BRIAN DIDN'T HAVE A VERSION OF IT ONLY TIM... AND I BELIEVE SOME OTHER BRITISH BAND WHO DID NOT MAKE MUCH FURIA WITH THE PUBLIC DID TRY TO COVER IT... BUT YES TO ME FREDDIES VERSION IS NICER TO HEAR THAN DARLING TIM.... I DO QUITE LIKE THE WAY FREDDIE CHANGED THE VOICES WITHIN THE SONG
Tim has assured me that it's Brian singing the verses. The middle part was indeed sung by Tim, who is still trying to forget.
Calling it "soulful" is just about the most friendly thing one can say about that part......
Tim always did say that Smile was a pretty "sloppy" band. But I do have to say I like Freddie's more because he has more vocal training than Tim or Brian at the time or whoever was singing (and for those who are like me, you'll know that Freddie's vocal training, with the exception of his recording with Montserrat, was slim to nil).
Tim is a good singer .. saw some solo work and it's pritty good, but sounds very individual and that's maybe one of the reasons that it didn't work within smile...
Aren't there several versions of Polar Bear (by Queen) floating around? The version that is commonly availible is in bad quality. But some say there's also a second take or just the same but just with much better sound qualtiy.
To my knowledge there are two versions of one track - full one with about 40 secs of studio banter between Roger and someone else and cut version - without these 40 secs. Quality is the same in them both. But who knows...
I don't think theres anything wrong with the Smile version.... the "Queen" version sounds like a home recording, not even a studio demo and Freddies vocals are painful on it.