I'm surprised no one remembers this from David Leaf's booK (pgs. 143-144):
"The vocal arrangements on Surf's Up weren't as full as those on Sunflower either, and that is mostly because Brian wasn't working on the album. Bruce recalls, 'It was strange to be doing vocal arrangements to make it sound like the Beach Boys when we were the Beach Boys. That's a little weird to me.'
"The resurrection of the song 'Surf's Up' is a confusing tale. Part of the album track was from a recording Brian had made for the 1967 Leonard Bernstein special; other segments were recorded in 1971 to fit in with the old track. Bruce: 'I remember thinking, "Well, if I voice this chord into Brian's part from the end of Carl's part, it'll sound okay and no one will know about it." We ended up doing vocals to sort of emulate ourselves without Brian Wilson, which was kind of silly.'"![]()
"The vocal arrangements on Surf's Up weren't as full as those on Sunflower either, and that is mostly because Brian wasn't working on the album. Bruce recalls, 'It was strange to be doing vocal arrangements to make it sound like the Beach Boys when we were the Beach Boys. That's a little weird to me.'
"The resurrection of the song 'Surf's Up' is a confusing tale. Part of the album track was from a recording Brian had made for the 1967 Leonard Bernstein special; other segments were recorded in 1971 to fit in with the old track. Bruce: 'I remember thinking, "Well, if I voice this chord into Brian's part from the end of Carl's part, it'll sound okay and no one will know about it." We ended up doing vocals to sort of emulate ourselves without Brian Wilson, which was kind of silly.'"