"Funky Pretty" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by the Beach Boys | ||||
from the album Holland | ||||
A-side | "California Saga/California" | |||
Released | April 16, 1973 | |||
Recorded | 1972 | |||
Genre | R&B [1] | |||
Length | 4:09 | |||
Label | Brother | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | The Beach Boys | |||
The Beach Boys singles chronology | ||||
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"Funky Pretty" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their January 1973 album Holland . Themed around astrology, the song was written by Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and Jack Rieley. Carl Wilson explained that the song was quickly recorded in a "spontaneous flurry". Brian was an active participant in its production, a rare occurrence at the time. [2] In April 1973, it was issued as the B-side to their single "California Saga/California".
Rolling Stone wrote of the song in its review of Holland:
"Funky Pretty" is more on the guttural side of R&B. A cosmic love song to an astrological lovely, it mounts its grit in a swirl of harmonic complications, again underlining Blondie Chaplin's more straightforward vocal dexterity with a defiantly baroque choral signature: Vivaldi meets the Regents on a magic synthesizer. It makes for a beautiful track, built on economical and even monotonous musical premises that delight in their unreasonably complex development. [1]
Asked about the song in a 2013 interview, manager Jack Rieley said:
That was the test of Brian’s commitment to the idea that Bruce Johnston's not in the band, but Blondie and Ricky are. Funky Pretty is, to me, the modern Beach Boys because Mike, Carl, Brian and Blondie sing. Carl was doing funky songs as far back as to when he covered I Was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder on Wild Honey . It was in his bones and his blood. [3]
Drummer Ricky Fataar remembered,
I think [Brian] might even be playing drums on the song. I missed playing on that because I was sick. I had a cold or something that week. I didn't see Brian all that much. I can't even remember seeing him in the studio in Holland. Everyone had their own family situation and we'd just go to work and occasionally see each other. It wasn't like a one-big-family thing. [4]
Guitarist Blondie Chaplin stated,
On "Funky Pretty", Brian came down while we were trying to work out the vocals and he was doing a mix that I thought was even better than what eventually came out on the record. [4]
Credits from Craig Slowinski, John Brode, Will Crerar and Joshilyn Hoisington. [5]
The Beach Boys
Additional musicians
Carl Dean Wilson was an American musician who co-founded the Beach Boys. He was their lead guitarist, the youngest sibling of bandmates Brian and Dennis, and the group's de facto leader in the early to mid-1970s. He was also the band's musical director on stage from 1965 until his death.
Holland is the 19th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released January 8, 1973 on Brother/Reprise. It is their first album recorded without Bruce Johnston since 1965, their second with Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, and their final studio album created under the de facto leadership of Carl Wilson and manager Jack Rieley. The LP was originally packaged with a bonus EP, Mount Vernon and Fairway, which consisted of a 12-minute fairy tale written and produced by Brian and Carl Wilson.
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"California Saga/California" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their January 1973 album Holland. It was written by Al Jardine and is the third and final part of the "California Saga" series of songs on Holland. In May 1973, a remixed version was issued as a single under the title "California Saga ".
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"All This Is That" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1972 album Carl and the Passions – "So Tough". Written by Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, and Mike Love, the song was inspired by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation teachings and the Robert Frost poem "The Road Not Taken".
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"Feel Flows" is a song recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1971 album Surf's Up. It was written by guitarist Carl Wilson and band manager Jack Rieley, and was one of Wilson's first songs.
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