Hits U Missed #4: Unreleased Beach Boys: "We Got Love"

After Surf's Up, the Beach Boys were back on the road quite a bit. I even managed to interview the late, great Carl Wilson when they played at SUNY Fredonia in 1972.

By that time, Bruce Johnston was gone and Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar were in the band. During those shows, they regularly performed an unfamiliar song called "We Got Love," though it only showed up on the terrific 1973 live album. What I didn't know was that it had been intended for Holland and was replaced by "Sail On Sailor," which was somewhat hastily completed and recorded, then added to the album and issued as a single.

From Wikipedia:
Holland was rejected by Reprise Records for not having a potential hit single. It was decided to add an old unfinished Brian Wilson song, "Sail On, Sailor", which he had co-written with Van Dyke Parks. After some re-working, Brian delivered what would become Holland's most famous track. "Sail On, Sailor" was one of two songs recorded at home (the other was Ricky Fataar's and Chaplin's soulful and moog-tinged "Leaving This Town") and added at the last minute to a re-sequenced and re-submitted Holland. One of the casualties of this tracklist reshuffling proved to be another Fataar/Chaplin tune, written with Mike Love, called "We Got Love", which would resurface later in 1973 in a live context. Early test pressings of Holland, made in the USA and in the UK feature the album in its original group-intended running order. Side one kicks off with "Steamboat", then the three-part Saga, followed by "We Got Love". The German distributor for Reprise records failed to implement the changed side-one line up correctly and mistakenly pressed 300-400 copies with the earlier running order. Early French and Canadian pressings of Holland still mention "We Got Love" on the sleeve, although the song is not on those albums.

Here's the "original" studio version of "We Got Love," still surprisingly unreleased, except for bootlegs, of course.

Hits U Missed #3 – Squeeze "Tempted" (Original Glenn Tilbrook vocal!)

photo supplied by Neal Mirsky (left), April 1980

Here's the original, hard-to-find version of the classic Squeeze tune. (Click to listen)

"Original?" "Hard-to-find?"

Though the hit version, produced by Roger Bechirian and Elvis Costello, featured Paul Carrack (Ace: "How Long?") on vocals and keys, an earlier take employed a different arrangement and a vocal by co-writer Glenn Tilbrook, produced by Dave Edmunds.

Carrack's tenure in the band was short (with a few brief returns after his initial departure) and Tilbrook took over the vocals but kept the revised arrangement in live performance.

For more info, see here.

Hits U Missed #2 – Stealer's Wheel "Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine"

Here's the rare, single version of "Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine," written by Gerry Rafferty and produced by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller on A&M Records.

It came out in 1973 after the first Stealer's Wheel album, the one with "Stuck In The Middle With You."

But when they recorded their second album, "Ferguslie Park," they re-did this song.

Unfortunately, the album track is the one that's used on every Stealer's Wheel and Gerry Rafferty compilation and this superior version (recorded by the band pictured above, which had split by the time of the second album) is nowhere to be found.

This stereo version was only issued on a promo single. (Click to listen)

Hits U Missed #1 – Dark Hill