Stone Temple Pilots are marking the 25th anniversary of their landmark 1994 album Purple with a three-disc deluxe edition (in stores October 18th) featuring early versions and demos of hits like “Big Empty” and “Interstate Love Song” along with a complete show the band played in New Haven, Connecticut on August 23rd, 1994.
The most surprising song on the set is a cover of the obscure 1964 Beach Boys song “She Knows Me Too Well.” “That was recorded during the Purple sessions,” STP bassist Robert DeLeo tells Rolling Stone. “That song and ‘Pretty Penny’ were both done during a field trip we did at one of Brendan O’Brien’s friends’ houses. We recorded them in the living room of his house on a 2 inch 8-track live tape.”
The song (written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love) was the B-side to “When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)” in 1964 and appeared on The Beach Boys Today! the following year. There is no record of the band ever playing it in concert, but Robert DeLeo has loved it for years.
“Being the youngest in our family, I would listen to the 45s that were always hanging out by the record player, and the Beach Boys 45s were the first ones I listened to,” he says. “There are certain obscure Beach Boys songs that have always been some of my favorites, including ‘She Knows Me Too Well’. When I first played that one for Scott [Weiland], he really fell in love with it, so I suggested that we cover it.”
Stone Temple Pilots parted ways with Scott Weiland in 2013, two years before his death. They have been fronted by Jeff Gutt for the past two years. They released a self-titled album last year and are heading to Australia in April 2020 to play shows with Live and Bush.