The Many Moods of Murry Wilson

Murry Wilson is best known as the father of Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson. He acted as the first manager of The Beach Boys from their formation until he was acrimoniously fired in 1965; Murry's firing was in response to his long history of physical and mental abuse toward both his sons and the other members of the Beach Boys.^[3]

After his 1965 dismissal, Murry attempted to restart his own career as a songwriter, which had seen limited success in the early 1950s. In an attempt to revitalize his songwriting career, Wilson recorded and submitted unsolicited commercial jingles to Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell, "all of which were politely turned down" by those companies.^[3]

Band biographer Steven Gaines has asserted that Murry arranged for Capitol Records to charge production costs of the album "back to the Beach Boys' account" with the label.^[3] According to Nick Venet, "Capitol made a whole album and released it [for Murry] ... just so they could satisfy him and so he wouldn't hassle them so much on some of the Beach Boys things."^[4]

One track, "Italia", was composed by Al Jardine. He later wrote, "I wrote it in '63 and it was originally called 'Pink Champagne.' Brian liked it so much, he played it for his Dad who said it reminded him of Italy with its European feel. Murry recorded it with the Capitol Records Orchestra and changed the title to 'Italia.'"^[5]

Murry does not appear to have actually played any instruments or sung on the album, rather acting as the record's producer as well as songwriter on five tracks. The songs were all arranged and conducted by industry veteran Don Ralke.

Steven Gaines notes that “Murry still fancied himself a talent scout and showcased a new discovery on the LP-a forty-year-old plumber named Eck Kynor who had helped with the renovations on Murry's Whittier house"; Kynor's contributions included songwriting credits on "The Plumber's Tune" and "The Happy Song." The final track on the album was a collaboration between Murry and his wife Audree titled "Betty's Waltz," likely named for Audree's mother.^[3]

The Many Moods of Murry Wilson was first released by Capitol Records in October 1967. Capitol released the album on vinyl in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Germany.^[6]

In November 1967, Murry embarked on a month-long tour of Europe and the UK to promote the album.^[7] Music publisher Al Kohn later acknowledged orchestrating Murry's promotional tour to bring about face-to-face meetings with Sea of Tunes subpublisher Francis, Day & Hunter; Kohn's hope was to show Wilson that the company "had the talent and enthusiasm to effectively represent his new compositions, as well as those in the Sea of Tunes catalog."^[8]

During the UK tour, Murry told Britain's Disc & Music Echo that "after 'Good Vibrations' Brian lost a lot of confidence. He didn't think he could ever write anything as good as that again ... With [my] LP I'm going to nudge my boys' competitive spirit."^[3]

"Leaves" was issued as a single in the United States backed with "The Plumber's Tune" in December 1967 while demonstration records of "The Plumber's Tune" backed with "Love Won't Wait" or "The Happy Song" were produced by EMI for the Capitol label in the United Kingdom.^[9] In the end, the album did not chart, received very little press or radio airplay, and the amount of copies pressed or sold is unknown.