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The Beach Boys
Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the nation, the Beach
Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America's pre-eminent pop group, the only act
able to challenge (for a brief time) the overarching success of the Beatles with both mainstream
listeners and the critical community. From their 1961 debut with the regional
hit "Surfin," the three Wilson brothers -- Brian, Dennis, and Carl -- plus
cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine constructed the most intricate, gorgeous
harmonies ever heard from a pop band. With Brian's studio proficiency growing by
leaps and bounds during the mid-'60s, the Beach Boys also proved to be one of
the best-produced groups of the '60s, exemplified by their 1966 peak with the
Pet Sounds LP and the number one single "Good Vibrations." Though Brian's
escalating drug use and obsessive desire to trump the Beatles (by recording the
perfect LP statement) eventually led to a nervous breakdown after he heard Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the group soldiered on long into the 1970s and
'80s, with Brian only an inconsistent participant. The band's post-1966 material
is often maligned (if it's recognized at all), but the truth is the Beach Boys
continued to make great music well into the '70s. Displayed best on 1970's
Sunflower, each member revealed individual talents never fully developed during
the mid-'60s -- Carl became a solid, distinctive producer and Brian's
replacement as nominal bandleader, Mike continued to provide a visual focus as
the frontman for live shows, and Dennis developed his own notable songwriting
talents. Though legal wranglings and marginal oldies tours during the '90s often
obscured what made the Beach Boys great, the band's unerring ability to surf the
waves of commercial success and artistic development during the '60s made them
America's first, best rock band.
The origins of the group lie in Hawthorne, CA, a southern suburb of Los Angeles
situated close to the Pacific coast. The three sons of a part-time song plugger
and occasionally abusive father, Brian, Dennis, and Carl grew up a just few
miles from the ocean -- though only Dennis had any interest in surfing itself.
The three often harmonized together as youths, spurred on by Brian's fascination
with '50s vocal acts like the Four Freshmen and the Hi-Lo's. Their cousin Mike
Love often joined in on the impromptu sessions, and the group gained a fifth
with the addition of Brian's high-school football teammate, Al Jardine. His
parents helped rent instruments (with Brian on bass, Carl on guitar, Dennis on
drums) and studio time to record "Surfin'," a novelty number written by Brian
and Mike. The single, initially released in 1961 on Candix and billed to the
Pendletones (a musical paraphrase of the popular Pendleton shirt), prompted a
little national chart action and gained the renamed Beach Boys a contract with
Capitol. The group's negotiator with the label, the Wilsons' father, Murray,
also took over as manager for the band. Before the release of any material for
Capitol, however, Jardine left the band to attend college in the Midwest. A
friend of the Wilsons, David Marks, replaced him.
Finally, in mid-1962 the Beach Boys released their major-label debut, Surfin'
Safari. The title track, a more accomplished novelty single than its
predecessor, hit the Top 20 and helped launch the surf rock craze just beginning
to blossom around Southern California (thanks to artists like Dick Dale, Jan &
Dean, the Chantays, and dozens more). A similarly themed follow-up, Surfin'
U.S.A., hit the Top Ten in early 1963 before Jardine returned from school and
resumed his place in the group. By that time, the Beach Boys had recorded their
first two albums, a pair of 12-track collections that added a few novelty songs
to the hits they were packaged around. Though Capitol policy required the group
to work with a studio producer, Brian quickly took over the sessions and began
expanding the group's range beyond simple surf rock.
By the end of 1963, the Beach Boys had recorded three full LPs, hit the Top Ten
as many times, and toured incessantly. Also, Brian began to grow as a producer,
best documented on the third Beach Boys LP, Surfer Girl. Though surf songs still
dominated the album, "Catch a Wave," the title track, and especially "In My
Room" presented a giant leap in songwriting, production, and group harmony --
especially astonishing considering the band had been recording for barely two
years. Brian's intense scrutiny of Phil Spector's famous Wall of Sound
productions was paying quick dividends and revealed his intuitive, unerring
depths of musical knowledge.
The following year, "I Get Around" became the first number one hit for the Beach
Boys. Riding a crest of popularity, the late 1964 LP Beach Boys Concert spent
four weeks at the top of the album charts, just one of five Beach Boys LPs
simultaneously on the charts. The group also undertook promotional tours of
Europe, but the pressures and time-constraints proved too much for Brian. At the
end of the year, he decided to quit the touring band and concentrate on studio
productions. (Glen Campbell toured with the group briefly, then friend and
colleague Bruce Johnston became Brian's permanent replacement.)
With the Beach Boys as his musical messengers to the world, Brian began working
full-time in the studio, writing songs and enlisting the cream of Los Angeles
session players to record instrumental backing tracks before Carl, Dennis, Mike,
and Al returned to add vocals. The single "Help Me, Rhonda" became the Beach
Boys' second chart-topper in early 1965. On the group's seventh studio LP, The
Beach Boys Today!, Brian's production skills hit another level entirely. In the
rock era's first flirtation with an extended album-length statement, side two of
the record presented a series of down-tempo ballads, arranged into a suite that
stretched the group's lyrical concerns beyond youthful infatuation and into more
adult notions of love.
Two more LPs followed in 1965, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and Beach Boys'
Party. The first featured "California Girls," one of the best fusions of Brian's
production mastery, infectious melodies, and gorgeous close harmonies (it's
still his personal favorite song). However, dragging down those few moments of
brilliance were novelty tracks like "Amusement Parks USA," "Salt Lake City," and
"I'm Bugged at My Old Man" that appeared to be a step back from Today. When
Capitol asked for a Beach Boys record to sell at Christmas, the
live-in-the-studio vocal jam session Beach Boys' Party resulted, and sold
incredibly well after the single "Barbara Ann" became a surprise hit. In a
larger sense though, both of these LPs were stopgaps as Brian prepared for
production on what he hoped would be the Beach Boys' most effective musical
statement yet.
In late 1965, the Beatles released Rubber Soul. Amazed at the high song quality
and overall cohesiveness of the album, Brian began writing songs -- with help
from lyricist Tony Asher -- and producing sessions for a song suite charting a
young man's growth to emotional maturity. Though Capitol was resistant to an
album with few obvious hits, the group spent more time working on the vocals and
harmonies than any other previous project. The result, released in May 1966 as
Pet Sounds, more than justified the effort. It's still one of the best-produced
and most influential rock LPs ever released, culminating years of Brian's
perfectionist productions and songwriting. Critics praised Pet Sounds, but the
new direction failed to impress American audiences. Though it reached the Top
Ten, Pet Sounds missed a gold certificate (the first to do so since the group's
debut LP). Conversely, worldwide reaction was not just positive but jubilant. In
England, the album hit number two and earned the Beach Boys honors for best
group in year-end polls by NME -- above even the Beatles, hardly slouches
themselves with the releases of "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" and Revolver.
The Beach Boys' next single, "Good Vibrations," had originally been written for
the Pet Sounds sessions, though Brian removed it from the song list to give
himself more time for production. He resumed working on it after the completion
of Pet Sounds, eventually devoting up to six months (and three different
studios) on the single. Released in October 1966, "Good Vibrations" capped off
the year as the group's third number one single and still stands as one of the
best singles of all time. Throughout late 1966 and early 1967, Brian worked
feverishly on the next Beach Boys LP -- a project named Dumb Angel, but later
titled SMiLE, that promised to be as great an artistic leap beyond Pet Sounds as
that album had been from Today. He drafted Van Dyke Parks, an eccentric lyricist
and session man, as his songwriting partner, and recorded reams of tape
containing increasingly fragmented tracks that grew ever more speculative as the
months wore on. Already wary of Brian's increasingly artistic leanings and drug
experimentation, the other Beach Boys grew hostile when called in to the studio
to add vocals for Parks lyrics like, "A blind class aristocracy/Back through the
opera glass you see/The pit and the pendulum drawn/Columnaded ruins
domino/Canvas the town and brush the backdrop" (from "Surf's Up"). A rift soon
formed between the band and Brian; they felt his intake of marijuana and LSD had
clouded his judgment, while he felt they were holding him back from the coming
psychedelic era.
As recording for SMiLE dragged on into spring 1967, Brian began working fewer
hours. For the first time in the Beach Boys' career, he appeared unsure of his
direction. If SMiLE ever appeared salvageable, those hopes were dashed in May,
when Brian officially canceled the project -- just a few weeks before the
release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In August, the
group finally released a new single, "Heroes and Villains." Very similar to the
fragmentary style of "Good Vibrations," though a distinctly inferior follow-up,
it missed the Top Ten. That fall, the group convened at Brian's Bel Air
mansion-turned-studio and recorded new versions of several SMiLE songs plus a
few new recordings and re-emerged with Smiley Smile. Carl summed up the LP as "a
bunt instead of a grand slam," and its near-complete lack of cohesiveness all
but destroyed the group's reputation for forward-thinking pop.
As the Beatles were ushering in the psychedelic age, the Beach Boys stalled with
the all-important teen crowd, who quickly began to see the group as
conservative, establishment throwbacks. The perfect chance to stem the tide, a
headlining spot at the pioneering Monterey Pop Festival in summer 1967, was
squandered. Though the Beach Boys regrouped quickly -- the back-to-basics Wild
Honey LP appeared before the end of 1967 -- their hopes of becoming the world's
pre-eminent pop group with both hippies and critics had fizzled in a matter of
months.
All this incredible promise wasted made fans, critics, and radio programmers
undeniably bitter toward future product. Predictably, both Wild Honey and 1968's
Friends suffered with all three audiences. They survive as interesting records
nevertheless; deliberately under-produced, including song fragments and
recording-session detritus often left in the mix, the skeletal blue-eyed soul of
Wild Honey and the laid-back orchestral pop of Friends made them favorites only
after fans realized the Beach Boys were a radically different group in 1968 than
in 1966. Sparked by the Top 20 hit "Do It Again" -- a song that saw the first
shades of the group as an oldies act -- 1969's 20/20 did marginally better.
Still, Capitol dropped the band soon after. One year later, the Beach Boys
signed to Reprise.
The first LP for Brother/Reprise was 1970's Sunflower, a surprisingly strong
album featuring a return to the gorgeous harmonies of the mid-'60s and many
songs written by different members of the band. Surf's Up, titled after a
reworked song originally intended for SMiLE, followed in 1971. Though frequently
lovable, the wide range of material on Surf's Up displayed not a band but a
conglomeration of individual interests. During sessions for the album, Dennis
put his hand through a plate glass window and was unable to play drums. Early in
1972, the band hired drummer Ricky Fataar and guitarist Blondie Chaplin, two
members of a South African rock band named the Flame (Carl had produced their
self-titled debut for Brother Records the previous year).
Carl and the Passions - So Tough, the first album released with Fataar and
Chaplin in the band, descended into lame early-'70s AOR. For the first time, a
Beach Boys album retained nothing from their classic sound. Brian's mental
stability wavered from year to year, and he spent much time in his mansion with
no wish to even contact the outside world. He occasionally contributed to the
songwriting and session load, but was by no means a member of the band anymore
(he rarely even appeared on album covers or promotional shots). Though it's
unclear why Reprise felt ready to take such a big risk, the label authorized a
large recording budget for the next Beach Boys album. After shipping most of the
group's family and entourage (plus an entire studio) over to Amsterdam, the
Beach Boys re-emerged in 1973 with Holland. The LP scraped the bottom rungs of
the Top 40, and the single "Sail On, Sailor" (with vocals by Chaplin) did
receive some FM radio airplay. Still, Holland's muddy sound did nothing for the
aging band, and it earned scathing reviews.
Perhaps a bit gun-shy, the Beach Boys essentially retired from recording during
the mid-'70s. Instead, the band concentrated on grooming their live act, which
quickly grew to become an incredible experience. It was a good move, considering
the Beach Boys could lay claim to more hits than any other '60s rock act on the
road. The Beach Boys in Concert, their third live album in total, appeared in
1973.
Then, in mid-1974, Capitol Records went to the vaults and issued a repackaged
hits collection, Endless Summer. Both band and label watched, dumbfounded, as
the double LP hit number one, spent almost three years on the charts, and went
gold. Endless Summer capitalized on a growing fascination with oldies rock that
had made Sha Na Na, American Graffiti, and Happy Days big hits. Rolling Stone,
never the most friendly magazine to the group, named the Beach Boys its Band of
the Year at the end of the year. Another collection, Spirit of America, hit the
Top Ten in 1974, and the Beach Boys were hustled into the studio to begin new
recordings.
Trumpeted by the barely true marketing campaign "Brian's Back!," 1976's 15 Big
Ones balanced a couple of '50s oldies with some justifiably exciting Brian
Wilson oddities like "Had to Phone Ya." It also hit the Top Ten and went gold,
despite many critical misgivings. Brian took a much more involved position for
the following year's The Beach Boys Love You (it was almost titled Brian Loves
You and released as a solo album). In marked contrast to the fatalistic
early-'70s pop of "Til I Die" and others, Brian sounded positively jubilant on
gruff proto-synth pop numbers like "Let Us Go on This Way" and "Mona." However
idiosyncratic compared to what oldies fans expected of the Beach Boys, Love You
was the group's best album in years. (A suite of beautiful, tender ballads on
side two was quite reminiscent of 1965's Today.)
After 1979's M.I.U. Album, the group signed a large contract with CBS that
stipulated Brian's involvement on each album. However, his brief return to the
spotlight ended with two dismal efforts, L.A. (Light Album) and Keepin' the
Summer Alive. The Beach Boys began splintering by the end of the decade, with
financial mismanagement by Mike Love's brothers Stan and Steve fostering tension
between him and the Wilsons. By 1980, both Dennis and Carl had left the Beach
Boys for solo careers. (Dennis had already released his first album, Pacific
Ocean Blue, in 1977, and Carl released his eponymous debut in 1981.) Brian was
removed from the group in 1982 after his weight ballooned to over 300 pounds,
though the tragic drowning death of Dennis in 1983 helped bring the group back
together. In 1985, the Beach Boys released a self-titled album which returned
them to the Top 40 with "Getcha Back." It would be the last proper Beach Boys
album of the '80s, however.
Brian had been steadily improving in both mind and body during the mid-'80s,
though the rest of the group grew suspicious of his mentor, Dr. Eugene Landy.
Landy was a dodgy psychiatrist who reportedly worked wonders with the easily
impressionable Brian but also practically took over his life. He collaborated
with Brian on the autobiography Wouldn't It Be Nice and wrote lyrics for Brian's
first solo album, 1988's Brian Wilson. Critics and fans enjoyed Wilson's return
to the studio, but the charts were unforgiving, especially with attention
focused on the Beach Boys once more. The single "Kokomo," from the soundtrack to
Cocktail, hit number one in the U.S. late that year, prompting a haphazard
collection named Still Cruisin'. The group also sued Brian, more to force Landy
out of the picture than anything, and Mike Love later sued Brian for songwriting
royalties (Brian had frequently admitted Love's involvement on most of them).
Despite the many quarrels, the Beach Boys kept touring during the early '90s,
and Mike and Brian actually began writing songs together in 1995. Instead of a
new album though, the Beach Boys returned with Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1, a
collection of remade hits with country stars singing lead and the group adding
backing vocals. Also, a Brian Wilson documentary titled I Just Wasn't Made for
These Times aired on the Disney Channel, with an accompanying soundtrack
featuring spare renditions of Beach Boys classics by Brian himself. Just as the
band appeared to be pulling together for a proper studio album though, Carl died
of cancer in 1998.
Ten years after his first solo album, Brian became aware of his immense
influence on the alternative rock community; he worked with biggest-fans Sean
O'Hagan (of the High Llamas) and Andy Paley on a series of recordings. Again,
good intentions failed to carry through as the recordings were ditched in favor
of another overly produced, mainstream-slanted work, Imagination. By early 1999,
no less than three Beach Boys-connected units were touring the country -- a
Brian Wilson solo tour, the "official" Beach Boys led by Mike Love, and the
"Beach Boys Family" led by Al Jardine. In 2000, Capitol instituted a
long-promised reissue campaign, focusing on the group's long out of print '70s
LPs. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
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The Beach Boys
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A Casual Look
Solero ID: 15264303
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Airplane
Solero ID: 15263884
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All Summer Long
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