Brian or the Sherman Brothers?

Vocal harmonies on 'Monkey's Uncle' were pure Beach Boys - but who arranged them?

I never got to interview Brian Wilson — although I did get to see him perform just a few years ago at a tribute dinner for the then recently deceased Fr. Joe Carroll — the San Diego-based priest who revolutionized effective programming to help the homeless turn their lives around and regain their agency. It was aboard the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum in San Diego’s harbor, and Wilson was in fine voice that night.

If I had gotten to interview him, the question I would have wanted to ask is this: In the 1965 film “The Monkey’s Uncle,” where the Beach Boys joined Disney star Annette Funicello in performing the theme song over the film’s opening credits, who arranged the vocal harmonies?

The song was written by the Disney house composing team of Robert and Richard Sherman - and while it was written for Funicello, and she sings lead, it’s still a great Beach Boys song as well. The Shermans were a gifted, prolific songwriting team, and this tune fits both Funicello and the Beach Boys perfectly.

So it is not unreasonable to think that the Shermans could have come up with the vocal harmony arrangements for that particular song.

At the same time, while the groundbreaking album “Pet Sounds” was still a year away when this was filmed, Brian Wilson was already a veteran songwriter himself. The Beach Boys — as with most pop and rock acts of that age — regularly released multiple albums a year, so that in the three years since the band’s debut, Wilson had written about 8 albums’ worth of songs.

It is also entirely reasonable to think that Wilson heard the Sherman’s song during rehearsals, and came up with the vocal harmonies to back Funicello.

If that question has been asked and answered, I’ve not found it. I suppose surviving Beach Boys Al Jardine and Brian Love may know the answer as well.

Speaking to how well the Shermans captured the Beach Boys vibe is the fact that a Southern California Beach Boys’ tribute band, The Fendertones, dropped a near-perfect rendition of their own on YouTube a few years ago:

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