The vocal group that taught Brian Wilson how to sing
When they first arrived on the music scene in the early 1960s, The Beach Boys sounded like nothing else. Combining the dulcet tones of barbershop quartets with the raucous energy of Chuck Berry, the band found their niche singing about sun, surf, and summer fun. But lying just beneath the surface were some truly haunting emotions brought on by the vocal arrangements spearheaded by group leader Brian Wilson.
Wilson was responsible for teaching his two brothers, Dennis and Carl, how to harmonise with him. From there, with the instigation of his father, he was able to get his cousin Mike Love and family friend Al Jardine to complete his dreams of intricate five-part harmonies. The layered techniques were highly advanced, and Wilson learned to stack voices from a decidedly non-rock-based group, The Four Freshmen.
“I learned two things: one, I learned how to sing falsetto from Bob Flanigan, the high voice in The Four Freshmen,” Wilson told BBC 6 radio host Matt Everitt on the show ‘The First Time’. “I used to imitate him at the piano and I wrote ‘Surfer Girl’ after I heard the Freshmen. And then their harmonies taught me how to harmonise too. I never knew – I never dreamed there could be that kind of harmony until I heard that harmony.”
According to Keith Badman’s book The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America’s Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio, a combination of The Four Freshman and a hi-fi stereo system gave Wilson the tools to create his own harmonies.
“I got so into The Four Freshmen. I could identify with Bob Flanigan’s high voice,” Wilson is quoted as saying in the book. “He taught me how to sing high. I worked for a year on The Four Freshmen with my hi-fi set. I eventually learned every song they did.”
Carl Wilson also recalled the endless hours that his brother would spend pouring over The Four Freshmen records while sitting at the piano. “There were many years of [Brian’s] life where he did nothing but play the piano,” Wilson told David Leaf in the 1978 book The Beach Boys and the California Myth. “Months at a time. Days on end. Four Freshmen records. Just all music.”
Wilson also remembered picking up Four Freshmen and 5 Trombones and being converted from there. “They had a demonstration booth where you could listen in the store and I found the Freshmen album,” Wilson remembered. “My mother said, ‘Do you really want to hear this?’ and I said, ‘Sure.’ So I went into the little booth and played it and fell in love with it. I love the sound of the trombones. Wonderful songs like ‘I Remember You’ and ‘Mam’selle’.”
Check out ‘I Remember You’ down below.
