Music / Looking Back with Love

"A warmly personal look at the music that shaped a generation - from one of the artists that made it happen."

- Promotional ad tagline for the album

Looking Back With Love is the album debut of The Beach Boys singer Mike Love. Released in 1981, its tracklist contains an equal mix of original songs and covers reflecting the musical influence of The Beach Boys (as well as the music which was inspired by them).

This isn't the first time Mike Love would record an album. Back in 1978, there was an attempt (subtly titled First Love) which was ultimately shelved (although Mike himself said it could get a proper release some day) and is only known among Bootleggers. Since then, many song from that first project have resurfaced in Mike's later career. For this album, Mike signed with Boardwalk Records for a deal concerning the release of five solo albums while he wanted to stray away from performing with The Beach Boys. However, the label's founder passed away in 1982 and Boardwalk Records went out of business the following year, cancelling the contract in the process.

One notorious fact about Looking Back With Love is the guest appearance of Brian Wilson as co-producer on the cover of The Ronettes' "Be My Baby", a song known for being his biggest influence in making music. However, most of the album's producing was done by Curt Boettcher, a sixties psych-rock artist who suddenly shifted to Disco at the end of the seventies (Beach Boys fans mostly know him for his work as a producer on the disco remake of "Here Comes The Night" on L.A. (Light Album)). Surprisingly, Mike only wrote one song out of the five original tracks.

Tracklist

1. "Looking Back With Love"
2. "On And On And On" (ABBA cover)
3. "Runnin' Around The World"
4. "Over And Over" (Bobby Day cover)
5. "Rockin' The Man In The Boat
6. "Calendar Girl" (Neil Sedaka cover)
7. "Be My Baby" (The Ronettes cover)
8. "One Good Reason"
9. "Teach Me Tonight" (jazz standard cover)
10. "Paradise Found"

Troping back with love:

• Broken Record: "Over And Over".
• Cover Version: Half of the tracklist is covers, ranging from ABBA to The Ronettes.
  • The cover of "On And On And On" is probably a call-back on how ABBA was inspired by The Beach Boys song "Do It Again" when composing it.
• Face on the Cover: Mike himself sitting at a room's corner.
• Fade Out: Only "Rockin' The Man In The Boat" and "Paradise Found" end with a fade-out.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "Looking Back With Love", "Runnin' Around The World" and "Paradise Found".
• Nostalgia Filter: Zigzagged with "Looking Back With Love":
  It was the best of times, the worst of times
  An age of reason with the rage for rhymes
  (...)
  Stormy seasons, sunny skies above
  Now we're looking back, looking back with love
• Pun: Many month-related puns on "Calendar Girl"
  (January)You start the year off fine
  (February) You're my little valentine
  (March) I'm gonna march you down the aisle
  (April) You're the Easter Bunny when you smile
• Pun-Based Title: Looking Back With (Mike) Love.
• One-Woman Song: "Calendar Girl".
• Real Life Writes the Plot: "Looking Back With Love" is based on nostalgia and major events of the sixties.
• Reggae: "Over And Over" is originally a rock'n'roll tune which gets a reggae treatment on this album.
• Shout-Out: Many historical and cultural events are referenced in "Looking Back With Love" (Civil rights in the sixties/seventies, JFK's assassination, Beatlemania...)
  • In fact, many songs are referenced on this song: The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, Jan and Dean's "Surf City", The Beatles' "Helter Skelter, The Who's "My Generation" and The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and "California Girls"
  • "Paradise Found" has the lyric: "Let's Go Away for a while".
• Special Guest: Brian Wilson co-produced the cover of "Be My Baby" although he is uncredited on the album. A cover of "Calendar Girl" was also recorded by The Beach Boys in 1978 but never got released.
  • The harmonica solo of "Teach Me Tonight" is done by Wrecking Crew member Tommy Morgan.
• Spirited Young Lady: The protagonist of "Rockin' The Man In The Boat" is a female songwriter who doesn't let any man interfere with her career.
• Title Track
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: "One Good Reason".