Bull Session with the "Big Daddy"

The Beach Boys in Europe, late 1964.

The track is a recording of an informal interview of the Beach Boys by Earl Leaf. Al Jardine is not present during the interview, although the other four members are; also present is Brian Wilson's wife, Marilyn. Its runtime, which is 2 minutes and 10 seconds long, is only an excerpt from the interview which lasts 20 minutes and 12 seconds.[1] It is unreleased but has been made available through bootlegs.

Mike Love commented in a 2022 interview,

“Bull Session with ‘Big Daddy’” is pretty silly. It’s just a bunch of young guys experiencing a lot of success, and we’re just relieving stress, not concentrating on releasing a hit, but just having a little bit of fun in the studio. It may have occurred to us, this will be enough to complete an album that if we record this, we can turn the album in, but I think it was just a way to lighten the mood.[2]

Despite the glowing reception for the rest of The Beach Boys Today!, "Bull Session with the 'Big Daddy'" is largely regarded as filler. Scott Interrante of PopMatters described it as a "filler chatter track" and said that "over the two minutes, very little of substance is said, and one seriously questions why it was included at all," concluding that "I think we can all agree that the album would be better off without it."[3] Author Andrew Hickey described the track as "the most pointless thing in the band's discography."[4] Writer Keith Badman called the track "bizarre."[1]

The Beach Boys

• Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson

Guests

• Earl Leaf, Marilyn Wilson