“Add Some Music to Your Day” (1970) – The Beach Boys * Written by Brian Wilson, Joe Knott, and Mike Love * 45: “Add Some Music to Your Day” / “Susie Cincinnati” * LP: Sunflower * Produced by the Beach Boys * Label: Brother/Reprise
A non-Top 40 charting hit in 1970 (#64 on Billboard) with, for the Beach Boys, uncharacteristic acoustic guitar breeziness. The song’s harmonies served the Beach Boys especially well during their 50-year reunion shows. The road does get a little bumpy, though, when Mike Love goes “there’s blues, folk and kun-treee and rock like a rolling stone,” and again when Bruce Johnston goes “Your doctor knows it keeps you calm.” One imagines Brian Wilson being able to sing lines like those with charming naivete, but in the mouths of Love and Johnston they sound poorly chosen. At 2:45 you can hear the same eerie high-register string parts the Walker Brothers used on their “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.”