Write a Review
Critic's Review
Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
Demand for Brian Wilson's 1960s record productions for artists outside of the Beach Boys has always been high for one simple reason: they usually didn't sell. That made these singles rare and hard to come by for fans and collectors. This is a new edition of a quickly deleted Japanese bootleg issued a few years back, with a couple more tracks thrown in, and truthfully, it has already been superseded by Pet Projects, a U.K. release that includes even more tracks. That said, there are some neat productions here, including the single "Pamela Jean" b/w "After the Game" by the Survivors, which was actually Brian Wilson and a couple of other Beach Boys. Wilson's bizarre rewrite of a Stephen Foster song is here, "Surfin' Down That Swanee River," by the Honeys, as well as the Spector-esque "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby" by Sharon Marie, which was later rewritten and became the hit "Darlin'" for the Beach Boys. Easily the most impressive production here, though, is Wilson's confessional "Guess I'm Dumb," sung by a then-unknown Glen Campbell. Wonderfully arranged and orchestrated, "Guess I'm Dumb" pointed the way to Wilson's ultimate masterpiece, Pet Sounds, recorded a year later.
