Hear some of
the greatest songs ever written including; Surfin' Safari,
409, In My Room, Little Honda,
Surfin' U.S.A., "Wouldn't It Be Nice,"
"God Only Knows," "Caroline No," "Sloop
John B," "You Still Believe in Me," "Don't
Talk," All Summer Long, Help Me, Rhonda,
"I Know There's an Answer," Shut Down,
Warmth of the Sun, Surfer Girl, Little
Deuce Coupe, Catch a Wave, Don't Worry,
Baby, Be True to Your School, Fun,
Fun, Fun, I Get Around, Dance, Dance,
Dance, Do You Wanna Dance?, California
Girls, Barbara Ann, Sloop John B.,
When I Grow up (To Be a Man), Wendy,
Wouldn't It Be Nice, God Only Knows,
Good Vibrations and Kokomo.
The Beach Boys first rode the waves of success in 1961 with
their regional debut hit Surfin. By 1966 they
had emerged as one of Americas top pop groups by releasing
eleven top-10 singles in five years. They were made popular
with hits like Fun, Fun, Fun, I Get Around,
Help Me Rhonda, California Girls and
Good Vibrations. The Beach Boys didnt stop
there. They released 29 full-length albums between 1962 and
1977, a dozen compilations and boxed sets, and numerous singles
into the 90s. The bands biggest selling hit didnt
come until 1988 with Kokomo. The period between
its release and the bands first major album release
Good Vibrations in 1966 is the longest span of
time between number one records of any artist in history.
The
Beach Boys were recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement
Award at the 2001 Grammy Awards and by VH-1, which named 1966s
Pet Sounds as the #3 album in the Top 100 Albums
in Rock n Roll History.
The most successful and important American band of the rock
music era is without question The Beach Boys. They were formed
in 1961 in Hawthorne, CA, around the three Wilson brothers:
Brian (b. June 20, 1942) (bass, piano, vocals), Dennis (b.
Dec. 4, 1944 - d. Dec. 28, 1983) (drums, vocals), and Carl
(b. Dec. 21, 1946 - d. Feb. 6, 1998) (guitar, vocals). Additional
members were Mike Love (b. Mar. 15, 1941) (vocals), the Wilsons'
cousin, and Al Jardine (b. Sep. 3, 1942) (guitar, vocals).
From the start, the focus of the group's music was Brian Wilson,
who combined a fascination with vocal harmony in the Four
Freshmen mold with a love of Chuck Berry-derived rock &
roll. Added to that was the subject matter of middle-class
teenage life in Southern California -- surfing, cars, and
girls.
The Beach Boys returned to prominence in the mid-'70s on
a wave of nostalgia and a potent concert act that focused
on their early hits. Capitol Records had repackaged their
catalogue repeatedly, but Endless Summer, a June 1974 double
LP compiling their early-'60s work, amazingly topped the charts,
becoming their first gold album in seven years. In July 1976,
The Beach Boys released 15 Big Ones, their first new studio
album in more than three years and their first album in a
decade to credit Brian Wilson as producer. The album spawned
a Top Ten hit in a cover of Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll
Music," but the group's commercial appeal, at least as
far as new recordings, was temporary. Subsequent albums The
Beach Boys Love You (April 1977) and M.I.U. Album (September
1978) sold less well. Brian Wilson's "comeback"
also proved elusive after 1977.
Especially with the dawn of the CD era, the extensive repackagings
of Beach Boys material have continued apace. The year 1993
finally brought a five-CD boxed-set retrospective, Good Vibrations:
Thirty Years of The Beach Boys. In 1995, after the resolution
of various legal issues, lead singer Mike Love and Brian Wilson
began working together again, yet the partnership was quickly
derailed due to various tensions, and Wilson began collaborating
with Van Dyke Parks and working on a new solo album. The following
year, The Beach Boys released a collection of duets with country
artists titled Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1, and there were plans
for a box set chronicling the Pet Sounds sessions, but the
compilation was delayed due to disagreements within The Beach
Boys camp.
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