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Barbara Ann
Barbara Ann was always a fun Beach Boys song I enjoyed, but now I love it even more since young Mona and Lisa use to sing it in the car in their early foray into harmonies. Barbara Ann was always one of the big favourites at Beach Boys concerts usually played as part of a finale set or encore like at a fireworks show to end the concert with a bang. They would do something like Fun Fun Fun, Barbara Ann and I Get Around for example.
The song was written by Fred Fassert and first released in 1961 by the Regents as a minor hit, and then in 1965 the Beach Boys did a fun rendition of it, unexpectedly turning into a big hit for them, peaking at #2 in the US charts (#3 in the UK) and top 5 all over the world. It sat in the charts at #2 poised to hit #1 after the Beatles “We Can Work I Out” was about to step down from #1, but Petula Clarks “My Love” came out of nowhere and squeaked in front of it into #1. The song was released as a single with “The Little Girl I Once Knew” on the B side which is another fine song.
Pete Townsend and Keith Moon of the Who were big Beach Boys fans, and they did a rendition of Barbara Ann too in 1966 and released it on their Ready Steady Who album.
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14 Replies
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“The Little Girl I Once Knew” appeared on the B side of the Barbara Ann single and became a minor hit at #15 in the charts.
AllMusic called the song “a virtual link between the slightly progressive work on songs such as ‘California Girls’ and the then-quantum leap taken by Wilson on Pet Sounds and ‘Good Vibrations. Some speculate that the song was written about Brian’s then-wife Marilyn Wilson.
Just after its release, John Lennon gave it a favorable review:
“This is the greatest! Turn it up, turn it right up. It’s GOT to be a hit. It’s the greatest record I’ve heard for weeks. It’s fantastic. I hope it will be a hit. It’s all Brian Wilson. He just uses the voices as instruments. He never tours or anything. He just sits at home thinking up fantastic arrangements out of his head. Doesn’t even read music. You keep waiting for the fabulous breaks. Great arrangement. It goes on and on with all different things. I hope it’s a hit so I can hear it all the time.”
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Barbara Ann by the Who:
The Who perform “Barbara Ann” in the film The Kids Are Alright with Keith Moon on vocals. Moon, a massive Beach Boys fan but a notoriously limited singer, plays and sings much to the delight of his fellow band members.
Pete Townsend gives it a nice punch with his guitar!
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It’s fun seeing the Who just goofing around, not taking themselves seriously.
That’s quite high praise from John, Jung. Any idea what the source was? Did a reporter ask him specifically about that song, or what he thought of the Beach Boys’ current offerings?
The original version of Barbara Ann by the Regents was on my childhood “Fonzie’s Favorites” album, and therefore one of the first dozen or so rock-and-roll songs I ever heard. And as much as I love the Beach Boys, I thought the party atmosphere of their cover, and the omission of the sax solo, detracted from its quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTffa6I27iA
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Hello Jung, I have to say that of the hundreds of Beach Boys songs I possess, this is one of those that I like the least! I find it very annoying on so many levels, poorly produced, fake party effects, and largely ad-libbed. I believe Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean fame sang on this record also, you can hear Carl thanking him for his efforts on the outro. The B-side however is pure quality and proof of Brian’s growing studio mastery and genius.
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It’s catchy but will agree, in that when overplayed on radio, etc, it does lose its appeal , for me…
I’m sorry Jung but it does…and a few other Beach Boys songs for same reason. I do like their stuff, just not in abundant playing repeatedly to listen quantities…. more for you to enjoy as I give you my share to embrace…..lol …I can handle once in awhile but not constantly of their stuff…
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Hi Gerald. Barbara Ann certainly wasn’t one of their most polished performances. I agree with you on the B side.Jackie, you dont like Beach Boys and Classical. I get it, you’ve expressed it a number of times before. At least we have love for MLT in common.????
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Hey Jung,
I learned something today from you about Barbara Ann. I always thought the Beach Boys wrote the song. But I see it was done by the Regent, Which I never heard this version. I like it.
As far as The Who. Keith Moon was a big, big fan of the Boys. I will say this my favorite two all time songs by them is Good Vibration and Barbara Ann.  Wait and Slop John B. I hope that is correct as song title.
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Jung…I’d like to clarify myself….I never said that I don’t like Beach Boys, I do like them, always have, perhaps not quite as much as you do but I still enjoy their music, I’m sorry that you’ve misunderstood and thought I never liked them at all , not the case, I grew up with their music too in the house . But I will say, and agree with you on, of my not keen’ness about Classical music …. I don’t always make myself understood in my wording sometimes and this results …people get wrong idea or misunderstand my meaning and my apologies , I try to express/convey clearly how I want to say things but along the way the perception of one’s words gets lost, misunderstood. The meaning of how one wanted to state from the mind didn’t quite come across /translate equally in written form.
We all have our common love for MLT just as we all equally have our other music tastes and that’s okay, that’s the choice of which we call our own to enjoy alongside MLT… It’s also okay to respectfully disagree/agree on things.
Like you,  I do get your lifelong enthusiasm for Beach Boys , I’m same for Glass Tiger, yes, there are songs of GT that I’m not exactly keen on , and I’m sure same goes for you in the Beach Boys Music Dept….lol…. It’s Hit and Miss… As I said I like Barbara Ann, I just got tired of hearing it on radio, the radio stns overplayed, meaning I simply got turned off listening of it because of radio overplay but I still enjoy it, never stopped liking it and will sing and dance to tge music if I come across it or if I was a party or karaoke.
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Hi Jacki. I guess if we all liked the same things it would be a boring world and no room for discovery of different things and growth. Apologies too for assuming you didn’t like the Beach Boys. I think it would be safe to say we both like good music, regardless by who. 🙂
I only posted Barbara Ann because of the fact Mona and Lisa sang it as kids, and that made it special to me.
Hi David, in regards to John Lennon’s favourable review, it was in reference to the song “The Little Girl I Once Knew”. That song must have really resonated with John.  The song was released as a single on it’s own as well later in 1965 with “There is No Other Like My Baby on the B side which John must have referenced.  There was a reference to this in a Beatles documentary book. I included more details on another post, but I accidentally included multiple links and post went to moderation.
From Wikipedia:
It was released in November 1965 as a single 45 rpm, backed by “There’s No Other (Like My Baby)”, and reached #15 on the Cash Box chart and #20 on Billboard.[citation needed] Since radio stations preferred to avoid dead air time, the song was poorly received by them.[2][5] Just after its release, John Lennon gave it a favorable review:
“This is the greatest! Turn it up, turn it right up. It’s GOT to be a hit. It’s the greatest record I’ve heard for weeks. It’s fantastic. I hope it will be a hit. It’s all Brian Wilson. He just uses the voices as instruments. He never tours or anything. He just sits at home thinking up fantastic arrangements out of his head. Doesn’t even read music. You keep waiting for the fabulous breaks. Great arrangement. It goes on and on with all different things. I hope it’s a hit so I can hear it all the time.”[3][8]
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All good Jung, I agree, it’s okay that we all like good music, regardless, if it makes us happy, positive, feel good, that’s what counts, matters most????☮
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I always liked Barbara Ann. It was quite a change from their well produced, slick recordings. I always wondered if it was a back of the hand to their father Murray who was quite overbearing and mean to the boys. Just my opinion.
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Hi Mike, I agree it was a departure from the very disciplined productions they usually do on their recordings. But it ended up getting the job done for them delivering much joy as a great live song for their concerts that got the crowds rocking for 6 decades!  David, on this one I think they were on the same wavelength as you regarding the song needing a SAX. 🙂
From their 50 year Anniversary world tour 2012 with all the remaining original Beach Boys: Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnson performing together.
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It’s all Brian Wilson. He just uses the voices as instruments.
It’s interesting what John Lennon said about Brian Wilson, how he uses vocals as instruments. Never looked at it that way listening to the Beach Boys, but I can see that. I guess it takes another music genius to have this kind of insight into what Brian Wilson is doing.
In this song off the Beach Boys debut album, he clearly uses the voices as instruments in this instrumental piece. It has a kind of Hey Bulldog feel.
Beach Boys – Moon Dawg
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You have good taste in music Joe, my friend! Good Vibrations and Sloop John B, I would rate are the Beach Boys best, along with God Only Knows and California Girls. Sloop John is my personal favourite. Maybe being right up close to Mike Love and Dean Torrence when they sang it a an exclusive intimate venue in 2000 I had the good fortune in attending in Disney Land at a conference had a big part in it for me. I also like Barbara Ann a lot too given the MLT reference now.I listened to some of the Beach Boys early less known works and they did a lot of instrumental actually in their earlier albums that were not released as singles, but notable like Moon Dawg, Honky Tonk, Misirlou, Stoked, Let’s Go Trippin, Dennys Drums etc. In the Wipe Out realm. As guitarists Carl and Brian Wilson and Al Jardine maybe were not at as polished or complex as the Beatles, The Who or The Kinks, but sounds good to the ears with some of that twangy guitar riffs. Hope you’re having a great weekend!
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