One of the greatest losses of the digital era (aside from the death of my dream of ever owning anything) was the demise of the 45 RPM single. The 45 was a profound piece of throwaway modern art, it was the engine that drove he car of the music industry for decades.

The best part of the 45 RPM single was the necessity of including something on the flip side. Now, the only critical metric of the "B-side" was that it must never, ever, ever stomp on the "single", or "A-side". It was proper practice to make the B-side an extra little gift to the fans by showing an act not trying to be "commercial". One did not want to run the chance of eclipsing the single that the record label and the artist had sunk so much money into. The radio promoter's substantial effort was at risk as well. This unfortunate circumstance was sometimes, famously, not unfortunate. Without the B-side eclipsing the single we have no "Dear God" by XTC or whatever the heck it is what happened with the "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Hello Goodbye"/I Am The Walrus" single by the Lads.


Examples abound. In my generation I often defended my obsession with The Police. None of their detractors realized who they were; no one listened to their pile of incredible B-sides. "Shambelle", "Flexible Strategies", "I Burn For You", "A Sermon", "Someone To Talk To", "Once Upon A Daydream"- if you haven't heard any Police B-sides you are familiar with a largely lyrically formulaic, dour commercial juggernaut. I would go so far as to say that as a kid I judged a band by two main criteria: how they recovered from onstage catastrophes and what was on the flip of their singles.



Before "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring" was claimed in perpetuity by The Beach Boys with a live a cappella version from the "Live In London" album released in 1969, the Bobby Troup-penned ballad had been recorded most famously by The Four Freshmen, The Lettermen, The Cyrkle and Jimmie Rodgers. It was kind of already their tune though; they had released a version in 1963 with lyrics changed by Mike Love to pay tribute to James Dean whom we had lost in 1955. The Beach Boys song was called "A Young Man Is Gone" and will make you cry like a baby.

"Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring" as performed by The Beach Boys and their a cappella forbears is...truly a beast. It is one of the most challenging SATB (soprano alto tenor bass) pieces in the literature. To take it on as a solo overdub effort with its attendant rubatos, accelerandos, half-step tensions and (at least) three-octave range is truly hubristic, the act of someone who likely has a masochistic need to find new challenges.

I took this on early in the "Good Expectations" project with an eye to upping my massed-harmony game. I was fortunate enough to find a score online and this discovery took my desire to record "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring" from delusion to reality. I tracked it over a week in the summer of 2008. I built it part by part from the bottom up and when I had my four voices in place I spent a substantial amount of time addressing problem areas of pitch and articulation until I had sculpted a reasonably unimpeachable four parts a cappella. The final piece of work was doubling each part in service of fullness and lushness.

And then, naturally, into my bottom drawer it went for 14 years. Until now. Enjoy this madness.