The Beach Boys

What can I say about The Beach Boys that hasn't been said before?  They have a deep history, which always contains great records, great songs, great stories, and a tragedy.  The band started off at a young age that included the Wilson brothers, Brian, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, original guitarist David Marks, and high school buddy Al Jardine.  Eventually David would no longer be with the band and became the forgotten Beach Boy, but the other 5 members would continue to create great albums through Brian Wilson and become on the greatest American bands of all-time.  Brian started writing songs as early as 16.  The Wilson's boys' father, Murry Wilson was a big influence on him as Brian would watch and learn from him piano playing almost every night as a child.  When the family would get together for outings Brain would ask Mike Love to join his brothers and sing songs.  Eventually Brian's high school buddy Al Jardine would join in on these sessions.  It was during this time in which Love encouraged Brian to write songs.  Dennis, who was into surfing, (and the only Beach Boy to ever surf) suggested that Brian write some songs about his new hobby, in which Brian would do.  The Wilson's father landed them their first audition for a record label.  The band performed an arrangement of "Sloop John B" that Al Jardine put together.  The studio did not seem impressed, and noticing this Dennis stated that they had an original song, but Brian wasn't ready to perform it.  Mike helped Brian with the finishing touches of the tune, the band rehearsed for three days, went back to the studio and performed their original song, called "Surfin" and the studio said it was a smash.  They recorded this track under the band name The Pendleton's without Dennis on drums.  Though their father landed them the audition into the record studio, he was a horrible influence on the boys.  He was abusive and never had anything nice to say to the boys.  When their father died in 1973 Carl was the only one of the brothers to attend the funeral.  By the time they recorded their first album Jardine had left the group to go to college and was replaced by Carl's friend, David Marks.  By Brian's request, Jardine would be back with the group a year later.  The band's debut wasn't much of a smash, but their second album Surfin' USA started a spark of 8 straight top records for the boys.  By 1965 they had over a dozen top 40 singles proving their songs about surfing, cars, and teenage life was a hit.  Brian became to get worn out by touring and withdrew himself from touring.  He concentrated more on song writing and took a different approach, having studio musicians play on Beach Boy tracks.  The band was very successful up to their masterpiece album, Pet Sounds.  The band came back from touring to discover that the album was already recorded and just waiting for their vocals, this upset the band badly as they did not like the direction the band was heading.  After Pet Sounds Brian began to work on their next album Smile.  Smile was suppose to be another masterpiece but their were many distractions and Brian was suffering from a mental illness, causing this album to never be released.  Over thirty years later Brian re-worked the album and released it as close to the original as he could.  In the late 1960's Brian became to fallout.  He had no motivation and his song writing skills almost seized to exist.  The band would record some more records but would never reach the success of the mid 1960's.  There is much more information that I left out, but as I said earlier, the band has a deep history.  The band did have tragedy hit in 1983 when Drummer and Wilson brother Dennis drowned and died.  Dennis was a favorite by girl audiences and also had a friendship with Charles Manson.  Dennis was unaware of Manson's beliefs and the planning on the infamous 1969 murders.  The Beach Boys did however record a song that Manson wrote.  The only real success the band had after that was the hit single "Kokomo" for the movie Cocktail.  The band would make appearances on the T.V. shows Full House and Home Improvement.  After Dennis died the band really went downhill coming out with bad albums, with their last one including some of their biggest hits, country style.  In 1998 the other living brother of Brian's, Carl died from a long battle of lung cancer.  In 2006 the living original members reunited and Brian hinted to the fact that the band may get together, but this has yet to happen.  The only original member touring as The Beach Boys is Mike Love.

Surfin' Safari - 1962   Surfin' USA - 1963   Surfer Girl - 1963   Little deuce coupe - 1963

Shut down volume 2 - 1964  All Summer long - 1964   Beach Boys Concert - 1964 

Beach Boy's Christmas album - 1964     The Beach Boys today - 1965

Summer days and Summer nights - 1965    Beach Boys Party - 1965    Pet sounds - 1966

Smiley smile - 1967   Wild honey - 1967   Friends - 1968   20/20 - 1969

Sunflower - 1970     Surf's up - 1971   Carl and the Passions 'So tough' - 1972    

Holland - 1973   The Beach Boys in concert - 1973    15 Big ones - 1976   Love you - 1977  

M.I.U Album - 1978   L.A. - 1979   Keepin' the Summer alive - 1980   Beach Boys - 1985

Still Cruisin - 1989   Summer in paradise - 1992   Stars and stripes Vol 1 - 1996 

Ideal compilation - SG 

*The Beach Boys released over a dozen greatest hits records in which I do not own due to owning all studio releases.  There is a live album that I do not own due to owning most of the tracks on a better live album.*

Scott's Music Library