Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW - What A Sound - New Mixes (and Surprises, Too), May 23, 2007
"THE WARMTH OF THE SUN" has new/FIRST TIME STEREO mixes of All Summer Long, You're So Good To Me, Then I Kissed Her, Please Let Me Wonder, and Let Him Run Wild (all hard-core Beach Boys Classics); plus the stereo mix of Kiss Me Baby (which has only appeared on the Endless Harmony CD), and a new stereo remix of Wendy. The songs are annotated in detail, with many unseen photos of the boys, but there are no liner notes or essay.
SURPRISES:
"Why Do Fools Fall In Love" is annotated as the original 1964 mono single mix (b-side of Fun, Fun, Fun); it's a different/better sounding mono mix, with a very different intro (no drum beat to start, with some piano & percussion sounds under the vocals). Very nice. Never before on CD!
"Cool, Cool Water" is annotated as the 1970 single version, and is in fact 1:40 shorter than the album version from Sunflower. The first 1:20 of the album version was excised, plus another 20 seconds edited out to create this stereo single version. This version had been released on the long out-of-print Ten Years Of Harmony LP/CD.
"California Dreamin" is annotated as the original 1986 stereo mix from "Made In The USA", but it is not; this version has wind, rain and thunder sounds before the guitar intro fades in. Never before on CD!
INTERESTING NOTES:
"Breakaway" is annotated as "alternate mix". It is in fact the "alternate version" that was released on the incredible "Hawthorne,CA" CD in 2001, although the studio chatter has been trimmed off the beginning. [FYI: this 2001 alternate stereo mix has Brian singing lead on the first verse instead of Carl, and additional/more complex vocals on the ending section, although it comes from the same basic master as the original mix. It also runs about 10 seconds longer, and to me the mix sounds much better]
The closing title track "Warmth Of The Sun" appears in it's mono single mix, although it's in stereo on the original LP and CD of Shut Down Vol 2, Endless Summer, etc. A surprising choice in this context.
BOTTOM LINE:
This is a beautiful companion to "Sounds Of Summer", the 30 song compilation from 2003, which itself had 2 new stereo mixes (and 5 stereo mixes which had only recently been released on various sets).
Both are great as casual compilations and collector's treasures.
Thank You producer/engineer Mark Linett and Capitol /EMI !
and of course Brian, Carl, Dennis, Mike, Al & Bruce !
|
|
|
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
+ 1/2 stars...Why Did They Leave Off 'Caroline, No'?, May 24, 2007
As other reviewers have noted, THE WARMTH OF THE SUN makes an excellent companion volume to 2003's superb SOUNDS OF SUMMER. Between 1962 and 1988, the Beach Boys charted 33 singles on Billboard's Top 40 (34 if you count 1981's "The Beach Boy Medley"). Thirty of those singles appeared on SOUNDS OF SUMMER. That left only "The Little Girl I Once Knew," "Caroline, No" and "It's O.K." for this new release. Inexplicably, "Caroline, No" is not included here. [In fact, there are no tracks from 1967's ground-breaking PET SOUNDS.]
So with only a handful of singles and well known album tracks, the 28 tracks found on THE WARMTH OF THE SUN enable the compilers to plumb deeper into the Beach Boys' catalog. Tracks range from 1962's "409" (the b-side to "Surfin' Safari" taken from their Capitol debut) to 1986's cover of the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" (which features some terrific 12-string guitar playing from Roger McGuinn).
This latest collection was compiled and sequenced by surviving group members Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston. While Wilson wrote or co-wrote most of these songs (including three tracks from the minor classic LP ALL SUMMER LONG), Johnston wrote the gorgeous "Disney Girls (1957)" and Jardine composed the lush "California Saga (On My Way to Sunny Californ-i-a)" which went Top 40 in the U.K. in 1973.
[Note: New stereo mixes are included for the following songs: "All Summer Long," "You're So Good to Me," "Then I Kissed Her," "Please Let Me Wonder," "Let Him Run Wild" and "Wendy."]
While the Beach Boys only reached the Top 10 twice after 1966's "Good Vibrations," this compilation shows that they were still an artistically viable band decades after their commercial heyday. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
|
|
|
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great compilation!, May 22, 2007
This is the CD you hand to your friends when you're trying to explain the Brian Wilson and Beach Boys magical music that was ignored by FM radio in the late 60's and early70's, or forgotten from the British Invasion era. No new ground is plowed here, but this is a good sample of the excellent music that ALL the Beach Boys were producing in that period. This is especially evident in the earlier BW studio work (ie. Let Him Run Wild) and the the latter post-Smile work, sans Brian. And it even includes some excellent liner notes and pictures...
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ The Beach Boys
~ The Beach Boys
~ Dennis Wilson
by The Beach Boys 
