The Beach Boys, songbook anthologies

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group’s original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by its vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, the band is one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group drew on the music of older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create its unique sound. Under Brian’s direction, it often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways.

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The Beach Boys formed as a garage band centered on Brian’s songwriting and managed by the Wilsons’ father, Murry. In 1963, the band enjoyed its first national hit with “Surfin’ U.S.A.”, beginning a string of top-ten singles that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, dubbed the “California sound”. It was one of the few American rock bands to sustain its commercial standing during the British Invasion.

Starting with 1965’s The Beach Boys Today!, the band abandoned beachgoing themes for more personal lyrics and ambitious orchestrations. In 1966, the Pet Sounds album and “Good Vibrations” single raised the group’s prestige as rock innovators; both are now widely considered to be among the greatest and most influential works in popular music history. After scrapping the Smile album in 1967, Brian gradually ceded control of the group to his bandmates, though he still continued to contribute.

In the late 1960s, the group’s commercial momentum faltered in the U.S., and it was widely dismissed by the early rock music press before undergoing a rebranding in the early 1970s. Carl took over as de facto leader until the mid-1970s, when the band responded to the growing success of its live shows and greatest hits compilations by transitioning into an oldies act. Dennis drowned in 1983, and Brian soon became estranged from the group. Following Carl’s death from lung cancer in 1998, the band granted Love legal rights to tour under the group’s name. In the early 2010s, the original members briefly reunited for the band’s 50th anniversary tour. As of 2024, Brian and Al Jardine do not perform with Love’s edition of the Beach Boys, but remain official members of the band.

The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. It helped legitimize popular music as a recognized art form and influenced the development of music genres and movements such as psychedelia, power pop, progressive rock, punk, alternative, and lo-fi. Between the 1960s and 2020s, the group had 37 songs reach the U.S. Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 (the most by an American band), with four topping the chart. In 2004, the group was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest artists of all time.

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Many critics’ polls have ranked Today! (1965), Pet Sounds (1966), Smiley Smile (1967), Sunflower (1970), Surf’s Up (1971), and The Smile Sessions (2011) among the finest albums in history. The founding members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Other members during the band’s history have been David Marks, Bruce Johnston, Blondie Chaplin, and Ricky Fataar.

The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations (Official Music Video)

Official music video for “Good Vibrations” performed by The Beach Boys.

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