#ant bee

Back in 1990, after I recorded the first ANT-BEE LP 'Pure Electric Honey' for Voxx Records in CA, I ventured back into the recording studio in Van Nuys to record the next single. At the time I had been heavily listening to unreleased recordings of the Beach Boys legendary 'Smile' sessions from 1966/67 (Brian Wilson's lost masterpiece). I decided to do a cover of one of the more obscured songs from those glorious sessions called "Do You Like Worms?" (At this point, nobody had ever covered this particular track).

Before the recordings were actually complete, someone had gotten a hold of an early mix of my version of "Worms?", and mistaking it as an unreleased 'Smile' outtake from 1966, proceeded to play the recording on a Beach Boys radio special. The show's DJ touted my cover as a rare unreleased gem from the 'Smile' sessions, forever confusing the public at large as to the origin of this recording. From there the track was bootlegged on several European Beach Boys 'Smile' bootlegs.

For many years I have argued (in vain) the position that this version of "Do You Like Worms?" is not an outtake from the Beach Boys 'Smile' sessions of 1966, but in fact is a cover by ANT-BEE (me), recorded in 1990.

Finally, back in 2004, when Brian Wilson recorded his version of the 'Smile' album, he did a live tour to support the release. In the tour program that was available at the shows, there was an actual mention about ANT-BEE being the first band to cover "Do You Like Worms?", vindicating my efforts finally after 14 years!