The Beach Boys - Surf’s Up
“Surf’s Up” from the 1970 album of the same name was a composition originally meant to be the centerpiece of the mythical Smile album. As part of his effort to rebrand The Beach Boys as a hip band for the 70s, manager Jack Rieley demanded that erstwhile bandleader Brian Wilson finish the aborted Smile track for the band’s first album of the decade. Wilson refused, so his brother Carl cobbled the song together from a backing track from a 1966 recording session, a piano demo of Brian’s and overdubbed vocals and Moog. Brian eventually agreed to join the band in the studio on the third couplet, but his voice was so damaged from cocaine and heavy smoking that the album’s producer had to speed his vocals up to make them match the vocal track sampled in the songs first third.