BMGBeach Boys singer Mike Love recently released a new song, “This Too Shall Pass,” inspired by the current COVID-19 pandemic, and he says it offers a message of hope and positivity.
“[H]aving lived through the Vietnam War and social unrest of different kinds…even as bad as it can get, at some point in time, it passes,” Love explains to ABC Audio. “And so, I like to look at things in a positive way. So ‘This Too Shall Pass’ is [meant] to give a glimmer of hope that there’s something better yet to come.”
Love says people had suggested that he do a new version of a classic Beach Boys song with lyrics adapted to reference the coronavirus, but the 79-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer preferred to write a new original song, albeit with an “uptempo, mid-’60s kind of feel” inspired by his band’s sound.
Mike recorded his parts for “This Too Shall Pass” while sheltering at his home on Lake Tahoe in Nevada. The track also features contributions from members of the Beach Boys touring band, recorded remotely from such locations as Lakeland, Florida; Nashville; Las Vegas; and Santa Barbara, California. Actor/musician John Stamos plays drums.
“It was interesting the way a record can be made through technology,” Love notes. “You don’t have to be in the same room in the studio at the same time…[I]t’s an amazing process.”
Stamos, long been considered an honorary Beach Boy, also put together the song’s companion video, which features footage that Love and the other musicians shot of themselves.
Proceeds raised from the single will benefit the Feeding America charity’s COVID-19 Response Fund, which provides food to food banks across the U.S.
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.