The Beach Boys: the 100 most inspiring musicians of all time
The original members were Brian Wilson (b. June 20, 1942, Inglewood, Calif., U.S.), Dennis Wilson (b. Dec. 4, 1944, Inglewood, Calif., U.S.—d. Dec. 28, 1983, Marina del Rey, Calif.), Carl Wilson (b. Dec. 21, 1946, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.—d. Feb. 6, 1998, Los Angeles), Michael Love (b. March 15, 1941, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.), and Alan Jardine (b. Sept. 3, 1942, Lima, Ohio, U.S.). Significant later members included David Marks (b. Aug. 22, 1948, Newcastle, Pa., U.S.) and Bruce Johnston (original name William Baldwin; b. June 24, 1944,
Chicago, Ill., U.S.)
The dulcet melodies and distinctive vocal mesh of the American rock group the Beach Boys defined the 1960s youthful idyll of sun-drenched southern California.
Initially perceived as a potent pop act—celebrants of the surfing and hot rod culture of the Los Angeles Basin during the 1960s—the Beach Boys and lead singer-bassist producer Brian Wilson later gained greater respect as muses of post-World War II American suburban angst. Notwithstanding sales of 70 million albums, their greatest achievement was their ability to express the bittersweet middle-class aspirations of those who had participated in America’s great internal westward movement in the 1920s.
The Beach Boys extolled the promise of a fragile California dream that their parents had had to struggle to sustain. Growing up in suburban Los Angeles (Hawthorne), the Wilson brothers were encouraged by their parents to explore music. Their father, Murry, who operated a small
machinery shop, was also a songwriter.
While still teenagers, Brian, drummer Dennis, and guitarist Carl joined with cousin Love and friends Jardine and Marks to write and perform pop music in the alloyed spirit of Chuck Berry and the harmonies-driven Four Freshmen and Four Preps. Dennis, a novice surfer and adolescent habitué of the Manhattan Beach surfing scene, goaded Brian and the rest of the group (then called the Pendletons) into writing songs that glorified the emerging sport.
The regional success in 1961 of the Beach Boys’ first single, “Surfin’,” led
in 1962 to their signing as Capitol Records’ first rock act. Brian’s latent ambitions as a pop composer were unleashed; for years he would write almost all the group’s songs, often with collaborators (most frequently Love).
The Beach Boys soon appeared on Billboard’s U.S. singles charts with
such odes to cars and surfing as “409” and “Surfin’ Safari,” while their debut album reached number 14. After the commercial triumph of the follow-up album and single, “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” in 1963, Brian assumed complete artistic control. Their next album, Surfer Girl, was a landmark for the unheard-of studio autonomy he secured from Capitol as writer, arranger, and producer. Redolent of the Four Freshmen but actually inspired by “When You Wish Upon a Star” from Walt Disney’s film Pinocchio (1940), the title track combined a childlike yearning with sophisticated pop poignancy. Like his hero, pioneering producer Phil
Spector, the eccentric Brian proved gifted at crafting eclectic arrangements with crisply evocative rock power (e.g., “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” and “Don’t Worry Baby”).
After the first of a series of stress- and drug-related breakdowns in 1964, Brian withdrew from touring and was replaced first by singer-guitarist Glen Campbell, then by veteran surf singer-musician Johnston. Brian focused thereafter on the Beach Boys’ studio output, surpassing all
his role models with his band’s masterwork, Pet Sounds (1966). A bittersweet pastiche of songs recalling the pangs of unrequited love and other coming-of-age trials, Pet Sounds was acknowledged by Paul McCartney as the catalyst for the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).
Brian soon eclipsed himself again with “Good Vibrations,” a startlingly prismatic “pocket symphony” that reached number one in the autumn of 1966. His self-confidence stalled, however, when an even more ambitious project called Dumb Angel, then Smile, failed to meet its appointed
completion date in December 1966. Exhausted and depressed, Brian went into seclusion as the rest of the band cobbled the remains of the abortive album into a tuneful but tentative release titled Smiley Smile (1967).
For the remainder of the decade, the Beach Boys issued records of increasing commercial and musical inconsistency. They departed Capitol amid a legal battle over back royalties and signed with Warner Brothers in 1970.
When the splendid Sunflower sold poorly, Brian became a recluse, experimenting with hallucinogens and toiling fitfully while the rest of the group produced several strong but modest-selling albums in the early 1970s.
Meanwhile, Endless Summer, the greatest hits compilation, reached number one in the charts in 1974. In 1976 an uneven but commercially successful album, 15 Big Ones, signaled the reemergence of the still drug-plagued Brian. In 1977 Dennis released a critically acclaimed solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue. Despite personal turmoil, the reunited Beach Boys seemed destined for a new artistic peak when Dennis drowned in 1983. The excellent The Beach Boys was released in 1985. In 1988 Brian released a critically acclaimed self-titled solo album, the other Beach Boys had a number one hit with “Kokomo,” and the group was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In the 1990s the Beach Boys continued to tour and record, with Love continuing his longtime role as the band’s business mind. Brian released another solo album (Imagination) and collaborated on albums with Van Dyke Parks (Orange Crate Art) and with his daughters Carnie and Wendy (The Wilsons), who were successful performers in their own right. Carl, who was considered the group’s artistic anchor during the turbulent
1970s and ’80s, died of cancer in 1998.
In 2004, Brian released Gettin’ In over My Head, with contributions from Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Elton John. The landmark work of this period in Brian’s career, however, was his solo album, Smile. He was presented with a Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, and in 2008 he released That Lucky Old Sun, a nostalgic celebration of southern California made in collaboration with Scott Bennett and Parks.
Sheet Music download here.
The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (Full Album) 1966
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Track List:
0:00 Wouldn’t It Be Nice 2:34 You Still Believe in Me 5:11 That’s Not Me 7:41 Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) 10:40 I’m Waiting for the Day 13:47 Sloop John B 16:49 God Only Knows 19:44 I Know There’s an Answer 23:04 Here Today 26:14 I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times 29:35 Pet Sounds 32:12 Caroline, No