seen in the TV miming). Inputs running into the console would’ve included one or two overheads and a (hardly used) kick mic on Dennis’ kit, a mic on Ron’s tambourine, a mic on Al’s Vox amplifier, and the two DI instruments.

Bowen recorded on ½” three-track tape here, so it’s possible Studio 2 hadn’t yet been afforded a new four-track machine like several other United-Western rooms in late 1965. “Rhonda” was up first. All instruments were recorded to track 1, with all except the bass sent to a reverb chamber. Reverb was embedded with them on track 1 but also printed separately to track 3, an extraneous patching leftover.

“Hey now, just the one track we’re using this time, right?” Brian checks at the head of the reel. “Okay. We’re gonna be prepared to Sel-Sync.”

“Uh, well, just go ahead,” Bowen tells him, “I’ll have to get the other machine as soon as you’re ready, but we’ll get this on the one track.” He points out that the current tape machine isn’t geared up for Sel-Sync overdubs but they can put the reel on another when the time comes. Brian nods in agreement and readies the band over the talkback.

“Here we go! Let’s take this from the top – one, two – on the fourth beat until the minor chord – one, two, one, two, three…”

Al sings a guide vocal (to silence) and Dennis cracks his snare and floor tom, but realizes he was supposed to be playing the kick on all four beats . “I blew it,” he immediately confesses. The two in the booth briefly play together before realizing what’s gone wrong. “Start that bass pedal moving,” Brian tells Dennis, stomping his foot to demonstrate. “Y’know – BOOM – like ‘Honda,’ kinda.” Bo slates take 2.

On the second try, Dennis thumps four to the bar on his kick drum (making his snare rattle a whole lot) to keep time during the sparse intro, which, true to the record, is otherwise just the bass and 12-string guitar riff. It’s unlikely Dennis, Al and Ron could hear any of what Brian and Carl were doing here, so Al keeps singing off-mic to keep them right. Brian’s handling that most rubbery of bass parts none too badly for a moment, but he soon runs into the wrong notes and just stops playing while the rest carry on, instead using the take to play around with the balance of the mix. In the turnaround before the second chorus, Dennis thunks loudly on the snare and rack tom and Brian’s stirred into telling him off: “Don’t do that, don’t hit – DENNIS! Don’t hit the tenor tom. Sounds for shit. Just hit the tom-tom on that one, don’t hit the snare, go bom bom bom…”

Dennis responds by clubbing the rack tom again. “No, the other one.” He hits the snare. “No, the other one! Just the floor tom.”

“I won’t do anything on that, I’ll just play normal! Two four!” cries Dennis, assaulted by the Wilson stethoscope. Tape stops while they figure this out.

Brian counts out take 3 over the talkback and quickly starts biffing the bass part again. The same happens in take 4, and Brian tells Al to count it out in the studio for the benefit of the show. He tries counting in but can’t really be heard, so Carl suggests he leans down by the mic on his guitar amp. Al yells at the top of his lungs in the wrong direction. “It’s over by the Vox, Al!” laughs Brian. “You’re on the Vox now.” That doesn’t really work, so Dennis is told to yell the count into his mic instead.

Take 6 is a false start, as Dennis immediately gets twisted. The next take (still considered 6) is stopped when Dennis, fearing a reprimand, just doesn’t change his pattern for the fill before the chorus, so Brian reprimands him. “Come on man, break it up! BOM BOM BOM BOM.” He stops to hear Al’s guitar alone.

Another false start, then on take 8, Brian runs into more near instantaneous fumbling. He drops out and decides to take it out on someone else. “Alan, that doesn’t sound good at all. It’s terrible. Horrible.” To be fair, Al’s rhythm is strummed pretty straight, completely lacking the swung feel of Glen Campbell’s ska-like upbeats on the original track. Take 9 actually survives pretty well to the second verse but Brian stops it to tune everyone up.

“Okay, take ten on this. ‘Piece of Shit’ take ten,” he sighs when the tape resumes. Al strums some vibrato-y suspended chords and Brian notes, “Come on, Al. We’re gonna overdub in some more of your…” He trails off, then another false start. Brian tries to tell Carl that he doesn’t want “that figure,” meaning Brian’s bass part may be too complicated to play now and later mime convincingly in front of a camera. He practices a newer, simplified version of the line before the next take, but immediately reverts back to the original part. Take 11 is then quite good, from four of the band, and they make it to the last chorus… but Brian, again, just can’t get through that opening without falling over and he doesn’t play for most of the rest. He just lets the others continue, joining in when he feels like it. He seems to be experimenting, trying out different iterations of the bass line in different sections of the song.

An agonizing several minutes of false starts follow where Dennis and Brian keep messing up and nothing is accomplished. Dennis complains that he’s getting nervous. Carl’s fine! “Oh shit, what is that shit?” Brian asks when Dennis hits a particularly late beat 4, having abandoned the kick drum quarter notes earlier in the session. “Keep the bass pedal goin’ so you got the same beat! You’re going slow and fast, I think.” At about take 24, Brian and Bo just decide they’re actually on take 19 and go with that. It’s another false start when Dennis forgets to hit on beat 4, something he’d already forgotten to do three other times in the last sixty seconds. “Go, hurry up!” whines Brian. “We’ve got twenty minutes to do this, an overdub, and a vocal.” The plan must’ve been to overdub some extra guitar parts (including the solo) and vocals all within the session, although whereabouts of Mike Love at this point are unknown.

Another try falls apart. “It’s pretty bad, I’ll tell ya that much,” Brian chuckles to himself. More stopping and starting ensues. Finally, at take 23 (which is actually more like take 30), Brian commits to playing the simplified bass lick he’d come up with earlier. Thank goodness. Now that that’s out of the way, he wills the next attempt into being the last. “Take twenty-four, this is the master, let’s go.” Somehow, he’s right! Take 24 is the first and only complete version and grooves along like a Beach Boys track should. Ron’s tambourine is near inaudible for most of it – perhaps someone at the console realized that he wasn’t going to be on TV.

No time to stop and overdub here, straight onto “California Girls.” Now, as already mentioned, this wouldn’t be the whole song, but rather a shortened version for a set piece in the show. The structure consists of a chorus, a short vamp on a B chord (room for the host to talk), a verse, and a second chorus with a full ending. In the broadcast, not even all of that was ultimately used. Ron was asked to put his tambourine down; this would be a simpler four-man job.

“Let’s go,” Brian says to the band when tape continues rolling for the second song. But Al’s amplifier is buzzing, and Brian asks him to “ground the guitar out.” Once that’s sorted, Dennis asks Brian if he can start things out with the pickup fill that leads into the chorus. “Okay, count it out, let’s go,” Brian tells him. Tape starts and stops a few times while Brian figures out the mix, Carl’s guitar initially being far too quiet.

Brian stops the first two takes when Dennis fails to hit a strong first beat following the introductory hits. “Missed the quarter beat pickup. Do you know what that quarter beat pickup is?” he accuses. He stops the following take because the guitars are playing upbeats, where he wants simple staccato quarter note downbeats. Two false starts later, take 6 finally gets through the eight-bar chorus, but then things fall apart again. “Al slid behind. Something happened,” Brian explains wearily.

After a few more false starts, take 9 (slated as take 10) makes it through the singular chorus, followed by exactly seven bars of vamping on a B chord, before going into a verse. Brian stops it at the end of the verse: “One more, please.” Take 11 gets through the now correctly counted eight-bar break, but Brian stops it during the verse again. “Take twelve-ish,” he says. Dennis asks what’s been wrong with all the takes. “Well you see, it’s the guitar here,” Brian explains to him. “Sounds shitty ‘cause the chord’s not right.”

On take 12, Carl begins playing the verse in a much higher voicing, ringing out quite nicely on his Rick. But Brian is struggling with the verse: “Hold it, I can’t hit that bass part. I can’t play it.” Tape stops and starts, and engineer Bowen David can be heard suggesting and singing a simpler line for Brian to play. Brian seems to agree it’d be easier. One would not expect it to be so difficult for the Beach Boys to play “California Girls” by the Beach Boys.

After a false start, Brian tries out the simpler bass figure, which appears to work, but Carl makes a rare mistake. The next few takes are all false starts, mostly caused by Dennis forgetting his part again, and Brian messing up his new bass part. Between takes 17 and 18, Brian experiments with the bass lick he’d played in the chorus of “The Girl from New York City.” After another false start, he properly incorporates it as a fill into the verse of what’s called take 18, but intonation issues between Al and Carl cause him to stop the take.

Take 19 goes quite well, with the instrumental counted out to six bars rather than eight: bar six introduces Brian’s “Girl from New York City” fill while Carl slides up to the higher voicings for the following verse. A second chorus is reached for the first time after the verse, but Brian stops the take, citing tempo issues.

Take 20 is equally good, but suffers the same fate, as Dennis starts to slow down in the second chorus, just a few bars from the end of this shortened version. Brian complains, “Ah, f– really, what kind of piece of shit is that?” Carl instantly enters supportive problem-solving mode, proposing that they record a pickup take of the ending, while Brian can still be heard muttering that the whole thing is a “piece of shit,” in the way that he often does.

Take 21 tries a different approach, slightly faster, and with Brian now playing his original bass line, forgoing both the simplified part Bowen helped him create and the funky fill he’d been adding. Here the boys finally achieve a full take, but the final note is botched – Brian had called for two strong hits on beats 1 and 2, but the others all land their last note in different spots between beat 2 and the “and” of 2. “Brilliant,” Brian complains. “We were gonna go ‘BOMP BOMP.’” Dennis tries to argue that they did, but Brian explains where they went wrong. Bowen steps in to suggest what Carl had suggested for the last take: a pickup ending.

Somehow, the idea of hitting two simple quarter notes in a row and stopping is a hard one for Dennis to grasp at first. Two takes of the pickup go awry. It takes Carl pressing down the talkback to get the idea across: “No, no, Dennis! It’s not ‘ba…… ba;’ it’s two ones close together!” Dennis demonstrates. “Atta boy!” After a successful third pickup take, Bowen edited it into the main body of take 21 on the three-track.

With no time left in the booked recording session, no overdubs were done that day (which would’ve required wheeling in and setting up a different tape machine, anyways). The boys decided they’d simply sing real live vocals to the tracks as they were played over the NBC Studios speakers and mime their instruments, not actually adding guitar solos after all. Mono mixes of both tunes were printed onto ¼” tape, each at both 7.5ips and 15ips, as was standard for these kind of pre-show taping jobs. A note was made on the ½” box that the mono tape was set to be delivered to Andy’s engineer Bill Cole at NBC Studio 4 in Burbank.

On that studio stage, the Boys only ended up singing the first chorus of “California Girls,” and the rest of their track was faded out during Andy William’s introduction of the “number one singing group in this country.”  No need for all those re-takes and that pickup splice anyways! “Rhonda” was then played, with a confused Al Jardine struggling to find his footing without an audible count-in from the backing track. Luckily, the audience applause mostly drowned out the rough start, and the rest of the song received a rousing vocal performance from Al, Brian, Carl, and Mike, with Dennis pretending to thrash his snare and floor tom in back.

“Little Cycle” followed, sung live on top of the original “Honda” track from 1964. In order to avoid the original track fading out or stopping abruptly as it does on tape, the live studio orchestra jumped in for the repeating chorus at the end, conducted in front of the stage by musical director Jack Elliott. Finally, the Boys closed out their portion of the episode by giving perhaps their definitive performance of the Four Freshmen’s “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring,” one of the songs that brought the original quartet of Brian, Al, Carl, and Mike together, while Dennis watched from behind his kit.

 

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Sources

Based on original research by John Brode, Will Crerar, Joshilyn Hoisington and Craig Slowinski.

Tapes and documentation from Capitol Records and Brother Records. 

The Andy Williams Show, Season 4, Episode 23, May 2, 1966.