Well, a Pocast hit that is. "The Warmth of the Sun Podcast Series" is now the #3 most popular music Podcast in Apple iTunes. This follows the #1 Pet Sounds Podcast released last year. It's a testament to the Boys and their music that the Beach Boys continue to be so popular more than forty years after they started. Their music catalog is so deep with great music, no doubt a third (and fourth) compilation could be released.



The new series not only features brand-new interviews with Brian, Mike, Al and Bruce, but you'll be able to hear the six stereo remixes that are required listening for all Beach Boys fans. The second episode (now available) has the Boys talking about three of their earliest hits: "All Summer Long," "Catch A Wave" and "Hawaii." Brian opens up the episode (as he will with future ones) playing a few bars of one of the three songs featured. I have to admit it was pretty cool asking Brian to play snippets of songs at his piano in his music room - and he sounded great. My associate, Joe, opened up the top of Brian's grand and put the microphone right in there to get a great sound. After Brian played us 8 or 9 tracks, we (selfishly) asked him to play "God Only Knows," and Brian nailed it - and played nearly the whole thing. It was pretty astonishing to hear the composer play it just for us, and of course, Brian was only happy to oblige. As Bruce told us, "Brian's cool."

Back to this episode: It's funny how people see differently about things - especially 45 years later. While Al loves the music track to "All Summer Long," he doesn't care as much for the vocals, calling them "pitchy." He attributes this to the Boys always being so busy, on the road, etc. and perhaps they just didn't have the time to make it perfect. Brian, however, calls it one of the Boys classic vocal performances. This is a good episode, but they get better. Just as Brian is in concert, he gets better as gets going, and next week's episode featuring "Little Honda," "409" and "It's OK" is pretty cool. Listen for Brian on "It's OK" - it sounds like everything wasn't...