Add Some Music to your day
1970

“Add Some Music To Your Day” single peaks in the US Billboard chart at a disappointing #64, spending just five weeks in the listings. Meanwhile, tireless Beach Boys promoter Fred Vail is busy out in the field selling all things Brother/Reprise Records. “In 1970, I was out on the road for seven months promoting “Add Some Music”, Sunflower, The Flame’s album and their “See The Light” single,” he says. “In those days, if a top radio station in all the big cities had a record on their playlist, all the other stations in that area, maybe within 300 miles, would add that record to their playlist because the “big dog” stations had been playing it.”

Vail visits the influential station WFIL in Philadelphia and its powerful program director Jay Cook. Cook proceeds to tell Vail how much he loves Brian Wilson’s work. “He tells me what the music means to him. He tells me about how, when he started in some small station, one of the first records he remembers adding to the playlist was the “Surfin’ USA/Shut Down” single. He tells me that Brian is a genius and blah, blah, blah, all these great things about The Beach Boys and how they created this mythical, powerful Californian sound.” Vail decides this is a good moment to ask Cook to add the new single, “Add Some Music To Your Day”, to the WFIL playlist. “He looked at me and said, “Fred, I can’t add your Beach Boys record”. Surprised, I said, “Well you’ve just been telling me how great The Beach Boys are and how great Brian is.” He replies, “Yeah, they are.” I said, “Well, why can’t you play “Add Some Music To Your Day”?

“He looked at me straight and said, “Fred, The Beach Boys aren’t hip anymore.” Those were his exact words. That was the reality, that is what we were up against, and it just crushed me. At the same time, The Beach Boys themselves realized that they weren’t hip anymore. Unfortunately, they were no longer America’s favorite band.”

Pictured: The A and B side of the standard version.