then admitted to a local hospital, and when discharged, immediately joined his bandmates at Criteria Studios in Miami, where they were recording their long-overdue first album for CBS. Peter Ames Carlin, another biographer, supports that sessions had already been underway in Miami, but Mike's 2016 memoir, Good Vibrations, gives a different timeline: Production From January 11 to August 22, 1978, members of the band held sessions at various studios in Los Angeles. In Dennis' case, he was focused on recording his second solo album, Bambu. From August 28 to September 1, the group recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami and subsequently compiled a tape of their work for CBS. Yetnikoff and CBS vice president Tony Martell then visited the studio and were previewed the songs. Carlin writes that the sessions and the meeting "did not go well". Martell remembered, "We sat there and listened to the tunes. ... At one point, it was a little volatile, because of what we heard. They told us it was one of their finest efforts." Brian's other bodyguard, Stan Love, said that when Yetnikoff heard the tapes, "he turned to the group and said, 'I think I've been fucked.'" The Wilson brothers' cousin Steve Korthof recalled, "Brian was real weird then, real quiet, not saying much. Real depressed. I think he just realized he wasn't going to be able to pick up the slack. Brian eventually suggested that Bruce Johnston be brought back in to help produce the album." His bandmates agreed to the suggestion based on the strength of Johnston's success penning the 1975 hit "I Write the Songs". According to Gaines, "When everyone else returned to Los Angeles to continue recording at Western Studios, Brian wanted to stay in Florida by himself. The group agreed that this was out of the question and forced him to return to L.A." Sessions resumed at various other studios from September 18, 1978, to January 24, 1979. In between these sessions, Mike also recorded two unreleased solo albums, First Love and Country Love. Brian, who is barely present on L.A., was institutionalized at Brotzman Memorial Hospital from November 1978 to early 1979 following an incident in which he attacked his doctor during a visit. In Carlin's description, "if Brian sang a note anywhere on the album, his voice is so far down in the mix as to be completely unidentifiable." Songs and outtakes Love described L.A.